Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank) - split

[SAY]

Peter,

I will join my congrats to the hundreds of others on a beautiful tank. In the beginning you had a flame scallop in there and I haven't seen it in any of the recent pictures. I have always heard that they are difficult to keep and wondered if yours survived.

Also, can you still see the teeth on the dinosaur?

 

[nineball]

Great video fellas! Peter your aquarium is vivacious, so much energy and life. Outstanding work, coming along very well.

PS: My favourite part of the film is at 5:03. There appears to be a water droplet rolling down the exterior glass as a bengaii cardinal races up to catch it and "Bonk" it goes head first into the glass!! Just spectacular

Kevin

The day we shot some of the video the brothers Grimm were doing maintenance on the tank. When they do the sohal and and sail fin have a tendency to splash. The drop of water you correctly spotted caught the cardinals attention who for whatever reason decided it should be chased. This is NOT typical cardinal behaviour. We have six active breeding pairs in the tank and about forty 'offspring' in the mars bars. I am trying to decide what to do with them. All 50 Cardinals have started from the three original wild caught adults. I may try an experiment to see if they will breed in the Mars environment.

Thank you for the continuing enthusiastic support. The team appreciates it very much.

Peter

 

[nineball]

Peter,

I will join my congrats to the hundreds of others on a beautiful tank. In the beginning you had a flame scallop in there and I haven't seen it in any of the recent pictures. I have always heard that they are difficult to keep and wondered if yours survived.

Also, can you still see the teeth on the dinosaur?

Thanks and no the flame scallop finally gave up the ghost but he was the last survivor of that group. Yes you can still see the teeth but you really have to know the history of this tank to know where to look.


Peter

 

[SAY]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry to hear about the scallop. I put one in my tank early on and it didn't make it either. I always found them interesting and wanted to try one again some day. However, I won't do it until I am pretty confident that I know how to keep it alive.

 

[swissgaurd]

The day we shot some of the video the brothers Grimm were doing maintenance on the tank. When they do the sohal and and sail fin have a tendency to splash. The drop of water you correctly spotted caught the cardinals attention who for whatever reason decided it should be chased. This is NOT typical cardinal behaviour. We have six active breeding pairs in the tank and about forty 'offspring' in the mars bars. I am trying to decide what to do with them. All 50 Cardinals have started from the three original wild caught adults. I may try an experiment to see if they will breed in the Mars environment.

Thank you for the continuing enthusiastic support. The team appreciates it very much.

Peter

excellent work on the bangais peter ,it takes great dedacation to breed cardinals.
one of the most interesting species i find.
there is a big study on preseving the cardinals at the moment as there numbers are decreasing in the wild.
looks like you have found a good balanced diet for the cardinals.

how and what are you feeding them.

That just brings to mind what are you feeding your main display.
do you have a particular routine for feeding.

thanks
vic

 

[fla2341]

Good job on the Bangaii's I wanted to get a couple of pairs going but when I bought them they succumbed to the vibro infection which is prevelent in the wild caught right now. I've some ideas on breeding them in larger #'s if you're interested.

 

[nineball]

excellent work on the bangais peter ,it takes great dedacation to breed cardinals.
one of the most interesting species i find.
there is a big study on preseving the cardinals at the moment as there numbers are decreasing in the wild.
looks like you have found a good balanced diet for the cardinals.

how and what are you feeding them.

That just brings to mind what are you feeding your main display.
do you have a particular routine for feeding.

thanks
vic

Thanks Vic but I'm not sure I can take that much credit on the cardinals. All I have done is provide them with a large enough environment where they can stake out territory and keep an eye on each other. With six actively breeding pairs there is always fry to be harvested. My concern at this point is one of in-breeding. I'm not sure how many generations get produced before I get into trouble. I did start with 3 so the math might be favourable but not for too long. However as Ret Talbot noted during his recent visit to our tank, the entire species lives in a 13 square mile radius and apparently even within those boundaries they don't tend to wander to far from the nest. Without more diversity this is not a great formula for longevity for the species.
I know about the study Vic, I contributed to the B. Cardinal Kickstart program!
My feeding is not very complicated. When we find the fry in the filter bags in the sump we move them into the mars bars. I feed them decapsulated shrimp eggs and cyclopeeze for a couple of weeks with a very modest amount of brine shrimp. The fry are too small to eat the shrimp but they quickly get primed for the taste. They can see older cardinals eating the brine shrimp mixed with Mysis in the next tank so it doesn't take too long for the whole group to move to the shrimp mixture.

