blane perun

720 Gallon Project Update part Three (Zoanthus Tank) This is part of a series covering the trials and tribulations of the home coral farm. My last post covered some more details of setting up my grow systems. This part of the series is dedicated just to one specific tank that is nearly completed. My first goal was to get my Zoanthus / Palythoa tank running correctly prior to others primarily because of my interest in the species. I took a bit to decide on what lighting Fixture to purchase so there was a bit of a delay. Here is a long shot of the tank and the fixture. I have not finished the rip ties on the wiring, not the ballast mount. I ended up going with a VHO fixture with #4 140 watt URI Bulbs. I chose Actinic White, and The Super Actinic, two of each. I have grow Zoanthus under normal fluorescents, MH (variety of bulbs) and just recently had them under PC’s. Of all I like the look of the VHO’ s and hope I made a solid investment. I suspended the fixture with steel strand, since the last post I found a cheaper alternative. I was buying green vinyl coated steel strand at .24 cents a foot. I found a prepackaged 50 foot clothesline for 3 bucks, it is a small bit wider in O.D. than the other but in this application id did not make a difference. You can see in addition to the canister filter I have retrofitted a wave pulse to create some additional current. The tank is small so this device seems to work great. I just connected A small section of PVC on the wave pulse, and connected it directly to a Magdrive 5. I originally planned to use a 9, and the pump was a bit too powerful for the method I used to install the device. I stepped down to a 7, but it seemed too strong as well. I drilled the side of the tank and mounted the Magdrive with zip ties from the Base to the side of the tank. The holes in the base needed drilled out slightly. After about one week of operation the pump broke one of the plastic slide rails on the side of the base, and I recently pulled tow ties around the base and the pump seeming to re secure the mount. In operation the movement from the pulser rocked the pump back and forth which obviously led to the break. I next moved onto making a stand to hold the shelves for the plugs. I made this from standard PVC. I constructed a rectangle with four legs, leaving enough height for the shelves and head room. I left one end of the stand unsealed, that way I could take it off under water and fill the tubes so the unit will rid itself of air and bubbles in the shafts. This is an important step. Lastly I just slid the shelves into the tank on top of the stand. A word about the shelves, I don’t see too many people using them. I actually got the idea from GARF and took it a step further. GARF suggest building step shelves each one wide enough for a row of two of plugs which would step down into the tank. I think these are great for grow out tanks in fact I followed the plans to a tee for my first few grow out systems. Prior to the racks I used Egg Crate, which was quick and a bit less expensive. I was never really crazy about the egg crate because of the difficulty to clean and the numerous surface area they create. I moved on from the step systems to filling the entire tank and creating a raceway affect for the water, similar to what Dick Perin does at the Tropicorium, on a much smaller scale. I eventually moved on to have someone build the shelves for me, because precision required some larger equipment. A guy locally stepped in for the challenge that I met At PMAS http://www.pmas.org/ a local Pgh Society. The guy I met (Adam) produced the shelves you see here as well as my originals I recently sold. In addition he does allot of custom work. cesnales@earthlink.net. Below is a shot of the pump running along with the Magnum with the freshly installed racks, and one with some Zoanthus ready to go.

720 Gallon Project Update part Two This is part of a series covering the trials and tribulations of the home coral farm. My last post talking about a few of the details of the climate control system, and the Polyboard wall covering. I wrapped up with speaking about the individual grow tanks, and the species I planned to cultivate in each of the tubs. Some new gear came in today and I wanted to post and update prior to the work ahead of me. Since the last post all of the tubs are full. Below list my breakdown of the individual Systems. Quarantine SPS Leather Gorg & sponge Disco & LPS Palythoa & Zoanthus This is a shot of the left side of the room when you walk in the door. I just snapped the shot just 20 minutes ago. My lighting cycle will run with the day, but for the purpose of illuminating the room I switched two of the light I have installed on. And here is a shot of those same four tanks from the opposite side of the room. This is the opposite side of the room from the same side, these two tubs you are looking at are the sponge, and quarantine systems. The light is currently hanging above Zoanthus, but this will be a tank dedicated for Discosoma and LPS. The tank has a 8 in deep sand bed, and I am currently having Shelves built to hold the plugs I grow on. Once the tank was up and running I Chose my Purple Tang to help break things in. Much of the live sand from a previous display was ported to this tank, so things were not so rocky. Zoanthus being a favorite I started making road trips about a month ago looking for some new color morphs. Here are some recent additions. Many of the polyps were closed when I switched the lights on but I’ll be sure to post some updated photos in weeks to come. Each system contains a 350 watt heater, as a back up to the gas heat already keeping the room at a constant temp of 78. In addition I have purchases a Hot Magnum for each tank to run the water through carbon, or hold any type of absorbing material for problems that may arise down the road. I chose the magnum because it seemed to offer the most bang for the buck and occupied the least space. The powerquad PC came with some great mounting hardware. Vinyl coated steel strand adjustable sleeves, and eye hooks. After mounting the fixture I really liked the look. I went to Home Depot and purchased some coated steel strand (I was only able to find green though) and some adjustable catches. I took apart a dual strip light and drilled the fixture for the steel strand and mounted it as best I could to match the PC fixture. If anyone out there knows where I can get black steel strand please email me. I chose recessed lighting throughout the area for a less obtrusive look, and to also serve as a place to mount ballast out of the way of water, and eyes. This recessed shelf serves That funstion. http://www.thesea

