Coral Maternity in Portugal

[Allmost]

NOT being critical here.....but have you seen or noted any problems with genetics?--Being from a relatively "small" gene pool--do you or have you noticed any variations in beneficial/adverse characteristics of the coral you grow?--For instance, when we "breed" dogs we get "strange" traits like the dachsund(long short dog)....Have you noticed anything like disease resistance or extra long polyp extension in any of the corals you grow out?---I would Love to study that side of your tanks!!---I LOVE the care and effort you have put into this hobby---WELL DONE!!

good question, but the corals are being propagated by fragging, so the same mother colony is just growing ...

I think your point would be seen if the corals were propagated by spawning ... imagine the cool hybrids we could make if we knew more about coral spawning and sexual production !

 

[Machado deSousa]

Hi folks!
Thank you all for your kindness and interest in this thread! I am very happy to know that you have kept this thread alive for log time even without my participation as I should. Please accept my apologies. My available time has not been too much but I can promise you that I will be more present hereafter. This weekend I'll post about my propagation system and I promise you that I'll be here more often to continue sharing experiences with you.
See you soon!

Cheers,

 

[Falcao]

yes

 

[Metal Man 1221]

Glad to see you are still following Machado :thumbsup:.

Looking forward to an update.

 

[swissgaurd]

ive been following since day one.
I get excited when I see an update
7 years wow

 

[Machado deSousa]

Hi friends!

During the time I was absent from this forum something changed in my Coral Maternity and there were events that I would like to share with you.

I mention some changes, just to name a few:

1 - The stairs of eggcrate in Daycare tanks was removed.

2 - I removed also the coral gravel substrate in all tanks (now all the tanks are bare bottom).

3 - The plasma lighting over the maternity tank (tank with mother colonies) was removed and I returned to T5.

4 - The Nursery Tank is now illuminated with t5 together with a LED pendant.

5 - I installed a heat exchanger in the system because the water temperature had a variation about 4 degrees Celcius up and down between daytime and nighttime.

6 "“ I installed a Profilux to control the supply of CO2 into the Calcium reactor, heating and cooling the water.

7 - I set up an SMS-Module connected to the Profilux to be alerted in case of a power failure or system fault.

8 - The calcium, carbonates and magnesium was supplied to the system through two Deltec calcium reactors: PF 1360 and PF 1001 filled with 100kg and 34 kg of midia each, respectively. The largest reactor was damaged by the fall of a ladder and is out of service for long ago. Currently the PF 1001 is running and I compensate the consumptions in the system reinforcing the outputs of the Balling Light.


About problems, and just to name one, I gonna share with you an event that could have had very serious consequences:

I've been a bit busy with work and because my residence is distant 25 Km from my Maternity, I started to go there every other day for maintenance.
4 months ago, with no apparent reason, the electricity of my facilities was down for 21 hours! (I could observe in the analog clocks) and the SMS-Module associated to the Profilux didn't send me a message advising me the power failure (the SIM card inside my SMS-Module was dammaged).
As a result all the fish and invertebrates I had in the Maternity Tank (the tank with the mother-colonies) died. All fish in the other tanks just survived.
About corals there were no deaths in all tanks, even in the Maternity Tank (the tank where all the fish and invertebrates died). In this tank I only noted that 10% of my Acropora formosa blue died. On subsequent days this Acropora began to lose some tissue but I cut the affected branches and the colony has recovered.

I await for your questions.

Cheers,

 

[michika]

Do you have any new photos you can share with us?

 

[XaznKewLguyX]

Updates would be great!

 

[maroun.c]

Glad to see a long awaited update.
Any specific reason to take out the plasma lighting? Any improvement with the T5s?
Sorry to hear about the mishap and the fish loss.
Is the heat exchanger connected to the maternity heating or does it have its own heat source?
Looking forward to visit Portugal and see the maternity again.

 

[FFrankie]

Still following buddy!

 

[Machado deSousa]

Do you have any new photos you can share with us?

Hi michika!
Yes but I have them in my PC which is with a friend of mine to download a new Windows 7. In the next days I will post pics or videos.
Thanks for your interest.

Updates would be great!

Hi XaznKewLguyX!
Thank for your interest. I will post it.

Cheers,

 

[Machado deSousa]

Updates would be great!

Hi XaznKewLguyX!
I will post. Stay tuned.

Cheers,

 

[Machado deSousa]

Glad to see a long awaited update.
Any specific reason to take out the plasma lighting? Any improvement with the T5s?
Sorry to hear about the mishap and the fish loss.
Is the heat exchanger connected to the maternity heating or does it have its own heat source?
Looking forward to visit Portugal and see the maternity again.

Hi my friend maroun.c!
When will you be here again? I miss you!
I take out my plasma lights because I had a problem with the dimmer of one of them. By now I have them stored and I hope to use when I have a tank only with clams. The plasma technology have not developed as happened with LEDs . The manufaturers have not solved the problem about the radiation to be yellowish. Corals like the yellow light like sunlight but our eyes do not appreciate so much. In my opinion Plasma light is very good to grow corals and clams.
About T5 I have not seen any improvement. The LEDs are taking their place.
About heat exchanger, my problem is not with heating but cooling the water of my system. I will post an article here with pics just detailing my heat exchanger system.
When you come back to Portugal look for me and I'll be happy to talk with you in person again.

Cheers,

 

[Machado deSousa]

Updates would be great!

Hi XaznKewLguyX!
Thank you very much for your interest in this thread.

Cheers,

 

[Metal Man 1221]

Can't wait for pictures!

Please forgive me if this question seems naive, I am not familiar with Profilux systems. Do you run your controller on a UPS in case of power outages?

 

[Machado deSousa]

Can't wait for pictures!

Please forgive me if this question seems naive, I am not familiar with Profilux systems. Do you run your controller on a UPS in case of power outages?

Hi Metal Man!
Good question. The Profilux doesn't run on a UPS. Only the SMS Module, connected to the Profilux, has a lithium battery inside to keep running and send me messages in case of power outages or Profilux failure.

Cheers,

 

[Metal Man 1221]

Very interesting. It sounds quite beneficial to have your alerting separate from the primary controller... when it works, that is.:hammer:

 

[Henry760]

Wow awesome! Glad to see this thread continue. .
Sorry to hear about your power outage and loss..Looking forward to pics and vids..

 

[Reef Raf]

Machado...

Wow, what can I say? I have just caught up with 7 years of your log here and it is incredible indeed. What you are doing is very much what I am aiming for and slowly building towards. I will refer back to your story and videos many times as I expand my system from 800 to 1600 liters. You have done such a great job explaining everything that I do not have many questions right off.

I did admire your stepped coral racks. And then was interested that you removed them. So my immediate questions are 1) Why did you remove your racks? and 2) What system do you have in place now to store your vast number of frags?

Thank you for your continued information. We are all learning an incredible amount from you.

 

[Joe's Coral Reef]

Wow, I remember looking at your system years and years ago in amazement. I'm glad it's still around in some form. Looking forward to any updates you may have.