CaptCrash Broodstock system 2 (old grow out)

Well the time has come to get a reasonable grow out system.
Up to this point in time, I have used a 4' tank divided in two for grow out and large RBT's.
At this point im doing a 50% water change on these every two days.  Its a lot of cleaning, lots of work and I need to make this simpler so I can expand.
Each half has an air powered sponge filter a heater and some air stones.
RBTs are vacuumed every two - three days, with 1-4L of water changed every 2-3 days depending on water condition.
 
This all works but needs to improve to allow for more grow out.
 
A few weeks ago, I was able to purchase a rack of second hand tanks.  This gives me an additional 10 tanks 2'Lx1'Wx1.5'H approx for grow out. And two additional tanks for brood stock.
This came with the majority of plumbing required, some heaters and wooden racks.
I also separately purchased a secondhand return pump 16,000lph, 2 x skimmers (2200L rated each, 1 as backup) and a 1.5hp chiller.
 
Total cost so far is as follows
10 x 2'Lx1'Wx1.5'H Tanks and stands plus 1 x 3'x2'x2' approx $150.00
100L of Bio balls for Tower, $50.00
16,000lph return pump, $220.00
2 x Skimmers $240.00 ($110 and $130)
1 x 1.5hp Chiller $200.00
3 x 300w heaters $90.00
2 x 200L tubs for sumps (existing parts)
Paint for stands (primer was used from existing, new paint) $100.00
1 x massive amount of pluming $425.00
1 x UV for system $250
2 x swabbie's (skimmer neck cleaners) $120 ea
1 x skim mate locker (skim mate with level sensor for my aquarium controller) $130
8 x Strainers to fit 5 Gal/20L drums $50
4 x Additional probe set for Aquarium controller $350
2 x Additional power bars for Aquarium controller $750 
12 x Air filters, bubblers, airline, check valves, mag cleaners etc $500
Total cost (so far) $4,100.00 
 
Done so far
1. Clean and run skimmers in vinegar bath
2. Reorganization of garage  to fit additional tanks
3. Sand and repair stands
4. Prime and Paint
5. Clean return pump
6. Order and install foam for stands
7. Sparky to install new GPO outlets 
8. Clean all tanks inside and out 
9. Paint the outside of tanks (paint and rollers were less than $20.00) 
10. build and install return plumbing
11. build and install drain plumbing
12. Build a tower for Bioballs
13. Clean 2nd hand bio balls
14. Install and setup Lights for first 4 tanks
15. 8 of 13 tanks running
16. Install Air Filters into each tank
17. Fish moved in
18. Install and setup of lights for tanks 5-8, includes building a support for the Lights.
 
Still to do
1. Build Support for return pipes 
2. Drill plastic Sump for overflow
3. Clean out old sump and relocate
4. Install UV system
5. Make platform for external skimmer
6. finalize plumbing for all 11 tanks rather than 8 running tanks
7. setup controller components for water monitoring, ATO etc
8. setup UV system
9. setup new sump
10. setup return line for 16,000lph
11. extend existing air line for other tanks to new system
12. 9,000,000 other tasks
13. ...
14. profit! (well probably not)
 
Other projects to be built/developed
1. DIY auto feeders for during the day feeding with common electronics for control, target cost of $20 - $25 per unit
2. Common Auto Top Off for breeder and grow out systems
3. Common salinity management for breeder and grow out systems (allowing for controlled water changes of both systems)
4. Common chilled "Sump" to allow 1 chiller with separate systems.  Idea is to use the Top Up hopper as a water storage system, with isolated piping from each system (breeder and  grow out) to provide heat transfer.  In the mean time, separate chillers are to be used until the concept can be proved.

Need pictures!  Sounds great!  I love that you included prices too, helps newbies understand cost.  It's good for those who think raising fish is cheap too!  :p

Spend a bit of time over the weekend, cleaning up the stands.
 
So far I have replaced two of the tank supports and a leg that was water damaged from spare wood that I had in the shed.
This involved quite a bit of work, pulling the stands apart, repairing them and reassembly.
 