The food routine for the main tank is also fairly simple but time consuming. I feed every day about a cup of thawed brine and Mysis that I painstakingly filter with RO/DI water to remove excess juice. Mr. Wilson doesn't think its really necessary but our phosphates are really low so I'll keep doing it this way.....why tempt fate. I also feed Cyclopeeze and reef roids for the coral. I also offer the fish spirolina once a day which they love. My fish are very healthy and apparently happy judging by the amount of breeding going on in the tank!!!! My maroon clowns are also laying eggs every two weeks.

Having said all that about feeding process I know its far removed from a best practice and its somewhat frustrating for me. I am very sure I know what the best practice for my tank should be but the technology doesn't exist to enable me to do it....at any cost!!! The best practice is to feed very often if not constantly but very prudently. Every once in a while you can throw in a special treat but for many reasons a steady but prudent diet would ensure basic nutritional requirements are met while still encouraging normal hunting behaviour on the reef. That is the best practice but for the most part it only takes place in the ocean as its just not possible with todays technology. For the most part 'do it yourself' solutions are just too...........I can't find the right word other than just too much 'do it yourself' for my taste.

Oh and I also occasionally feed phytoplankton but not often enough for Mr. Wilsons recommended routine.

Peter

 

[dave.m]

there is a big study on preseving the cardinals at the moment as there numbers are decreasing in the wild.

If you are referring to the Bangai Rescue Project being co-odinated by Coral Magazine editor James Lawrence and funded through the web site Kickstarter, Coral has already published that Peter is one of the major supporters of this project. Peter is probably too humble and circumspect to publish this but I think it is important to point out that we who gain the most benefit from these projects should also be involved in their support.

Dave.M

 

[nineball]

Good job on the Bangaii's I wanted to get a couple of pairs going but when I bought them they succumbed to the vibro infection which is prevelent in the wild caught right now. I've some ideas on breeding them in larger #'s if you're interested.

Thank you but I am not about to go beyond what this display tank can produce naturally. I barely have time to properly feed the 26 tanks and perform the basic maintenance........nope, this environment is not going to be commercialized. Its too much work, but you know this already!!!:dance:

Peter

 

[ragvette]

Peter, great build :thumbsup:

Still reading the entire thread.

How do you heat the setup? Sorry if I missed it in the thread if you mention it.

 

[nineball]

Peter, great build :thumbsup:

Still reading the entire thread.

How do you heat the setup? Sorry if I missed it in the thread if you mention it.

I have a single 1000W heater in the refugium. It very rarely switches on as the normal resting state of the water column is 26 C.

Peter

 

[Moonfroz]

WOW, WOW, WOW ... WOW Peter you are a TRUE MASTER!!!

I just finish to watch your video and I have no word to express the beauty of your tank. Your tank is truly amazing.

I'm also happy to see your Morish Idol swimming around and they look healthy. Do you feed them any special food such as sponge?

Best Regards!
Chris

 

[sfsuphysics]

I have a single 1000W heater in the refugium. It very rarely switches on as the normal resting state of the water column is 26 C.

Peter

What do you mostly attribute to that? Do you make any effort to keep the ambient air that warm? Or is the fact it's in an enclosed fishroom allows the air to get to that temperature and stay there?

 

[allsps40]

It probably has more to do with the large size of the system and all the heat from the pumps that keeps the water at a consistent temp. I would think keeping it cool would be more of an issue than keeping it warm. But all the LEDs are helping there for sure.
Have any new pics and any updated pics of the fish room???

 

[nineball]

I'm about to watch a movie but I just wanted to say I will answer these questions tomorrow in the am if not before.

