New Breeding Set-up

[JamisonSmith]

Hello all,

Thought I would share some of the work in the basement that I have been working on over the past few weeks. When all is completed I hope to have room for 4 broodstock pairs, tanks for larva, growout tanks and a phyto, rotifer and brine shrimp culture station. Finally organizing the basement (slowly) to make it slightly easier feed the larva and maintain water quality.
I need to increase the size of the drain tube as the water flowing into the tanks has to be throttled down quite a bit or else it starts to back-up in the tanks.

Not sure how to add pics in the thread, but pictures are on my gallery.

Let me know if you have any comments.

Take care,

Jamison

[aomont]

Hi Jamison,
What are the size of the tanks you have there ? Any species already in mind ?
Keep us posted to see how you'll be going !
Anderson.

[David M]

Open your photo, at the bottom you will see "use this in IMG tag", copy it and come back here. Post reply and hit IMG. Insert the link and your'e done. PITA compared to any other site I use :rolleyes:

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96422System_02.jpg

[JamisonSmith]

David,

Thanks for the tip, that is a real PITA. Hopefully, this works, there should be the images linked below. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for the set-up. Do you think a 2" drain will be adequate for drainage for: 3-20's and 2-10's, flow is medium. AThe 20's have 1" bulkheads and drains, the 10's have 1" bulkheads but are sized down to 1/2 standpipe in the tank.

aomont: I currently have a pair of Maroons regularly spawning, a pair of Ocellaris that should be laying eggs any time, a couple of pairs of Bangaii Cardinals and then a pair of Tomato clowns that are starting to exhibit pairing behavior. Hopefully I will be able to put all of these tanks to use soon.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96422System_04.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96422System_01.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96422System_03.jpg

[spk]

Jamieson,

Looking good.
I have a quick question for you. What is the size of the drain tubes and the return pipe to the sump?

Thanks

Steve

[spk]

Ok some other questions too please.

Your air supply, can you tell me how you have done this?

Thanks

Steve

[David M]

The 2" is more than adaquate to drain the 5 tanks, but why restrict the inside riser to 1/2" ? This could easily clog or get blocked. Also you would have better flow if you used a 'T' rather than a 90 at the bulkhead for the drains, one open end pointing upwards to vent. Also you are not really maximizing space by having that seperation between the tanks, but maybe you have no plans for expansion, I don't know.

[JamisonSmith]

SPK- The size of the drains from each tank is 1" and they all go into a 2" community drain that goes back to the sump. As for the airline feeds it is a manifold system that I made. Aquatic Ecosystems sells all of the parts. It is made from 1/2" PVC cut to the length needed, and then the valve is threaded into a saddle that is glued onto the PVC. I capped both ends and tapped one end with a arb fitting to supply the air in. I hope that this makes sense.

David- Again, great suggestions. I got the tanks years ago when a fish store was upgrading to acrylic and they came with the bulkheads that i am using. As time (and funds) permit I will go through and change all of the bulkheads to 1" and standpipes to 1". Some of the bulkheads that I have are 1" in size but the internal opening is 1/2"! I don't know why anyone would want this. On two larval rearing 10's I opted to go with a 1/2" as I thought it would keep the flow nice and low to ease placinf a sponge over the overflow and preventing larval fish from getting sucked into the overflow. Maybe I am off on this assumption.

I do hope to expand if needed at some point. All the tanks that I currently have are drilled on the back and I am contemplating re-drilling on the front at some point so that I can place them right next to each other. Right now it is just a matter of what i had and I am trying to get it together for leak testing as I am heading out to sea this week on a two-week research cruise.