One of the two stands has now been fully sanded, primed and painted.
The last step I am going to take is to seal the bottom 6" of each leg in PLA plastic.  This should protect the legs from any spills/overflows that occur.

I have also completed my first set of autofeeder modifications for the grow out tanks.
The grow out tanks are now being feed small amounts of dry food five times a day.
 
The modifications involved taking some existing autofeeders that I had an making smaller hopper's and openings for them.  I used my 3D printer to make adjustible hoppers.
 
I also have made up a grinder setup with a ceramic salt grinder and a battery powered variable speed drill, funnel and stand.  This allows me to adjust the size of the pellet and flake food to be appropriate to the size of the fish.
 
One of the difficulties I have been having is getting appropriate sized food for the fish.  In the end I have resorted to grinding my own from larger pellets and then sorting it by size with sieves.
It seems to be working well so far.  The fish in grow out seem to be responding well to being feed more oftern in smaller amounts.
 
Water quality is getting worse in grow out, but I think this is more to do with the volume of larger fish rather than the feeding change.  The sooner I can get the new tanks up and running with better filtration, the lower the amount of work I will need to be doing each day.

Sounds good, need pics! 

What 3D printer are you using?  Sounds very interesting.  I'd like to hear more.  Pros / cons.  Give us a review, please!

I've got a Thing-o-matic from Makerbot. It prints with melted plastic (think a bit like a hot glue gun) with a moveable platform and z axis. It puts down plastic layer after layer to make complex shapes.

It's good for making little components, brackets, pipe holders etc.

The products from Makerbot are not to bad, though it does take quite a bit of tinkering and adjustment to keep it working. It is good fun modeling something and then printing it.
If you enjoy tinkering they are useful, but if you just want to be able to turn it on and have it work, it's probably got a bit to go.

A new model has just been released called "the replicator". This looks to be an improvement, I'm not sure if I'll upgrade or not.
If you search YouTube you can see some examples of what it can do.
 
Pro's

• Its great fun to need a thing, design it and print it in a few minutes/hours.
• Being able to fix or modify parts
• Upgrades are ongoing with the technology from both a hardware and software point of view
• Other users can make improvements to the open source hardware and software
• Printing material is fairly cost effective, even large parts cost less than a few dollars to make.
• Finished piece is easy to work with, eg can be sanded, drilled etc
• Strong parts (similar material to Lego) PLA or ABS can be used

 
Con's

• Learning to design within its constraints (eg: support need for shapes that overhang) takes time and experience
• Build size is limited to about 10cm cube (4")
• Its a DIY kit, so you need to put it together and this takes a while (1-2 days) and the quality of the result is up to you
• Cost of the kit is significant (latest model is about US$2000 but comes assembled)
• Fine detail is limited unless you spend a lot of time and effort in tuning your printer (adjusting software setting's)
• Thin parts can be a challenge (eg walls under 2mm thick)

A great example of where its good is as follows
A few months ago, I broke hot water tap nut at about 1-2am.
Within 30 minutes I was able to measure the cold tap nut, design a replacement in google sketchup and print it.
So far its been about three months and its working fine.  The nut is an odd shape, basically a hex nut with a 1/2 inverted dome on one side.
I checked the other nuts on the taps in the house and two others that were high use were also cracked, so I replaced them as well the next day.
This is the sort of thing that it does really well, small parts with simple designs.
 
If you enjoy electronics, mechanical stuff etc, then its great.
If you want the equivalent of a laser printer, print and it works, then its not quite there yet.

I'll be taking some pictures soon, once I've got both stands cleaned up and painted. So far one done, one to go.

Well a bit of a disaster last night, I was cleaning tanks standing on a salt bucket, slipped tore about 1/2 of the pad off of the toe from the joint on my left foot.
 
So this will probably slow down my next lot of progress for a week or two.

Ouch! That just sounds painful.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Ow…Ow…Ow...
 
My adorable husband bought me a stepstool for my birthday.  I love him.

I got some more progress done on the grow out system over the weekend.
 
Both stands are now painted, the have plastic boots painted on the bottom to keep water away.
 
Most of the tanks have had an old paint removed from the outside and have fresh new paint on them.  I have three to go, plus one to correct as I painted the front not the back.
 
