Trial Run Hatchery

[Scottt]

-A pair of ocellaris Jeremy C gave me a couple months ago. Enjoying their new, and hopefully permanent location.
-I really shouldn't have live rock in their tank, but I like them to feel as comfortable as possible.


-10 week old A. percula from John (radiobot). They are about 5/8 of an inch long now.
-These were the first fry I ever raised.


-13 of the 17 20gallon tanks are now functioning in the row.
-The 180 is finally disconnected (its going to move to a sunny location to grow corals)


-The Dottybacks (P. fridmani), Banggai Cardials, and 2 pair of ocellaris made their way into the tanks on the left today. Along with the eggs from Tony A.'s percs.


-Standing on the new sump (old RODI reservoir) observing some ocellaris larvae who finally have a solid white band.
-I was always scared of an open drain, but tried a gutter anyways. Its spectacular! lol, just so convenient to work with.
-Check out the custom bent 2" delivery pipe (above my back). The slow bends add much less restriction than 90's or 45's.

[Scottt]

The 10week old A.percula pictured above are starting to get their second band! I'm glad to not have to wait a year. I wonder how long it will be before they start their 3rd band now

[radiobot01]

Any progression on the outside coral growout you were starting to work on? Anxious to hear how its going...

[Scottt]

No lol, Been busy getting the waste oil furnace finished. I think we are going to frame it next week though. I'll post pics when we do. It's going to just have plastic on it this winter, then glass next year. Things to do... We have access to a lot of free glass, so we're going to try to make our own vacuum insulated panes. But, there are too many things going on this fall/winter to do that now.

A little update as long as I'm posting. I screwed up my last 2 batches of eggs pretty good. The 1st one hatched a day early! It was right in the middle of my sump transition. I forgot to put a screen on the overflow a few days early as I normally do. The second batch I had in an area with too little diferentiation between daylight and darkness. I hatched them on day 10 with a blackout once I realized my mistake. ~30 hatched. Another set are supposed to hatch on the 29th.

[Scottt]

Finally started heating the garage/hatchery with an affordable fuel yesterday. For the past couple months I used propane to heat the garage, and 900watts of submersible electric heaters for the fish. The waste oil heater is now functional though!

This is a picture of it during the testing phase, about a month ago.

It still needs a little fine tuning, but has been operational for over 24 hours. Keeps the system at a nice even 80F. Theirs no better heating cost than Free!
Also, to suit my environmentalist needs, it uses an egr, keeping the combustion chamber over 2000F, for super complete burning. Has a steam scrubbed exhaust to boot! (most waste oil burners are dirty) If you want to make one yourself, I could send you designs.

[Scottt]

Just a little update for John
Finally got started on the greenhouse again; now that the snow is falling

Tidy'd up the holes a little:


Added some crushed rock for drainage


You can see the snow falling! It didn't stick till later.

Its a lot more fun getting the stone dropped in your truck than shoveling it into a wheel barrel

More to come this week, hopefully.

[Scottt]

A little update about the heater:
I circulate the water with a md-6 (tiny!).
To heat the fish system, I dropped a 50' coil of PEX in the sump, and run hot water through it.
Here's the pex in the sump (in the green doughnut). Its hard to get a good pick, the sump is packed!


Here's the connectors:
My first time using PEX, it was easier than I could have imagined.


The Iwaki can deal with temps up to 170F. So far, the pumped water stays just slightly above tank temp. I'll post more about the control units soon.

With the average low in January of 13F and Feb of 15F, we're excited to have this operational.
Following Steven Pro, free heat!

[Scottt]

Had a hatch today. The ocellaris used to spawn every 11 days, the last 3 spawns were 10 days apart. The last hatch had ~99% hatch, and 100% mortality at daylight.
For this hatch I cleaned the remote hatching tank with bleach, then sodium thiosulfate. Rinsed three times with system water. I also did a 45min formalin&Malachite green dip (of the eggs) with aeration and a heater. The flower pot, heater, and thermometer were all rinsed with system water prior to their move to the hatching tank. Additionally a small amount of carbon was added to the sump ~36hrs prior to the hatch.
At 1 hour after lights out the larvae had hatched (1:20am). Aeration was reduced. Temp at 77F.
2hrs 40mins after lights out, larvae still very alive (3:00am).
3hrs after lights out, larvae still swimmy (3:20am). temp still 77F
12hrs after lights out, larvae still alive and spread out in greenwater (12:20pm).
Yay!! they were all dead at this point last hatch.

[Scottt]

Well, its time to move on to the next stage of the hatchery. This was a nice Trial. I learned a few very important things. All the fish are moving to a new location (the other side of the garage). Once I start that build, I'll start a thread called 'Albany Aquatics', that's what we want to call the business.

Humidity control. That is the major downfall of our current set-up. So, it needs to get taken down and re-done. In the summer, their were no problems at all, but this winter is... wet! Walls need to be sealed, sheetrocked, and painted before fish tank racks can be set up. Also, the tank rack framing HAS to be treated. Theirs no real way to bring the humidity down, cost effectively, so everything has to be water-proof. In addition, all wiring will be on the ceiling, and in outdoor-type conduit.
As if I didn't have a million too many things to do, now we have to do this. I'll post pics once we get into it.

