blane perun Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 720 Gallon Project Update Part Four This is part of a series covering the trials and tribulations of the home coral farm. Not many things happened over the Holidays, time constraints, bills J This is an update of changes that had to be made to the Zoanthus System that I covered last time. Some of the changes are minor but provide some new Ideas. On of the first problems I encountered was with the way I mounted the lights. I Did use standard PVC to extend the cable outward to suspend the fixture more Towards the middle of the tank. Pressure held the PVC section against the wall. On a few occasions it fell and the PVC tubs fell in the tank hitting the fixture On the way down. I purchased PVC end caps and screwed them into the wall, And mounted the PVC tube into the end cap. Next area of concern was the lighting itself. Above you can see I had to lower The lights considerably from the first post. Originally since I have incorporated Natural light I felt any artificial light needed would be minimum. After attempting A power quad above the Zoanthus I was still not able to get the colors I obtained Under MH’s with no natural light. I moved to a VHO hood with four 4 foot bulbs. Two actinic, and two daylight. I had started the fixture about 14 inches above the Tank with a photo period of 8 hours, the change made a very minimal impact in the Coloration. I then (pictured above) lowered the fixture to 7 inches above the water Surface, raised the shelf two inches and increased the photo period to 12 hours. While I am seeing a positive progression of more intense colors the fixture is Now so low it has really become cumbersome to work around and I have decided To sell it and purchase two PFO 250 watt pendants Another area of concern is current. I have seen a few farms operate on air lifts Constructed of PVC and air pumps to generate current and on my visit the corals Seemed healthy so it appeared to be enough. Originally I connected a 360 Ocean Current rotating head to a Mag 7 via PVC and connected that right to the side of The tank. With the density of the zoos and heavy feeding I am coming up with Problematic algae. I’m sure I will have to increase the current in the tank Considerably. I think if the vessel were smaller the Ocean Currents Head would Be fine, but it is undersized for this installation, and adding more will interfere With working around the corals. The last modification is the shelving. I had the shelves for the zoos drilled With holes at O.D. about 2 inches apart. This turned out to be a large mistake Because I was just not able to get enough in the tank. I had previously grown In small 40 gallon break out systems and was getting more with the old Rack which were one inch apart. I had some new shelves made and hope to Use the ones I have no elsewhere. In addition to the spacing another area I Changed was the rack itself. From the original post and the photo below You can see I made a rack to keep the two shelves next to each other at An equal height. I did the exact same thing in my previous tanks and it Worked fine. With this round tub however, since there is no turn over It seemed to add to poor circulation so I rebuilt the rack to make the Shelves at two different heights. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 trials and tribulations. looking good tho! have you thought about inducing growth directionally? the grow-outs from the drilled holes would normally be omni-directional and slower versus an induced growth pattern specifically uni-directional (i.e. reserving more energy devoted to grow in a particular direction). i was thinking you could tilt the shelf slightly to induce the polyps to grow toward the light or toward a nutrient flow (i.e. water flow plus feedings). you may be able to get faster productive growth (it's all about R.O.I.; hey, it's a business venture ) per colony that way. prop up a couple of plugs on one side to entice it rather than waiting for it to spread and grow all around. e.g. harvesting on the vho, why don't you save it for an algae scrubber or refugium system? that should also help growth rates imo. Link to comment
tufty711 Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 isnt this NANO reef .com post ur stuff on ultimatereef.com aswell coz its a good sit efrom the uk Link to comment
lizbeth Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 Originally posted by tufty711 isnt this NANO reef .com post ur stuff on ultimatereef.com aswell coz its a good sit efrom the uk : Some us here are following this adventure into propagating captive corals. Some of use here are very interested in keeping captive raised corals. Some of us here care about limiting the taking of wild live stock from the limited supply in our oceans. I think it has everything to do with our style of reefkeeping. Link to comment
blane perun Posted January 29, 2003 Author Share Posted January 29, 2003 Tinyreef: Those are some good ideas, in the past with my old system I mainly Used powerheads which gave me directional growth patterns, Mostly The tank will consist of plugs and the colonies will be removed. Since Its just a big tub with no turnover I am really shooting for keeping particles In suspension which I thought the Ocean Current would do. Tufty 711 Yeah it is nano reef, but it’s a great board. I have been posting here Since the beginning of the project and really like the people. I know I’m not nano but I am dedicated to conservation J Thanks for the tip on http://www.ultimatereef.com/home.htm I’ll Be sure to join I hope I am not offending anyone by continuing the post. I have a site Thesea.org I have been working on for 3 years. Just a compilation of Info about reefkeeping, coral and scuba diving. Link to comment
gobies Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Anyone offended by these threads is definitely in the minority. While many of us have only small reef tanks, some of us would love to have larger systems.... Link to comment
blane perun Posted January 29, 2003 Author Share Posted January 29, 2003 here are the three other posts that covered the project for anyone who may be interested thanks http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...=&threadid=5660 http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...=&threadid=6000 http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...=&threadid=6319 Link to comment
Dave ESPI Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 tufty711 dribbled out this babble babble waht? isnt this NANO reef .com post ur stuff on ultimatereef.com aswell coz its a good sit efrom the uk advice: read some old post before painting a target on your head, andLURK MORE. Blane, thought about adding a small tang in each tank there to deal with algae? might be the way to go. Link to comment
cjm033 Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 nice job blane its nice to see its comming along good with the exceptiong of the algae,Chris ps i like ur board too Link to comment
blane perun Posted January 29, 2003 Author Share Posted January 29, 2003 i actually want to I have one, a purple tang. I'd like to have one to three for each system. For me in Pittsburgh Nice fish seem to be pricy, like 50-100 bucks for a good healthy specimen. For now stuff is so costly I will have to wait until everything is running properly. I have thought about buying fish mail order, you see some great prices but never took the chance. If you know anyone around PA or a good etailer I'm all ears Link to comment
blane perun Posted January 29, 2003 Author Share Posted January 29, 2003 cjm thanks :) Link to comment
NanoReefer53 Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Originally posted by Dave ESPI Blane, thought about adding a small tang in each tank there to deal with algae? might be the way to go. Silly me, so that explains why i always see a tang in each coral holding tank at my lfs. Link to comment
tufty711 Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 for god sake calm down dave, i was only being sarcastic and i think the captive raising is a great help to the hobby. dave y is it always you who has a go at everyone. Link to comment
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