I am going to go with new plumbing, as on going through the plumbing that came with it, its a bit small.  20mm pipes for both water and drain, does not really allow for much water flow.
 
I am going to use 40mm pipe with 20mm reducers per tank and a separate 40mm drain for each row.
 
The only plumbing that I will end up re-using is the item in the tanks.
The plus here is that there are a good selection of stand pipe lengths, drilled or slotted drain pipes, pipes with cut outs covered in with mesh (two different sizes) and lots of fittings to go with all of this. 
 
Overall Im happy with the changes I have decided to make.

I made a lot of progress this week end, with both stands now all most complete.
 
The small stand is setup with 2 x 2'Lx1.5'Wx1.5'H tanks on the top row and 1 x 4'x2'x2' on the bottom row.
These both drain into a plastic sump with the bio ball tower and skimmer in it.
Water is returned to the 4x2x2 with a temporary return pump.
 
I have been adding water from the existing grow out tanks to get it cycled and feed the bio balls.

The skimmer has been working like a trouper.  Its rated for 2200L and I should have about 1500L
If required I can add the second 2200L skimmer and move the existing one to an external setup.
 

 
Pictured is the plastic sump holding the bio ball tower, skimmer, temporary return pump and temporary clear return lines.
Once I have the other tanks cleaned out and their drains returning to the plastic sump, I will be able to switch to the 16,000L/h pump (existing 5000L/h unit will be removed).
 
The return plumbing was a bit complex, as Im going to use a 4' tank that is currently being used as a grow out tank for the main sump.
I test fitted the return plumbing in place in pieces, then glued it together outside.

 
Water will enter from the bottom right in this picture.
All plumbing is 40mm pipe, with verticals joining the top and bottom rows for support and to ensure reasonable pressure equalization (hopefully).
Each tank has its own 19mm line, taps will be installed on each line to tune the water flow to the individual tanks. 
There are separate 25mm lines for the chiller, skimmer and the bio ball tower, taps are or will be installed on each line to tune the water flow.
The skimmer and bio ball tower drain to the plastic sump, the chiller will drain to the glass sump.
There will be an additional line run along the top of the glass sump to support GFO and Carbon reactor's and lines for an algae turf scrubber.

The plastic sump will have 2 x 40mm bulk heads installed to cascade via filter socks into the glass sump (yet to be installed).
The glass sump will hold macro algae, perhaps some live rock, heaters, level sensor, Probes for aquarium controller and the return pump.
 

Excluding the chaos that is going on around the tanks, Im fairly happy with the result so far.
 
With any luck I may have this finished and up and running next weekend.

This is the first time I have used bio balls.  I did a bit of reading and this is what I came up with.
 
The Bio ball tower is currently made of 5 levels (Im going to add one or two more).
 
The middle three level's (levels 2-4) are made of a plastic box with large diameter holes (9 x 80mm) drilled in the bottom.  A layer of egg crate is then placed over the holes and the box filled with bio balls.  These layers are "rained on" from the layer above.
 
The bottom level (level 1) has 3 additional holes drilled around the bottom of each side of the container (9x 80mm bottom, 12 x 80mm sides).  An egg crate platform was then constructed to ensure that bio balls were raised above the bottom of the container.  The container was then filled with bio balls. This container is permanently submerged.
 
The top level (level 5) container has 9x 80mm holes in the base.  Egg crate is used to support layers of filter material, moving from fine at the bottom to course at the top.
Water flows in at the top, through the course filter material and is dispersed about the tower.
 
My final enhancements include adding an additional level of bio balls (or two) and wrapping the entire structure with a core flute plastic cover to reduce light and splashing.
 
If anyone has any comments or suggestions, that would be great.
My Bio Tower is being feed from my return pump, so hopefully the filter material will remain relatively clean.
All of the drains from tanks feed to the sump via 100um filter socks.  These will be changed every 1-2 days with clean ones.

I am soooo jealous that you have sunshine and green plants outside right now!  I have 10" of snow, and it is -16C out there today.
 
