My new Growout system build

I have plans to add a new fish rack to the fish room for growout. I have room to do 12 20 gallons and 2 16 gallon BRT's.  I am debating on if I should put all of the tanks on 1 system or two.  I would use a 125 for a sump if they all were on one system.  I would use either two 40 breeders or 75's if they were on two. 
 
1 system would be nice since it would be less new equipment for me to buy but two systems would be nice in case of a disease outbreak or something funky happening to the system.  What would you do?  I plan to raise or am raising now various clown fish species, royal grammas, orchid dottybacks, Bangaii cardinals and possible some others. 
 
Thanks, the tanks are planned to be ordered next week.

Wow! That's a lot of space! As you saw at my place I'm a fan of multiple systems for the sake of redundancy. You'll save money by having only one system but if you have a problem you run the risk of losing everything. Looking forward to seeing your plan and pics. 

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

TWO systems. Split up, diversify the risk.

Thanks Guys
How much flow do you think should go through each tank?  I was thinking a min of 100 gph. 

Do you have pics of your current setup?  Your target fish are what I'm interested in as well.

http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tm.aspx?m=77002

Well the build has begun. I decided to go with two systems on one rack.  The plan is for each side to be same.  There will be 6 20's and 1 40 breeder tied to a 75 gallon sump.  I am only going to build one side at first.  Run the system for a little while and see if I like it.  If I do I will add the second side in a couple of months.  The stand is 3/4's done.  I couple more braces and it will be completed.  Then I will start plumbing it, adding baffles to the sump and getting the air system ready to go.  The whole thing is a little big for the area I had to work with but I think I will get used to it.  Here are a couple of quick pictures.
 

 

Otherwise all the weight is being held up by screws, which isn't a great idea.

Thanks for the suggestion, I still have a couple of supports to add to finish it up. I put the tanks on to make sure everything fit as intended.   I have a center support which is under the 2x6's which is going to take a lot of the weight as well.  Everything is lag bolted with 3/8" diameter lag bolts, dry wall screws were used just to temporarily hold it all together while I installed the lag bolts.

If you haven't drilled the tanks yet, and your stand design allows it, consider drilling the bottoms.  I will do this on my next build.  When I do waterchanges I pull the standpipe out and the tank drains to the sump down to the elbow (my tanks are front drilled) which I then use the return pump (with a T in it) to pump it out to a drain.  If the tanks were bottom drilled it would suck more detritus down and make life easier. 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

That's a good idea.  These are drilled already but I drilled them half way down so I could do water changes that way or have the option to run the tanks half full if needed.

Oh, now that I look real close I can see you have them drilled. 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

So I bought a cubic foot of k1 media for the filtration. Should I use the whole cubic foot for the 140 gallons of growout or is that overkill?

1 cubic foot of k1 is rated for about 125 gram of food per day.

"50 Litres of K1 media will handle up to 250 grammes of food per day"
Thats coming from the pond guys i have no idea how well it works in saltwater, i would assume the same

Love the photos.  I use lag bolts when I can't fit 2x4 supports directly under the stand too.  I'm a big fan of polyurethane construction adhesive in the joints too, if you can.
 
1/2 a cubic foot of the K1 should work.  That's about the ratio of K1 to tank volume I use with good results.  Just make sure to have proper aeration. It never hurts to have a larger biofilter if it fits though.
 
It's been a while since I've done the math, but if you have say 1,400fish in 140gal that weight about a gram a piece, you'll have 1.4kg of fishes.  You shouldn't need to feed them more then 5% of their weight daily, or 70g/day.  1/2cuft K1 should take that out if the feed rate is consistent, DO is high enough, and it's tumbling properly. 
 
You'll want lots and lots of air if you feed that much though, and >75% water changes about every 4 days.  With plenty of buffer to keep the pH up.

Well I got all the plumbing and the sump built.  I water tested the system and found one sump leak and one pvc fitting leaking.  I am working on fixing those.  Hopefully it will be filled with saltwater by the end of the week and I can move over the first few fish.  I have seeded sponge filters ready and running on a couple of tanks of fish that I plan to move over.  I will gradually add more to the system every couple of weeks. 

The sump has three chambers.  One for the skimmer, one for cheato and one for a K1 media filter.  I am using a mag 18 for a return pump.  I may back it down to a mag 12 but I am not sure yet.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Looks good!

o I got more of the system running tonight.  The sump is pretty much done.  The first chamber is the k1 media filter.  It is powered with a maxijet 1200 power head and an  air stone.  The middle chamber is a fuge for cheato and the last chamber is for the skimmer.  I went with the new Skimz DC pump SM163 skimmer.  The pump is controllable with 6 different speeds.  It should be interesting to see how well it works.  I currently have the same skimmer with the normal AC pump so I can try to compare how the two work. 



Here are some other pictures of the tanks that are setup and running.





Full system shot

Are the tanks with the sponge filters also draining into the sump? If so, what is your reasoning behind having the sponges in there too?

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

I am currently using the sponges to seed the new filter as they were running already. I like to run them also as a backup in case the sump runs dry, pump fails etc. They also are convient when I need to start another tank for some reason. Just move the filter and you have a new tsnk running. I can also shut the tank off from the main system and nor have to worry about how I need to filter it.

Cool, I was just curious. I toss my sponge filters into the sump after I'm done using them in hatch/larval tanks. 

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

Nice system!   I miss this hobby...

Thanks,
I now have the whole side running and started on the second side.  I have the full air system and manifold running.  I also had a local guy build some sweet acrylic tops for all my 20 gallon tanks.  They are helping with evaporation and water spray from the sponge filters.  The system is running pretty nice but the nitrates are starting to creep up a little bit.  I started vodka dosing so hopefully that will help it out.  The Chaeto in the sump is not enough to keep up with the nitrates.  Here are some pictures.
 

 

 

 

 

I took a quick video of the system. Just need to add the 40 breeder and everything is up and going.

https://www.youtube.com/w...e=youtube_gdata_player

Looking great, hows the nitrates doing? I have 8 15gal tanks going on my growout and also using the Kaldnes K1 media and two gallons of Sea Chem Matrix whiich seem to be working well for me

The nitrates are a little high.  I am vodka dosing which seems to be helping but it does not seem like it is enough. 
 
How do you like the Sea Chem media?  Are you running it is a reactor?  I have never heard of it before and it looks pretty interesting.  I was thinking about possibly putting a bio pellet reactor on.  Not sure yet which one but I will need something additionally.

I've had good resualts with the Matrix and also use it on the brood stock system heres a link to where I buy it
 
http://www.amazon.com/Water-Garden-Oasis-2119-Matrix/dp/B000R31KH2/ref=pd_sim_petsupplies_68

Isn't matrix just like liverock ? a porous material with "alleged" deep nitrogenous processing properties

Nice progress. What size air blower are you using and  how many times have you "tapped" into it?

I have this one the DAPMH20.  Currently I have 14 outlets and I am bleeding of some air. I would guess I can get 3-5 more on it.   Its quiet and works very well.  I had the linear piston pumps in the past and they are amazing.  If I need more outlets I would go back to this type of pump.   They can also be found on the jehmco website.  I have never used a blower as I have never needed that many outlets
 
http://www.jehmco.com/html/diaphragm_air_pumps.html#DAPMH8-15

Here's a couple of photos of the setup now that it has been running for a while.  I still have some more improvements I want to make.  I am looking into adding some UV sterilizers.  Does anyone have a suggestion on a good brand, wattage and flow for system my size?  Each side is around 140 gallons.  I have Mag 18's for return pumps.