Next stage can be viewed here:
viewtopic.php?f=233&t=6423

[Scottt]

I'm working on a writeup about the waste oil furnace. It can be viewed here:
http://sites.google.com/site/wasteoilfurnace/

[Scottt]

My newest project, Flow Through Larval Rearing.
This is the simplest method (suggested by Matt Witt). A 5g bucket with a slow drip into the larval tank. Water flows out and into the main system.
I don't have the proper micron screen, so I'm using a huge fine holed sponge filter to keep the larvae in the tank (not pictured).
I'll let you guys know how it works out.



You can see the airline loop around the handle and drip in this pic.
There is live nanno, and rotifers in the gray bucket. Also, a piece of hard airline, no airstone.


We(Greg) machined a 3/4" long flow restrictor with a 1mm diameter hole in the center. It looks like 1/2mm might work better, the bucket was 3/4empty after ~6hrs.

[Scottt]

Trying out Arctica tonsa in this 1gallon glass jar.

If I can keep it alive, I'll do a few sub cultures, then try the 5g bucket method.

[Scottt]

We learned some important lessons setting up the trial run Hatchery. This will be the winter home for the fishes, until we get Albany Aquatics built in the spring/summer.

Fits in a 4'x6' spot in my basement.


Top Shelf. Holds 8 15gal tanks. Three there now, with a fresh water test.


Bottom shelf. Holds 6 15gal tanks.


Little 50gal sump. Temporary pump.


Bio-Ball houses. Will Drain onto a 3'x3' algal scrubber (yet to be built).

I love gutters! Theirs nothing easier to aim 14 drains into

Skimmerless system. We'll see how it goes.

[Scottt]

All 14 15gal tanks are in, and the air system. Its an inexpensive way to get nice waterflow, but it is salty!


An update for you, John on the greenhouse build:



It'll just be for plants this year. Then we'll put the pond liners in for an Algal scrubbing pond and coral ponds.
I love the pig cooker in the background. Anyone want to do a roast?
Door and ends go on tomorrow.

[Scottt]

New Larval Rearing Room.

Its a bathroom that hasn't been used in 20years The tile is perfect! I put a bench up for the BRT's right over the Tub -shakehead .


I put a shelf over the BRT's for my 5gal daily drips. Currently I siphon 5g out through my rotifer sieve, then drip 5 gal back in. That is my drip bucket up in the top right hand corner. The whole row is lit with 2 T12's that I strapped to the upper shelf.


This is where my 13 day olds moved to today. They are doing well. 17.5gal BRT's I think. From Tractor Supply.



I asked Harvey to read up on dottyback breeding for me, she got bored -sleeping

[Crooks]

Any more pics?

[Scottt]

Not yet, I'll add them when I get some more good stuff done.

[BaboonScience]

Yes,
Did you get the ends on the Green House? It really is surprising how much heat can be retained by a thin sheet of plastic!
You will find that you do not get too much construction done on a greenhouse in the winter time because it is closed in and you are using it. So, with your wonderful winters in the great white north, you had best get the thing running in the short summer!

The whole thing is looking good so far. I love improvised systems. They show creativity.
John

[Scottt]

Thanks John,
Ends are on, but its just plants for this season. Everything goes a little slower than I see it happening in my head. I'll get it filled with saltwater as soon as I can. Maybe next spring? Focusing on keeping the fish happy before diversifying to corals.

[BaboonScience]

Everything goes a little slower than I see it happening in my head. I'll get it filled with saltwater as soon as I can. Maybe next spring?

Scott
And every project takes up at least twice as much time as planned, don't I know it!

John

[Miles]

Isn't redoing EVERYTHING fun... I'm in the middle of it. Any updates?

[Scottt]

I don't know if I'd call it fun. It is nice to be able to improve each time though.
No pictures, but some updates. I've got about 20 pairs of clowns, dottybacks, and banggai together. ~ 1/4 are spawning. I'm still working on grow out systems, but have a a little less than 2,000 fishes between larvae and salable size. Just stated selling fish last week for the first time!

[jadeguppy]

Congratulations!

[pat8you]

Great thread. Thanks for keeping such a detailed record. I would love to do something like this one day and it is great to be able to follow along with others. Any updates on the system? Do you regularly sell fish now? What have you had success raising?

[Scottt]

Sorry about the delay in response.
I do have a few updates. I partnered with the wonderful Linda Close. She has quite the wet-thumb. Things are going well. We do sell regularly (she organizes that). Moved back to our original location, but in a much more planned out way. We decided on diversification as a safety system, and do fish-farming at two locations (Rensselaer and Kinderhook). We have successfully raised percula, ocellaris, tomatoes, and banggai. Linda has a 55gal RR grow out full of sexy perculas she raised, they are getting big! So far we have only sold the tomatoes and ocellaris.

(The pic is a couple months old. Extra bracing has been installed below each horizontal runner. And we have 1.5 rows of grow out online.)