New Coral Farm build in Oz

This is how we make frag plugs for those interested.

First get out your silicon mould of 121 frag plugs
9916_187796263834_763888834_3918242_951906_n.jpg


Next mix up a mixture of cement. not to wet though as water will weaken the plugs when they are set in a silicon mould.
9916_187796273834_763888834_3918243_5087265_n.jpg


I like to hand work it so i know everything is mixxed
9916_187796278834_763888834_3918244_6587481_n.jpg


start working the mixture into the silicon mould (cleaning your hand is optional)
9916_187796283834_763888834_3918245_4986581_n.jpg


shake the mould a number of time to work the mixture to the bottom and work out any air bubbles.

And there you have it. just wait 24 hours and remove
9916_187796293834_763888834_3918246_2963475_n.jpg


Easy!
 
Love the mould and plugs mate. I use an identical method using a rubber door mat to make mostly square plugs. Ideal for my needs.

Hope you work out your alk issues soon. I'm having an identical problem in my system at the moment.
 
That is a Great idea!!!! Now... how do you make the mold?

This is how we make frag plugs for those interested.

First get out your silicon mould of 121 frag plugs
9916_187796263834_763888834_3918242_951906_n.jpg


Next mix up a mixture of cement. not to wet though as water will weaken the plugs when they are set in a silicon mould.
9916_187796273834_763888834_3918243_5087265_n.jpg


I like to hand work it so i know everything is mixxed
9916_187796278834_763888834_3918244_6587481_n.jpg


start working the mixture into the silicon mould (cleaning your hand is optional)
9916_187796283834_763888834_3918245_4986581_n.jpg


shake the mould a number of time to work the mixture to the bottom and work out any air bubbles.

And there you have it. just wait 24 hours and remove
9916_187796293834_763888834_3918246_2963475_n.jpg


Easy!
 
i cast the mold out of silicon. you should be able to get it from a arts and crafts store, or online somewhere. making the frag plugs to cast the mould is the hard part
 
A sneak peak at our secret weapon :dance:

9916_188586698834_763888834_3926565_127354_n.jpg


9916_188586703834_763888834_3926566_7494365_n.jpg


I'm super excited about getting these babies out. that's 200 frag "disks" from one mould. :rollface:
 
If you can track down some sodium carbonate, it will work as a much more concentrated two part and keep up with demand much better. I think it ends up being nearly twice as strong as the bicarbonate.

If you cannot locate any sodium carbonate, you can always try baking it in the oven first, although that may be too much of a pain :mad2:

BTW, awesome frag plugs :)
 
At least I'm not the only one using the rubber door mat method.
Some reefing mates looked at me like I was going insane, until they realised how quick and easy it was to make awesome plugs.


Then they all lined up with their hand out :)
 
quick update:-

thousand frag plugs now curing.

Acro tank however seems to be going down hill but we don't have a lot of acro's left which is good. need to rethink this i think. I've noticed that we may have some flat worms in that tank so that could be causing the issue.

lot's of stuff happening so have to get back too it.
 
Hey how about an update?? I've been following this thread religiously since it started i check at least once a day for updates. lol You inspired me and some friends so i now have about 6 or 7 tanks running in my basement as well as phyto cultures! Keep it up!
 
An update sounds like a good idea. it has been a while. sorry i will try harder. it's actually great to look back for us and see what we have acheived this year.

Well we had a massive outbreak of flatworms in our acro propagation and storage tanks. it took us a week or so to figure it out because some of the acro's would just start losing tissue and we had no idea why. it wasn't until i saw a big one and a fresh water dip that we found out the extent of our outbreak. one bottle of flatworm exit later, hundreds of dead flatworms, and all seems to be back to normal.

We've had some real issues with our acro prop tank for a while now as you would read. we are still trying to iron out all our issues that we find but the major one was our dosing of calcium and alk. We however did the right thing we think and bought a calcium reactor. Today infact it arrived and we have set it up. i would post a pic but didn't get time to take on before we left today. We are currently running it in and really trying to make sure that we have done everything right.

We now have all systems up and running. we still have room for some more stock in one tank but room is at a premium at the moments. propagation has taken a back seat while we have tried to work out all the issues with our acro tank but we believe that we are almost there.

Well that's it. i'll update as we get the calcium reactor running more. our fingers are crossed that we have finally nailed the acro tank....

Depp
 
hey mate lets say i was able to supply 30,000 corals per year, all aquacultured and heaps good colour and everything perfect.

do u think i i would be able to sell all those throught the year in australia or around the world (by selling to stores and aquariusts). Is the market big enough for that scale of propagation?

thanks mate keep up the great work.

Australias the best country in the world no doubt
 
check your magnesium levels...if its too low you ALK and CAL will fluctuate....
i use, baked baking soda and calcium chloride daily. I have 2 digital timers plus 2 aqua lifters...its a very inexpensive system and after you set the timers you really dont have to do any work...

regards
 
how goes the NZ reefing scene buzzy? do you have online stores over there?

Sorry for the late reply

The reefing scene is growing slowly,

no online store that sell livestock but a couple of LFS do ship, theres not that many stores over here that actually sell marine fish/equipment

hope business is booming for ya!
 
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