Aqua Culture Okinawa

[vest0830]

I would like to share a few pics of a local aquaculture farm that we have here in Okinawa.

This place is quite amazing. It severs as a study place for researchers, they frag coral here, (mostly softies and SPS) they are currently working on breeding clams, they had a few jelly fish...all sorts of things going on. Even sea grass.

Something else that amazes me, its all in a greenhouse. As some of you may know, Okinawa is in typhoon ally. We get many typhoons a year. The place hasnt blown down yet...

Also, it works on 100% natural sunlight. The main tanks are cement, all of the tanks operate on air lifts, water is circuliated from a natural saltwater well and it drains straight to the ocean. How cool!

There is areal nice guy down there who speaks really good english, Akihiro, he enjoys showing us around and teaching us new things. Always something cool going on down there.

Anyways, pics are worth 1000 words, here they are:

Natural sea water tap

one of the main tanks:

Hammer coral about to be worked

air lifts working

jelly fish

baby clams, thats your average sized zip tie there for comparison

tanks with no air lifts running

 

[vest0830]

rest of the pics

large shot of the greenhouse

outside of the greenhouse

outside working tanks. corals in here as well

display tanks

some clams inside the display tanks

How about this for a pack job from your LFS

Hope you enjoyed my pics

 

[Treeman]

That is great. They have some big tanks.

Those are not typical greenhouse structures. Mine is only 2" pipe with not near as much cross bracing as they have. Maybe I should look into bracing like they are.

Thanks for showing us.

Matt

 

[vest0830]

yes, you should.

 

[The Haj]

WOW,that is awesome

 

[deep6er]

What a great setup. I wish i had the funds to do that. What are your year round outside temperature's

 

[vest0830]

From about April to around November....its HOT here. We are in a tropical enviroment. Its about 90+ and gets into the low 80's at night from that time frame. Humidity...lets not get into that.

Right now, its in mid 70's and gets down to low 60's at night.

Notice there arent many fans, or AC ducts in the greenhouse...

 

[RRodrigues]

Really nice vest0830, thank you for sharing. Do you know from where they get the sperm and egs to produce the clams? How many watts have the bulbs in the display tanks?

 

[vest0830]

I believe there display tanks are 250w a peice. I would guess around a 12k bulb...


Where they get there sperm, from a ton of clams. They do everything there.

 

[RedSonja]

The baby clams are just so darn cute!

Thanks for posting the pictures, very interesting stuff.

-Sonja

 

[Henry760]

Schweett!I want a green house!


-Henry

 

[JimmyK]

Great post, appreciate you sharing. I asume they do not treat the water any way before entering system. Do they run some type of skimmers or just a continuous or large water changes?
Thanks again for sharing

 

[vest0830]

the water is filtered in from a saltwatwater well and then drained directly into the ocean. They do have skimmers and they run all of the time, however they arent the size you would think they would be.


if you look at the 'air lifts working' picture, you can see the skimmer on the large holding tank and you can see the skimmer in the background on the 'display tank' picture.

but the constant water change im sure helps out a ton. especially with air lifts running...but skimming was my first thought when I first went to the place. Hes doing somethig right though, those tanks are full of healthy coral.

 

[sharkdude]

very cool. thanks for the pics.

 

[Mr.Furious]

So what kind of treatment do they do to the outgoing water once its run through their system? UV?

 

[ctenophore]

I'm curious as to how they do temp control in their seemingly unshaded & unventilated GH in the summer. There must be a lot of water turnover from the well to handle the heat gain on a sunny day in there. Any idea how much turnover per system?

Matt, you need a frame like theirs. Those look like I beams and box-cell polycarb panels, I'll bet that GH can withstand 150mph wind and small arms fire.

 

[Treeman]

Yeah, With a cost about triple mine. Got to sell alot of frags to pay for that

 

[vest0830]

Their temps I have no idea about. Im boggled by it myself. In the summer its almost unbareable to be in the greenhouse. Probably well into 100deg. In the house. 2 ideas from me.

1. the tanks are almost all cement. that probably helps out ALOT to keep temps down.

2. the turn over rate has to be pretty decent. It comes straight from the ocean, through there tanks and straight back to the ocean. No UV sterrilizer that I can tell. Its straight from the overflows through the pipes and into the ocean. Nothing in- between.

and yes treeman. from your pics ive seen...if its the same one im thinking of, its almost a necessity to build like this. Like I said, were in the middle of typhoon alley here. We had something like 6 typhoons brush us this year alone. I think we hit 100mph winds once. in '05 we nailed something like 160-170 sustained winds. that place stands with no problems...and its RIGHT on the ocean. nothing to block it.

 

[RRodrigues]

Could you post more pics? Pleasssssssssssssssssssssssssse!

 

[vest0830]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9046835#post9046835 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RRodrigues
Could you post more pics? Pleasssssssssssssssssssssssssse!

Those are all I took. Sorry....