Expanding system, pro's and con's...

[Dman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7390966#post7390966 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mwp
OK, so I'm REALLY surprised by all the comments regarding water quality - it was my experience in FW that the grow-out tanks did much better when water quality was better (i.e. they got 50-75% water changes every week). Grow out happened faster, you could pump more food through the fish and get them to market sooner. WHY are there so many folks saying (to some extent) "ah, don't worry about the grow out water quality, keep the BROODSTOCK pristine"...last I checked the adults were better able to handle poor water quality than juveniles, or is this just all TOTALLY backwards in saltwater fish breeding?

MP

My take on it is that the parents will tolerate lousy water conditions, but you run into two problems that I can think of right off the bat:
1. The parents won't/don't/can't spawn in lousy water.
2. Less than ideal water quality while the eggs are developing results in much higher initial mortalities on the first and second nights.

Also, because the standard accepted practice is to transfer parent water with the eggs for hatching out, it's much easier if the parent water is as clean as possible to start with.

In a perfect world (or at least cheaper one) having pristine conditions for the growout system would indeed be ideal, but when you're jimmie-jammin them in 10 to a gallon (to spread the hate around some) staying on top of water quality is a full time job

 

[Dman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7393300#post7393300 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by David M
So back to the new system, what tanks would you use? Since I seem to be getting very large hatches I'm thinking 40's are not too big, they can have removable dividers to partion them off and increase the space as the fish grow, rather than transferring them several times.

40's are fine but unless you run them less than half full for the first little while you might have a hard time regulating how many rotifers are in there. Regardless of hatch size a tank that's easy to move, remove and clean, replace and doesn't cost a fortune is the way to go.

20 longs might be nice for smaller hatches.


These would probably be better for getting fry past meta

The 40's we have here are not the standard "breeder" 40, they are only 16" wide and actual capacity is 35 gallons (read the label, it says "model 40" ) So a rack approx 8' long could hold six "40's" on the lower level and 8 20L's on the top, 14 tanks for about 250 actual gallons. Say 50 gallons in the sump (rubbermade stock tank) and a 60 gal drum connected as reservior that can be drained and filled for wc's. Call it 300 gallons. I'd think that would be adaquate for the desired 1000 per month output considereing more than half the fish will be less than two months old. What do you think, cutting it too close? Bigger?

Might be more than a little close to pump out that kind of volume

 

[David M]

Dman, I'm talking about a growout system for juvies, not larval rearing. No rotifers. I usually transfer them out of the larval tanks at 3-4 weeks.

Kathy, I use "baskets" now for small juvies 3 weeks to 2 months, I really like them. My "baskets" are glass tanks with window screen bottoms.

 

[rsman]

the way I liked it, was to have individual filters and heaters on the brood stock, and grow out, but have water flow from the brood stock into the grow out. then back into the brood stock, at that moment I would take as much filtering and heating as I could

this way I was discarding as little water as I could and was not having the problems with yellowing water and such.

as for heating well I figured that out about 3 months before I stoped breeding

but filtering I had nailed

mechanical: 30 micron DIY parabolic filter, bio filtering: huge bio wheels 3 setup so water moved over 1 then 2 then 3rd, UV 160w DIY, kalk reactor setup with a ph meter, a smallish refugium 20gal rubbermade nothing fancy just algae, and a coil denitrator, this is the place I put mine.


my fav cheapest setup was a 125 gallon plastic preformed pond available at home depot for something like $100. placed on a plywood platform outdoors. and pvc/ plastic mesh baskets rocks in the bottom air at about 3/4th the height keeped the tops about 2" above water level.

 

[Jiddy]

David, i was curious if you could show some "behind the scene" shots of your tanks and explain the filtration of the setup in more detail.

Also, how did you gather all the tanks needed to start this operation?

Thanks,.
Jiddy

 

[David M]

Jiddy, you would die layghing if I showed you the "system" (just ask rsman) Like many beginners I didn't build the whole thing at once, it's a hodge-podge affair that all began 4-5 years ago and has grown in sections over time. Every time I add too it I "improve" the design so every section is different. Basically it's a series of tanks plumbed together in groups that all flow back to one central sump. There are groups of 20's, 18talls. 15's and 10's. There are two 40's (soon to be removed) and a funky 130 (old PetCo "plant tank"). There is a 180 gallon RK2 bin that sits on the floor. There is an elevated 50 gal refugium that was the original header tank as the first installation was a low flow gravity fed system for seahorses. The tank pictured above is a 100 gallon acrylic cut down to 12", this was originally used for seahorse fry raised in "fishbowl kreisels" that fit perfectly in the 12" depth. Curently it is used for small clowns as you can see.

 

[David M]

I think the most important thing is to keep the fish room neat, clean and organized. :lol:

 

[Jiddy]

How'd you manage to get that many tanks? I like the setup, and did you drill thetanks to connect them together

 

[Dman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7396641#post7396641 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by David M
I think the most important thing is to keep the fish room neat, clean and organized. :lol:

What the heck is that? Stop talking in code.