Coral Maternity in Portugal

[K' Family Reef]

Machado deSousa


:thumbsup:


in what way do you categorize/file all the various corals (names) in these tanks?... iow w/ so many frags/tank - how to do you keep track of everything.


thanks.


regards

 

[Machado deSousa]

cdeboard and gnoles, Thanks for your comments.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15231631#post15231631 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Neptune's Oasis
Machado deSousa

:thumbsup:

in what way do you categorize/file all the various corals (names) in these tanks?... iow w/ so many frags/tank - how to do you keep track of everything.

thanks.


regards

Hi Warren!

Your question is very pertinent and comes when I’m planning to reorganize the coral distribution in the system.

The Maternity tank (tank with Clams) will be my display tank with a mix of SPS and Clams, and the corals will be criteriously selected from my colonies/frags collection. In this tank all corals will be free to grow and I’ll avoid pruning corals there.

Because in the Day care tanks (tanks localized on the higher stand) the water flows from the left to the right tanks, and because Acros are the most sensitive corals and they need to receive the purest water coming from the sump, the left tanks will be kept with all kind of Acros and the right tanks will lodge all the type of the others SPS such as Montys, Stylos, Pocys, etc., receiving water from the left tanks (Acros tanks).

The Nursery tank (tank with corals on its first stage of growth which are fixed on flower pics) will be kept as a reproduction tank as it actually is.

The tanks intercalated in the sump, localized on the floor, will be kept with a mix of SPS.

The quarantine tank (tank close the door) will go on functioning as a quarantine tank.


Cheers,

 

[Machado deSousa]

Hi Warren again!

Sorry, I forgot to talk about how many frags/tank and how I keep tracking everything.


Maternity tank: several mother colonies + 300 frags
Day Care tanks: 700 frags/tank: 1, 400 frags
Nursery tank (babies on flower pics): 1,200 frags
Day Care tanks on the floor: 200 + 600 = 800 frags
Estimate number of frags (it's hard to count them)


I've visited the system for maintenance, daily, for visual control of the more important equipments and animals.
Daily, I control the Ca, kH, Mg dispenser and I feed fish and corals; weekly, I clean protein skimmers, window panes from algae, spray Mangrove with osmosis water, etc.; every two weeks I make about 10% water change and siphon detritus. Monthly, I change activated carbon and anti-phos media and clean light reflectors and light protections from salt sprays; every six-eight months I change the bulbs.
Whenever the frags growth allows I make more frags or new babies on flower pics.

Cheers,

 

[robcampman]

Could you place a link to where these flowerpicks are sold.. they seem to be very handy..

 

[snaza]

Do you use egg crate and does it get covered with algae?

 

[K' Family Reef]

Machado deSousa

thanks for the reply!

:thumbsup:

regards

 

[Machado deSousa]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15233348#post15233348 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by robcampman
Could you place a link to where these flowerpicks are sold.. they seem to be very handy..

Search for "aquapic" or "water tube floral".

In your country you can find here: http://www.zwapak.nl.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15234371#post15234371 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snaza
Do you use egg crate and does it get covered with algae?

With the time they become covered with some algae.

 

[Leonardo_]

After a few years of following this thread it is about time to compliment you with your amazing propagationsystem.
Will go on vacation to southern France by car this summer, but I'm afraid Portugal is just a bit too far... I would like to see this in person very much.

Leonardo

 

[Machado deSousa]

Hi Leonardo!
I was following your wonderful tank (Formosa Forest) and I go on following your lagoon with much interest.
It would be a great pleasure for me to receive you in my prop, and talk with you personally.
If you decide to come to Lisbon for some days, I lend you my house, close the beach, for resting.:beer:

Cheers,

 

[Leonardo_]

That would be great, thank you for the invitation. I will look at a possibility to visit you.
Curious what your new grow-out tank will look like!

Leonardo

 

[Machado deSousa]

Leonardo, this was the appearance of my maternity tank, two years ago

A recent shot of the same tank (view from the same angle)

I intend to remove the staircase and frags from this tank (straight to the Day-care tank localized close the ceiling) and come back to the layout I had two years ago because I miss the tank as it was before, or, in alternative, gonna try to reproduce the back cover pic figured on “Corals of the World” Jen Veron books. This is an old idea I have coincident with yours for Lagoon. Here, only inhabitants gonna change, no worries about water circulations, lighting, equipments an so on.

Cheers,

 

[Kellsindell]

:eek1: :eek2: They are both amazing, but I agree with your reasoning to go back to what you had 2 years ago.

 

[Leonardo_]

Plans sounds great, I also have the books, so I had to take a look again to see what it looks like
Natural reefscapes like the backcover of Veron also were the inspiration for my Lagoon. You can see some more examples in my thread on the first few pages, maybe you already saw them.
Are you using sand in all of your tanks, and why (or why not)?

For a grow out tank I also prefer the first previous setup. Good luck with the rebuild!

Leonardo

 

[Machado deSousa]

Yes I have seen the examples on your thread. They are very inspirational.
From times to times, with the water changes, I siphon detritus and replace my thin layer covering the bottom.
Thanks for your feed back.

 

[K' Family Reef]

Machado deSousa

very interesting use of 'space' (and design)... for the "Coral Maternity"
seems that you have packed a lot into a small space and designed/planned it down to the finest/minute detail...

do you have any plans to go bigger or change things at this point?

if you had to do it all over again
is there anything you would change about what you have done so far?

thanks.

regards

:thumbsup:

 

[Machado deSousa]

Warren, my prop is still in expansion. First of all, I need to contract more energy, seeing that I’m handling with high amps and I’m working almost on limit.
My plans are:

On the lower stand

- I gonna transform the maternity tank (actually logging mother colonies) in a tank to grow out corals, because I miss a display tank.

On the higher stand

- I intend to occupy both existing tanks (200g each), already laying on the upper shelf, with frags (by now, I only have power for one of them);
- I plan to construct one more 200g tank to mount on the lower shelf (right);
- And acquire one more 260g tank for deposit of Natural Sea Water, to be mounted on the lower shelf (left).


The only thing I would do different is to mount my Maternity near my home, not 24 Km (15.5 miles) distant as it is.

Thanks for your attention.

Cheers,

 

[K' Family Reef]

Machado deSousa

thanks for the reply.

doing a rough estimate based on the number of frags you reported to possess
i guesstimate that you must have betw USD $75K to over $100K in frags sitting in a space which amounts to about the size of a single stall garage here in the US...

i would imagine having them closer to home would bring more peace of mind!


imo you set the 'standard' as far as efficiency goes for coral farming
although it may be possible - have not seen (in my experience online - forums etc) where another coral 'farmer' had such an efficient operation going... it might seem that selling a handful of frags would more then cover your overhead during any given month!

thanks for sharing/providing all the details/information about your coral 'farming' efforts - it makes for some very interesting reading!

:thumbsup:

regards

 

[Machado deSousa]

Warren, sorry only replying now but has been little time available. Truly, some sales of coral could help me in the monthly expenditure but for now I prefer to support costs while I can. My problem in the short term is the power available that is reaching the limit ...
Thanks you for your replying.

Cheers,

 

[chingchai]

Hi Machado,

If you don't mind, I would like to use one picture of your frag tank for the poster of our club's frag day.
Is that okay?

Thanks.

 

[scaryperson27]

Machado deSousa, thank you.