Trial Run Hatchery

[Scottt]

This thread is to document a small scale hatchery. The idea is to form a model of a true scale hatchery. If it becomes monetarily prolific, the garage space will be turned into a 40pair fish farm.

Special thanks go to: Chau(zook), for his dedication to the topic, and his constant tutoring. Jeremy(milliman69), for his extreme generosity. Mike(Mike A) for N. oculata and Rotifers. Greg Tomko, Gary Tomko, and Sarah Petrucci, for their help and input every day; its as much theirs as it is mine.

Here are a few random (and old) pics. I'll try to document more in the future.

[Scottt]

7/24

The tank was leak tested. The sump leaked, new sump Monday.

[lance]

good luck keep us posted

lance

[Clownfish75]

Looks good Scott

If you havent gotten the sump yet, a plastic one would be even better than glass.

Christian

[zook]

The RBTs (round black tubs) seem to work very well as a sump or rearing space for many many people. Ya.

[Scottt]

Thanks for the advice guys. I picked up a 50g plastic RBT (stock tank) from tractor supply today. I'll post pics as soon as I get it plumbed in.

[Scottt]

Still Have a lot of plumbing to do. But, to set me back even further, I just picked up 20 20gallon tanks. They need a stand and plumbing too.

[Scottt]

August 1st 2009
I got a good deal on 20 20gallon tanks during the week, so I picked them up Thursday. Here are a few pics of the garage from this afternoon.

The system will consist of:
180g broodstock. (2x 20g, 2x 30g, 2x 40g sections of a 180 oceanic)
200 to larval rearing, 10x 20g tanks split in half with fine mesh (making 20x 10g 1'x1' sections)
345g growout (so far). Its 10x 20 g tanks, 1x 90g, and 1x55g. I'll need another 100 gallons or so to store the predicted juveniles (to 4 months of age).
50g sump.
275g ro-di resevoir
Serious algal scrubbing and protein skimming.

[Scottt]

August Second, 2009 (which means absolutely nothing)

Is 200 gallons per hour enough flow for 100 gallons of broodstock water?

[Scottt]

A few more

[Scottt]

Your thoughts and input are greatly appreciated.

[Scottt]

August 9th.
The broodstock system has C2O (saltwater) and is running!
I picked up a 275g bucket back when I was in Myrtle Beach. It moved up north with me.
Here's one of the bucket on the car:

08-09c.jpg

Greg had this RODI unit, it made 200g in around 30hrs.

08-09a.jpg

200g RODI water, with 6gallons (ish) of instant ocean. Came out to about 2.0 (26.6ppt). I think I'm going to run the system between there and 28ppt. I have to re-read Hoff's clownfish book, he mentions the salinity Instant Ocean hatcheries ran at. What do you guys keep your salinity at?

08-09d.jpg

[Clownfish75]

It looks like your doing very well there.

I have never quite understood how y ou guys in the USA make seawater and dont send yourselves broke.

When do you expect to get some fish into it?

Christian

[Scottt]

Thanks for commenting Christian. I'm going to let it heat up to ambient temp for a couple of days, then add heaters. Live rock and sand, along with seasoned sponge filters in tomorrow, Fish in a week or so.

What does a 5gallon bucket of artificial sea salt cost in Australia? Its about 50USD, ~59AUD . My goal is to have large algal scrubbers and do few water changes. It is expensive; but when you live 4hrs from the ocean...

What do you use?

[Scottt]

August 9th again, I must have had the date wrong last time.

Got a little wiring done.

The algae scrubbing lights (12 T8's)

08-09a.jpg

Way to many wires

09-09d.jpg

And it worked the first try!

08-09b.jpg

[Scottt]

The fish are in. 3 orchid dottybacks (pseudochromis fradmani), a pair of false percs (Amphiprion Ocelaris), a true perc (A. percula), and another A. Ocelaris with a gill injury (actually a bight). What can you do for a fish who has been bitten? Other than keep them separate (he's got his own 20g now)?

The scientific names are phonetic, sorry.

[Clownfish75]

Hi Scott

Might i suggest the wireing and ballasts you have for your fuge lighting, put it all in a box as tha location i give you 6 months before you get tingles from the tank. And they will be horrible to move when they have salt spray on them, not to mention it is rather dangerous like that.

One think i have learnt about these fish setups and electricity keep them well appart, if it can happen it will, I think electricity is magnetic to sea salt!!!

also cover up the holes in the sides of your power boxes this will stop the internals corroding from the humid air.

Christian

[Scottt]

Will do, thanks for the adivce

[Scottt]

8-11
I have yet to box in the ballasts. I checked, and theirs pretty much 0.0 volts between the water and the ground (so I'm in the green for a few more days).

Here is a general picture of the fish in their new home. The center sections are waiting for larger species (maroon clowns and a harem of bengaii cardinals).

08-11a.jpg

The algal scrubbing sump is a bit bright.
You can't really see it, but I put a plexi-glass roof over the electrical section.

[jadeguppy]

It was suggest to me to put silicone over the ends of wire nuts to keep the salt and humidity out. That is what a lot of people do on their boats around here. The system is looking good.

[Scottt]

Jade,
I really like that idea. Quick, easy, and effective. Thanks!

[jadeguppy]

Glad I could help. I hope to do what you are doing sometime in the not so distant future. However, my son is only 5 so kicking him out to use his room for a fish hatchery isn't going to go over very well right now.

[Scottt]

, he might be a little upset. If space was an issue, you could breed just 1 pair; or something with fewer eggs. Or, have someone else do the growout (that's the space consuming part).

[Scottt]

Aug 16th 09

Trying out Martin Moe's techniques for remembering when you are doing a water change. I'll have to try the Coffee cup around the neck and film container on a string around the ear. The duct tape wasn't noticeable enough, I still almost overflowed the sump.


Installed a linear air pump today. I've used it for about a year on various algae culturing and fish related projects. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it looks like:

35 watts.


Here's my first air manifold. The Valves are from Florida Aqua Farms. If I recall correctly, the brass ones are $1.70, plastic $0.90. I thought I'd try both. The Brass ones are harder to thread into the pipe, but are much nicer to work with. I'm going to buy only brass in the future. The holes were drilled with a 5/16" bit, and tapped with a 1/8 national pipe thread (npt) tap.
Anthony Calfo, if you read this; every time I see a towel in the fish room, I think of your zoanthid stories.


A view of the air-stones installed. The air pump will have a battery back up soon. In case of power failure, the airstones will supply water movement, oxygen, and denitrification, as they wash over the sponge filters.


The Amphiprion Ocellaris from Chris in Clifton Park, NY (they are a very nice almost red color)


The beginning of a complete temperature control module for the garage. Greg has had some micro-controller experience. So we are going to set this unit up to control the AC, exhaust fan (3 speeds), ebo jager heater,evaporitive cooling fans, and a duct between the garage and fish room. It will also have a kill switch for the lights if it gets too hot in there. Later we will also use this controller for the waste-oil heater. It has 6 temp sensors: 2 in the broostock tank, 1 outside, 1 in the fish room, 1 in the garage, and one in the sump.

[Scottt]

Aug 19th

I found a Moe-reminder that works for me:

Finally got a drip acclimation line in. Used a plastic airline valve & tubing. I had a fish that was in a hospital tank and needed to be re-acclimated to the broodstock tank. The drip worked perfect. So much easier than adding a half a cup every 15mins.