Your system looks great.  Are you going to add some tubing or PVC or something on the return lines?  Have you considered adding a flat filter pad to the top of the top level in your bioball tower?  Coralife has media called Pure-Flo that is flat, washable, cut to size (two different dimensions to start with too), and available in 50-300 microns I think the range is.  It is also cheap.    AquaMaxx and AquaticLife make these filter pads too.

Yup, its been really nice here for a few weeks now.  Between about 28 and 32C.
 

Yup, each one will have some tubing, a tap then some more tubing so that water enters at about the water level in each tank.
 

This is similar to the fine filter media I have on the bottom of the top level.  I have then put some course filter material over it.
My thinking was that I could then get rid of the course stuff regularly and extend the life of the fine.
However after seeing how cheap the fine stuff is, its probably not that much of an issue.

Washable media (like filter socks) doesn't go in the landfill. 

Good point, it can get washed with the filter socks.

Nice! 
What fish are you planning on breeding?!

 
This system is for grow out of the fish I have breeding now and are regularly past settlement.
Amphiprion clarkii
Amphiprion frenatus (tomato clown)
Amphiprion percula
Amphiprion melanopus (cinnamon clown)
 
Im hopeful that I can also get my pairs/groups of the following to breed
2 x pairs Amphiprion ocellaris
4 x pairs Amphiprion ocellaris Darwin Black
1 x pair Amphiprion percula (Picasso)
1 x pair Amphiprion percula (Onyx)
1 x pair Amphiprion sandaracinos (pink skunk clown)
2 x pairs Pseudochromis fridmani (orchid dottyback), some spawns but no hatches
1 x pair Synchiropus picturatus (spotted mandarin)
1 x pair Pterapogon kauderni (Banggai cardinalfish) soon to be a few more.
I also have the following shrimp
Lysmata boggessi (Peppermint Shrimp), many spawns and hatches but no settlement
Lysmata amboinensis (Red Line Cleaner Shrimp), many spawns and hatches but no settlement
Lysmata debelius (Blood Shrimp), one spawn and hatch but no settlement
 
and may be at some time in the future
Paracanthurus hepatus (Blue Tang/Regal Tang), many spawns and hatches but no settlement
Chromis viridis (Blue Green Chromis), many spawns and hatches but no settlement
 
Its quite a big list when you list them all out.

I now have this system up and running with four tanks full of grow out fish.
 
Each tank has one of the following species
Amphiprion clarkii
Amphiprion frenatus (tomato clown)
Amphiprion percula
Amphiprion melanopus (cinnamon clown)
Im still using some temporary plumbing for the return, as until I have most of the tanks complete the 16,000lph pump will be too much flow (im using a 5,000lph temporary pump).
 
Its working really well so far, its much easier to clean and manage so thats great.

With the latest few batches of clowns, I have been a bit short on artemia and Im running out of room in my algae cupboard for doing more batches.
So I built something a little bigger ...

It holds 20L plus of water (im limiting it to 20l in case it leaks), allowing me to do larger batches of artemia and moving them to the other end of the garage.
 

Other than some dodgy gluing by me, it was quick and easy to build and seems to work well so far (12 hours).

Quite a while ago I converted this grow out system to my second broodstock system.  The grow out of fish was moved to another location and a partner is now doing the grow out of fish for me.
 
I have added a second bank of tanks to this system giving a total of
 
10 x 2'x1'x1' tanks (600mm x 370mm x 380mm)
1 x 3'x2'x2' tank
8 x 2'x2'x1.5' tanks
2 x 4x1.5'x1'
plus two sumps (1 x 4x1.5'x1' and 1 x 3'x2'x1.5')
 
The larger tanks in this system seem to be wasted and I am thinking about splitting them in two with a divider.
 
Currently they look like

The current negatives with these tanks are
1. Volume is more than is required
2. Flow through the tank is not great and draining is slow so I need to keep the water flow low
3. Surface skimming is not great.
 
The changes I am considering are
 
Option 1

This looks like it will be harder build and the vertical piece may need to be two pieces, plus the overflow would need to be two pieces.
It will allow me to use strainers in the overflow.
Cleaning in the overflow and should be reasonably easy, under it will be more difficult.
I will drill one or two additional drains (giving two or three).
 
