Re: Jellyfish system
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9929842#post9929842 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by smy168
So I've been thinking about doing a Jellyfish system, they seem pretty cool and I'm hoping I have enough experience to give it a run. Any thoughts, any experience? cost?
The experience is part of it, the time you have to put into it is more IMO.
Be prepared to spend an average of an hour per day on the system. Between (the recommended) 2 feedings a day, setting up 2 nauplii cultures & gutloading the nauplii with Selco/Super Selco or other HUFA supplement. IMO the nauplii should be about 18 hrs old, still have some egg yolk attached but haven't yet developed the exoskeleton so they are nutritious and degestable by the jellies. I agree with Conky about the Cyclop-eeze, it's an "okay" occasional supplement but not good for a steady diet.
Animals can be hard to come by in certain parts of the season so try to get a steady supplier in case of mortalities. IME public aquariums will get first dibs on animals, the rest of us usually get leftovers.
As for cost, a small (4'L x 4'H) kreisel system can be set up for about $10k and a larger (10'L x 6'H) system can be set up for about $50k, and there are many sizes in beween, after that though - your talking 6 digits for the tank alone. Mostly one time costs; tank, chiller(s), pumps, sumps, filters, etc. Other than food and electricity (& your time), there are no real recurring costs such as lighting. For display purposes, a tumbler houses more animals but yields a smaller display than say a kreisel which is fairly narrow (front to back) but are generally longer and taller.
Filtration can be just about anything from a canister system to wet/dry to ATS to (in my case) a reef tank.
The biggest PITA is usually the initial set-up of the circulation system, getting the flow *just right* can be a chore.
HTH,
James