Thanks for the words of encouragement. I really appreciate it. Now on to some questions...
I would think if you have a tank or two with some SPS's you might need to run a few radiums in the winter just to help keep them colored up.
It is a definite possibility that I may need some supplemental lighting. I am hoping that I will not though. What has me a little hopeful is the location of the greenhouse itself. It is basically in an open, unobstructed space that gets light the entire day. The glazing does not let direct light through(geometry of the sheet), but from what I understand, polycarbonate has a very good index of refraction so light is still quite strong. The lighting will have to be a "wait and see" sort of thing.
How do you plan to tackle nutrient export?
I won't be doing anything too fancy here. A large skimmer will be doing most of the work, and I plan on doing monthly water changes. I also intend on having some rock in the tanks, below the eggcrate coral shelf to provide some biological filtration. The plan right now is to put in a good amount of lace rock and seed it with some liverock from my home aquarium. In a few months, I expect that lace rock to be very nice pieces of aquacultured liverock.
About how big do you want to have each growout tank?
There really were two criteria I had for the tanks. They had to be cheap, and they had to be robust. Right away, pond liner was out of the question. It is inexpensive, but I don't think it will hold up well over time. I was worried about burrowing organisms and UV degredation. On the other end of the spectrum were the 1000-gallon fiberglass raceways from Aquatic Ecosystems. As nice as those were, they were out of my price range. The closest thing I could find to this was the 300-gallon Rubbermaid stock tank. They have a nice sturdy body, and could be had for less than $1 per gallon. I will be starting small in the beginning with only two of these 300 gallon tanks. I mapped out my half of the greenhouse, and figure I can fit another 10 stock tanks at a later date. That would be a grand total of 3,600 gallons. Honestly, I think that is big enough for me. Anything larger than that will take some extra hands to deal with.
Gotta think that the winters are going to be an experience.
You're not kidding. I'm actually more worried about plowing snow just getting to the greenhouse. It's a good 150-200 feet from the house. The greenhouse itself will probably be quite comfy since it has its own heating system (and will have a lot of water acting as a heat sink).
I've often thought of turning my in ground pool into an giant reef
Funny you mention that. Last weekend, I saw an ad in the local paper advertising preformed fiberglass pools. One of them was a neat kidney shaped 35' x 17' pool that was around 40,000 gallons. Man was I tempted to just forget about the aquaculture aspect and get a really big greenhouse reef.
What an awesome undertaking... Is it's main purpose to grow and sell plants?
Thanks Ryan, I like to think the main purpose is to grow corals, but in truth it's literally split down the middle. Half will be for the family to grow some tropical plants and the other will be mine for the reef stuff.