Option 2

 
This looks to be the easier in terms of work to build, in that it is two pieces of glass per tank and the shape would seem to be simple to cut.
I am concerned about the ability to clean the overflow and not being able to put strainers on the overflows
I will drill one or two additional drains (giving two or three).
 
Does anyone have any suggestions or comments on these changes?

I too had considered an angled overlfow, but have the same reservations that you do.  On one hand, less fabrication; on the other, more difficult to maintain.  You could use some mesh like Gutter Guard, or a similar product to cover the overflow.  I think 3 drains would be good for allowing better movement on water quantity and surface skimming. 

Maintenance should take priority, IMO You only have to build the tank once, you will be cleaning it frequently.

- Brandon AKA Jedi Knight

A bit of an update, I had turned the temps down at the end of last year with the string of issues that I had been having, the enthusiasm was not there so I was only feeding once a day.
Around the end of last year once I got back from some holidays, I turned the temps up on the breeding systems and started to feed the fish more heavily again.

The last two weeks have been great with good sized nests from the following pairs

A. percula, (Percula clown) first nest from a new pair as the old female passed, so the old male transitioned to female and a new male was introduced.
A. frenatus (Tomato clown) two nests in January from the single pair. The first nest was eaten, the second should hatch tonight
A. ocellaris, (Ocellaris Clown) two pairs have nested, one twice in January the other once. Should be a hatch tonight or tomorrow.
A. melanomas (Fire Clown) first nest in January from this pair
A. ephippium, (Red Saddleback) first nest from this pair. Most fry passed within 24 hours, but its their first nest so hopefully that will get better.
A. clarkii (Clarkii clownfish) They did produce a batch in the month but ate it within a few hours
P. hepatus, (Blue Tang) the tangs are spawning like troopers, the large female is reliable every second day, the smaller female about every 3-4 days.
C. viridis, (Blue/Green Chromis) the chromes are spawning intermittently but about every 12-15 days.

In terms of shimps, I have a large batch of L. amboinensis (Red Lined Cleaner Shrimp) on the go, at about 20 days now (only 9,438,983 days to go or so it feels).
I have also had two batches of peppermint shrimps and another of Red Lined Cleaner Shimp that didn't last very long (48 hours ish)

Fish that haven't resumed spawning at this stage are
Pseudochromis diadema (Diadema Dottyback) new pairing
Pseudochromis flavivertex (Sunrise Dottyback) two new pairs
Pseudochromis aldabraensis (Neon Dottyback) grumpy grumpy fish!
A. rubrocinctus (Australian clownfish/Red Anemonefish) cleaning like crazy but nothing yet
Dragonetts (both pairs)

Im really happy that the bulk of the spawning pairs have resumed laying so quickly, I would guess between 4-5 weeks so thats not too bad, I was sort of expecting a few months.

Stay up to date with my breeding efforts:
Regal Tang RegalTangBreeding
Mccullochi Clownfish MccullochiClownfishBreeding 

Looks like you've been busy!

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

 
Not really, I just turned up the temps and then fed some more.  The fish on the other hand, lets just say I know whats in the water at my place, eew.
 
Just walked outside to see a second A. percula pair laying their first batch this year.  So thats two lots of percs
I think Im going to be busy over the next few weeks, might start a couple more buckets of Rots just in case.
 

Stay up to date with my breeding efforts:
Regal Tang RegalTangBreeding
Mccullochi Clownfish MccullochiClownfishBreeding 

 
Kudos to you for taking on the tangs.  Good luck.  I also think your facebook entries are very well done.  I couldn't open any of the links to magazine articles on tang culture, they all came up as "page not found".  Do you have any other links that might work for me?

Hi Dave, thanks for pointing that out.  I have added a comment to the Facebook page with some details as follows
 
"Update with the URL, you now need to sign in to view the article with Reef Hobbyist Magazine. Its free! The article starts in Q4 2012 and finishes in Q1 2013.  The URL is http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/archives.php "

Stay up to date with my breeding efforts:
Regal Tang RegalTangBreeding
Mccullochi Clownfish MccullochiClownfishBreeding