New Coral Farm build in Oz

[sayn3ver]

seems like a lot of weight to put up in the air so to speak.

What did you guys use to frame out the structure?

 

[bdepp]

down to cleaning today... lots of vinegar

dirty skimmer

mostly clean skimmer

Clean tanks

bucket of vinegar.. and plumbing parts

 

[bdepp]

first prop system is up in the room now

Let the plumbing begin.
cleaned all the parts and drying them

the install

 

[bdepp]

time to fill up some tanks now.

A full sump with sand and rock

Full pic of the room

 

[just dave]

Looks like fun.
If I might suggest , I would get some sheets of thin plastic ( I like ABS) and put them on the sloped portions of the ceiling so moisture and splash will not ruin the sheet rock ( even if you used a water proofer or green board)and cause it to come apart. I wish I had done that in certain areas of my shop before the damage was done. I'd also build a wooden railing around the exposed plumbing that is coming out of the tank by the pathway to your sump to prevent any accidental hits, grabs, leans, ...etc.

Are you using florescent lighting for the systems?

 

[bdepp]

thanks for the sggestion jase dave. good idea about the roof and the wood around the plumbing. we have already splashed a roof a tiny bit too.

we are using metal halides. we got 4 with the tanks and bought another 4 off ebay. we are only able to use 5 in total over these tanks, so we have some backups. i got some mirrored stainless steel to make new reflectors with.

halides with different colour spectrum globes they came with

 

[just dave]

With the tank so close to the slope of the roof how are you going to mount the lights?

 

[bdepp]

we have got them so they have 8" of clearance above the water. the light above in the boxes are going above the "high tank"

 

[bdepp]

we have lights up now on the lower tank. we have temporarily mounted a light in the upper tank so we can get some frags in there

some of our corals ready for fraging

we are still tuning the flow. the water temperature is also a little low. lots of tuning to do to the system

frag plugs ready for frags

 

[heathbez]

Nice work on the frag tanks, what corals do you intend on fragging and will it be on a commercial sacale or just as a pocket money hobby.
Nice acans by the way, they look familier, almost sure they are from my shop, ha ha ha.
Keep up the good work, look forward to seeing some great results.

 

[bdepp]

hi heath. yea doing it on a commercial scale. interesting about the acan's. we got them from a number of shops. i know who suppies them then

going to be fragging softies, zoo's and acans to begin with & acro's and monti's very soon as well.

 

[SoFloReefer]

Can you post any information of the coral frag plugs? Nice setup btw

 

[bdepp]

we bought the frag plugs off ebay with the tanks. they are made from crushed shells and cement mix. i think they were made in egg boxes from the shape of them too.

I plan on making some "normal" flat disc plugs soon as well

 

[bdepp]

we picked up some more of our tanks today

got some sand as well for a DSB

we also hung the lights over the prop tanks. they are on a curtain rail so we can slide then side to side.

 

[FiSHy sAy HeY]

Slick setup

 

[leezer]

I was wondering about how you would easily maneuver in the tanks with the lights so close. Great idea with the rails!

I have to say, I'm a bit jealous.

 

[bdepp]

yea leezer we wondering too until we can up with the idea of the rail. it's still at a difficult height to get around.

wait for the next couple of photo's today... the slick setup comes less slick with the next set of tanks we are putting in

 

[bdepp]

Day ..... whatever we are up to now

picked up more tanks today and have installed some of them on the far wall

a lick of paint is needed

1 more system to go into a increasingly crowded room. you can see half the frame in the picture below.

here is how the room looks like now

 

[erics3000]

This is real sweet. I am soo loving it. I love how you are really keeping the cost done on startup. Great pics and keep them coming.

 

[bdepp]

thanks eric. We hit the jackpot on the tanks which has meant that our startup costs havn't gone over $1000 for equipment. You can't start a normal tank for that. We budgeted alot more and with much fewer tanks too.

this means when we have all the tanks running we can make sure we spend money on important things like corals.