1st pics of
 

my Mother Colony Grow Out Tank 72"x30"x15"H.

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Full_tank.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/tank2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/tank5.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/tank4.jpg[/img]

Pics taken of this tank where by Carl Glasser with his dig cam thanks Carl.

I will add the other 13 tanks when people come to visit me if they take pics for me or untill i get my own Dig Cam.

The system was set up in May 2000.
Its been very hard for me in many respects the building up of the SPS coral propagation system.
I had no support as in financial or free help (SimonH has always been helpful over the years) I had no commercial base so no chance of getting corals at trade prices (no Pet licence only keeping corals which are invertabrates) no donations of corals except a few frags I exchanged to increase my species level.
Not owning a shop I am not known or have a customer base or advertise and not being in bussiness there are many disadvantages.

But My plan was to propagate SPS corals I had problems with the system which took time and money to correct which set me back on the time scale of buying corals so a lot of frags where grown out to stock corals and exchanged frags are kept and grown out as stock corals also the aim is to collect 150 to 200 species of SPS corals.

The propagation system now consists of a 3 tier wooden rack support holding 14 tanks plus a sump tank 36"x30"x30"H which feeds the whole system.
The Top tier has three tanks that measure 72"x30"x15"H two 400w 19"x19" hydroponic reflectors over ( Pro-Ultralite Lighting System ) each tank 6 system in total.
one 48"x30"x15"H one 36"x30"x15"H two 150w twin units over these two tank I may upgrade to 250w over these two tanks sometime in the future.
The first top tank which is 72"x30"x15"H feeds into the first bottom tank which is 72"x30"x18"H which has eggcrate sitting on lengths of 1" dia pipe running from front to back then 4" of crushed coral grain sizes of 2mm to 4mm that sits on top of the eggcrate which has a fine mesh between eggcrate and crushed coral.
The remaining top tanks feed directly back to the sump.
The middle tier has three tanks that measure 72"x30"x15"H one tank has a 3 250w unit over it the other two tanks each have 3 150w over them
one 48"x30"x15"H one 36"x30"x15"H they have 2 150w over each of them.
The first middle tank which is 72"x30"x15"H also feeds into the first bottom tank which is the 72"x30"x18"H plenum.
The remaining middle tanks feed directly back to the sump.
The first bottom tank 72"x30"x18"H (triple 150w unit) plenum feeds into a 48"X30"x18"H (double 150w unit) plenum tank that then feeds into a 72"x30"x18"H (triple 150w unit) plenum tank then that feeds into a 36"x30"x18"H (double 150w unit) plenum tank which then feeds into the sump sump has no lighting.
The top and middle rows of Tanks are fed from the sump by a ITT Marlow JEC series Argonaut 1 speed
J75ec 1 phase pump 0.37kw This pump delivers 8.5 cubm/hr of water against a 10m head, shut off head is 15m and self priming head is 2.6m. This is a very reliable high performance unit suitable for continuous operation in freshwater, marine systems and even some corrosive chemical applications.
A 3 phase 6kw Inline titanium heater is fitted to the pipework output of the pump.
Lighting over the tanks are all Metal Halides ranging between 400w 250w 150w all the plenum tanks have 150w over them.
The first inline 72"x30"x18"H plenum tank (not mentioned) broke several months ago I will not replace it as it gives me extra space in this cramped garage hopefully it will not have any adverse effects once I have every tank full of sps frags and mother colonys.
The sump holds an deltec AP 703 deltec skimmer that is rated for For Aquariums up to:
Heavy Stocking 2000 Ltrs (uk444 gals)
Normal Stocking 3000 Ltrs (uk667 gals)
This is not in use but there as a back up and used for 24 hours when doing a fragging sesion of a 100+ frags in one go but I only run 2 of the pumps on the skimmer in that situation then after 24 hours its turned off.
Also all the top and middle tanks have an inch depth of very fine sand not all yet as not all tanks have corals in them yet but slowly adding to the rest cost is the reason. plus all these tanks have some rock work at the back and sides that have sand in them.
I find that when I need to start using more tanks I turn the bank of lighting on over those tanks they go through an algae phase and the sand and rocks seem to help give a balance to each tank even though they are on a cetralised system once the infauna and fauna is diverse enough.
Extra pumps are added to tanks once I bring the lights on when I have filled up existing tanks that are lighted ready to stock with more frags.

A large 3 speed industral fan is fitted into the wall that is on a timer (I tried temperture control and humidity controlers but found they did not do a very good job of controling humidity levels)
I have settings for the timer for summer and winter to regulate air temp and humidity levels to my liking also in the summer the fan is set at its lowest setting in winter it is set at the middle level setting.
I have no insulation in the garage and in my situation I think that insulation would have caused more problems.

I upgrade all my electrics (my electrician name of sparky on this board :D did a great job)
Very important to have weather proof switches, connections, junction boxes, distribution board covers etc etc.
LOL I am lucky to be alive from when my electrics where not weatherproof.
Just pulling out or pushing in a plug into or out of a socket with damp hands I got electric shocks at times.
And all the water you can splash about when working in the tanks and fragging does not mix with unprotected electrics.