Peter

 

[chingchai]

Peter. Do you have any idea about this one?
http://orphek.com/led/orphek-products/dif-pendants/
Thanks.

 

[nineball]

WOW, WOW, WOW ... WOW Peter you are a TRUE MASTER!!!

I just finish to watch your video and I have no word to express the beauty of your tank. Your tank is truly amazing.

I'm also happy to see your Morish Idol swimming around and they look healthy. Do you feed them any special food such as sponge?

Best Regards!
Chris

Thank you Chris, hopefully our next video will be soon.......very very soon!!!!

The 2 Moorish Idols are getting along well but it was quite a journey getting more than one in the Display tank. I have had very good success in getting them to eat. I put them in isolation quarantine for 5 weeks before putting them in the tank. I start with a small amount of cyclopeeze to tickle the appetite followed by brine shrimp shortly after. Spirolina also works well in this early stage and then Mysis becomes a staple in their diet to prepare them for life in the display. Once in the display, they pretty well share the same diet as other fish in the tank and are always on the hunt for sponges on the rock......

Peter

 

[nineball]

What do you mostly attribute to that? Do you make any effort to keep the ambient air that warm? Or is the fact it's in an enclosed fishroom allows the air to get to that temperature and stay there?

It probably has more to do with the large size of the system and all the heat from the pumps that keeps the water at a consistent temp. I would think keeping it cool would be more of an issue than keeping it warm. But all the LEDs are helping there for sure.
Have any new pics and any updated pics of the fish room???

The fish room is both acoustically treated with a special insulation as well as 2 layers of moisture proof dry wall that is cladded on the fish room floor and walls in marble tiles (I got a good deal!!). This configuration combined with the dedicated HRV system seems to hold the temp at 26-27. There is a fair amount of surface exposure in the Hydroponic mangrove wall units, the sump and the refugium so I am assuming that the entire fish room acts as a stabilizer for the display tank. The Mars Bars also hold their temp very stable as well and there are 25 of those tanks as well as the 130 gal hospital tank.

I do have a dedicated air conditioner that is running 24hrs a day 12 months a year which is about to be modified with the addition of two special 9 inch vents which are both temp and humidity controlled to the outside. In Canada, we have the advantage of having too much cold air for free for six months of the year so I am going to take advantage of that and turn off the air conditioner that will only activate when needed in the summer.

The switch from Metal Halides to LED's was huge in reducing heat. I cannot talk about how effective that decision was without sounding like a salesman for Orphek but the decision itself was clearly a move to a best practice for this tank.

Another frequent subject in this area are the abyzz pumps. They do NOT add any heat to the system. They are quiet. They are hugely efficient. They are incredibly reliable. When I am in the fish room the only way I can convince myself that they are working is to reach down and touch them and feel an almost imperceptible vibration. I have said it before and repeat it again here. I do not know (apart from the upfront cost) why anyone would use anything else for a closed loop system. They have provided me with a design goal of achieving 'managed chaos' with respect to flow in the display tank which is a phenomenal achievement for a tank of this size and dimension.

You are right by the way. the coolest I can get the tank in its normal resting state is 25 C but I have seen 29 C when the HRV was acting up. I have a 1000 watt heater in the refugium but it very rarely ever switches on. It simply takes the possibility of extremes out of the equation.

Peter

ps. I expect we will have a video out shortly which is going to focus on our maintenance routines featuring the Brothers Grimm............So the fish room will get updated this way.....:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[TimothyJ]

Great video and I look forward to many more and the knowledge they will bring.

 

[dave.m]

Also also, if I may point it out, there is a galvanized vent pipe over the main display and a large fan that sucks the air over the tank back into the fish room. The fan maintains a negative pressure over the DT so its temperature and humidity do not affect the house. This plus the separate, dedicated HVAC system keeps the DT and fishroom isolated and easier to maintain at a steady temperature and humidity level.

Walking into the fishroom is like entering a greenhouse. I think this has something to do with the success of the mangroves. It is quite tropical in there.

Dave.M