I wanted to post this update to my project since I have yet had a chance to produce a new web page explaining where I am in the process. Previously I had finished coating the room with Polyboard and installed a Natural Vented Gas heater for Climate control. I have two thermostats, one running fans and one running the heater. The reason I used two is because in some cases the room is cool but requires circulation because of humidity. I will eventually drop the thermostat and have the fans controlled by humidity monitor, but I chose this route in the interim to cut cost. After the room was complete I purchased the tanks, which from a previous post I described where the Rubbermaid stock tanks. I had taken those back in exchange for Tuff Stuff tanks which provided more growing area. I had originally planned to have a sump return for each system, I was going to buy the Tuff Stuff 40 gallon tank, elevate the grow tank and have the sump underneath at a 90 degree angle with half of the sump exposed. I wanted to have the option to run skimmers and DSB’s in the sumps if I so chose. Because of space requirements and the lack of desire to build stands for each system I ditched the idea all together. I will be running 6 independent systems and one Display. I have broken up the systems like this. Quarantine, SPS, Leather, Gorg & sponge, Disco, Palythoa and Zoanthus. I will be running DSB’s in two of the systems the Sponge, and Disco’s. In the remaining ones I will be running rock rubble as a biological filter. Most of the tanks will be low to moderate flow with exception of the SPS and Zoo tank, which will be moderate to high. I am running a myriad of lighting, in fact anything I can find on the market. My objective is to have the option to watch study and photograph the animals under a variety. So far I have purchased a Quad Prism PC, A standard dual 40w fixture, A #4 110 VHO Ice Cap pendant. I will most likely ###### three more fixtures each MH, two with supplemental PC’s. The room provides natural lighting via three skylights, which during the summer months provided a great amount of illumination. I however am not one of the lucky ones with a E/W home, so during the winter I am finding I lack direct light. I have a lumens and Par meter and plan to begin a series of weekly measurements which I will post in quarterly intervals. Blane Perun

Thanks for all of the Welcomes. I have visited the site for a while and decided to post this update the other Day. I always look at traffic to my site from other countries, I find it interesting to meet people from across the world that have the same interest. I saw some referrals from this site and checked it out a while back. I post a series on my farm project on about 7 or so boards. I have not done much since Before Christmas (too many bills). Now that I am starting work back up again I thought I would also join this community and post the series here. I hope my experiences and documentation can help someone save some time, money and The life of a coral or two J I hope no one minds but I decided to post parts one, two, and three as well. In case anyone would like to read them over and sort of get up to date on the project. Prior I grew corals from my main 450 gallon system which was a multizone reef. I slowly converted sections of the display to grow out tanks. After working with that for about 1.5 years I decided to add a small room on to my home to concentrate my efforts and dedicate tanks to specific kinds of coral. You can catch it all in the post. J To anyone further interested I have documented the beginning phases on my site as well. Here is a link, you will have to register though L http://www.thesea.org/captivesystems/coral...arm/default.asp follow the farm project menu to the left. blane

720 Gallon Project Update Part Four This is part of a series covering the trials and tribulations of the home coral farm. Not many things happened over the Holidays, time constraints, bills J This is an update of changes that had to be made to the Zoanthus System that I covered last time. Some of the changes are minor but provide some new Ideas. On of the first problems I encountered was with the way I mounted the lights. I Did use standard PVC to extend the cable outward to suspend the fixture more Towards the middle of the tank. Pressure held the PVC section against the wall. On a few occasions it fell and the PVC tubs fell in the tank hitting the fixture On the way down. I purchased PVC end caps and screwed them into the wall, And mounted the PVC tube into the end cap. Next area of concern was the lighting itself. Above you can see I had to lower The lights considerably from the first post. Originally since I have incorporated Natural light I felt any artificial light needed would be minimum. After attempting A power quad above the Zoanthus I was still not able to get the colors I obtained Under MH’s with no natural light. I moved to a VHO hood with four 4 foot bulbs. Two actinic, and two daylight. I had started the fixture about 14 inches above the Tank with a photo period of 8 hours, the change made a very minimal impact in the Coloration. I then (pictured above) lowered the fixture to 7 inches above the water Surface, raised the shelf two inches and increased the photo period to 12 hours. While I am seeing a positive progression of more intense colors the fixture is Now so low it has really become cumbersome to work around and I have decided To sell it and purchase two PFO 250 watt pendants Another area of concern is current. I have seen a few farms operate on air lifts Constructed of PVC and air pumps to generate current and on my visit the corals Seemed healthy so it appeared to be enough. Originally I connected a 360 Ocean Current rotating head to a Mag 7 via PVC and connected that right to the side of The tank. With the density of the zoos and heavy feeding I am coming up with Problematic algae. I’m sure I will have to increase the current in the tank Considerably. I think if the vessel were smaller the Ocean Currents Head would Be fine, but it is undersized for this installation, and adding more will interfere With working around the corals. The last modification is the shelving. I had the shelves for the zoos drilled With holes at O.D. about 2 inches apart. This turned out to be a large mistake Because I was just not able to get enough in the tank. I had previously grown In small 40 gallon break out systems and was getting more with the old Rack which were one inch apart. I had some new shelves made and hope to Use the ones I have no elsewhere. In addition to the spacing another area I Changed was the rack itself. From the original post and the photo below You can see I made a rack to keep the two shelves next to each other at An equal height. I did the exact same thing in my previous tanks and it Worked fine. With this round tub however, since there is no turn over It seemed to add to poor circulation so I rebuilt the rack to make the Shelves at two different heights.