I likely have forgot to mention many things will add later :D

Martyn

Very nice Martyn!

BTW, your tanks seem to be a tad overstocked. When should I come by to help you with this problem? :D

that is truly incredible.....great job

Thank you The Shaman.
Its a long trip to the UK where i live but you are welcome to visit providing you bring some frags to swap :D

Thank you Kozmo Its taken me over 2 years to get to where i am now with this propagation system.

All above pics of corals in my post are growing under 400w lighting in one of my 72"x30"x15"high tank.

Frags that are growing out under 250w MH 72"x30"x15" high tank since this pic was taken the tank is almost full from back to front and end to end.

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Dscn0579.jpg[/img]

Frags that are growing out under 150w MH 36"x30"x15"high tank.

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/Dscn0572.jpg[/img]

Pics Taken and supplied by Carl Glasser Thanks again Carl :)

Martyn

Martyn,

As we say here in America, you suck!!!! ;) :D :p

Very nice dude!

Carlos

Hehehe Carlos I do the job correctly ;) :D :P

Those frags under the 150w MH are 4th genaration upwards it took that many genarations to get them to keep good colour under the 150w MH.
Just got about 90 more species to get to keep good colour under 150w MH.

Martyn

BTW what does sick mean ???

Martyn

Hey Martyn, think they'll let me size them over here??;)

LOL Debi keep your hands off :D

You spoilt my pics on your forum :P

Martyn :)

Hey , they're not that bad! I will size up the first ones by tomorrow, but not much!:D

You know I got a B day coming up..........:)


Very nice

Very nice Martyn, thanks for sharing the pics.

Griss

OMG! realy an awesome looking propagation tank. It looks cooler than alot of peoples display tanks ( including mine:rolleyes: )!

Nice setup Martyn.
A few ?s please.
What type of filtration do you use other than the plenum / DSB, and skimming (if any)?
Do you have many hermits / fish / cleanup crew?
Do you employ any wave generating devices?
And last,
Do you own a nuclear power plant to run all this equipment?:D
Thanks,
Chris

Hi Chris
[b](What type of filtration do you use other than the plenum / DSB, and skimming (if any)?)[/b]

None except an RO unit for tap water.
I rarely skim.

[b](Do you have many hermits / fish / cleanup crew?
)[/b]

No hermit I have a yellow tang and a copper band butterfly in each stocked 6 ft tanks and a few snailsin each tank and 1000s of regular breeding Stomatella varia,
plus all the critters that live on the rock and amongest algae's and on and in the sand beds.


[b](Do you employ any wave generating devices?)[/b]

No just lots of water flows that meet from outlets of power heads and pumps

[b](Do you own a nuclear power plant to run all this equipment)[/b]

I will let you work that one out :)

Regards
Martyn

PS I will now udate this thread with new pics

Pics of my cramped prop system showing 14 tanks (3tier racks) with two of tanks with lighting on shows how cramped it is in there.
The ro unit needs changing its gone a tad rusty and TDS are high thanks to Kevins meter readings :D it struggles to keep up with evap in the winter anyway so an upgrade was on the cards anyway.
Yep that ugly fat old slob in the 1st pic is me :D

[IMG]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0018.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0033.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0045.jpg[/IMG]

Will be adding a few updated pics from Kevin Ling and Andrew.

The above pics where taken by Andrew did not realise he had taken it and was to late for me to hide I hate pics of me being taken by the last pic I had managed to hide :D

Regards
Martyn

Just over 3 months from last pics.
An update

Some pics taken by Kevin Ling at the weekend.

Tank one.

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/uploads/post-12-1053812862.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/uploads/post-12-1053813140.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/uploads/post-12-1053813368.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/uploads/post-12-1053813618.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/uploads/post-12-1053813760.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/uploads/post-12-1053814037.jpg[/img]

Thanks again Kevin for the great pics.

Regards
Martyn

Just over 3 months.
An update
Some pics from Andrew (aka Sparky) at the weekend With his brand new cam.

Tank one.

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0022.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0023.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0003.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0041.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0051.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0068.jpg[/img]

WoW..just awsome..way too go:dance:

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0054.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0053.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0056.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0001.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0006.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0077aa.jpg[/img]


Thanks Andrew for the great pics.

Regards
Martyn

Great, Thanks!

Tank 2
this tank has had no lighting over it for nearly 2 years and I used one bag of sand Natures ocean not used in any other tank and I have been going through a hair algae phase in this tank even though none of the other tanks have this algae and its the same water circulating in all the 14 tanks.
the hair algae is nearly over and corals and frags are being added.
Thanks Andrew who took these pics.

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0026.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0029.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0099.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0028.jpg[/img]

Tank 4
Not many pics but will get more new ones at a later date.

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0091.jpg[/img]

[img]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/704Dscf0088.jpg[/img]

Also got to get pics of tank 5 and tank 6 and tank 7 and tank 10 that also have frags and colonys in.

Regards
Martyn

absolutely FREAKING amazing

may I ask
 

With all the hoopla on salts lately,what do you use in your system? By the way great job,and best of luck on your venture!

one word
 

WOW!!!!!