thinking of building a very small scale zoa/ric/mushroom farm

[dedfish]

I've been doing a lot of ready tonight about propagation systems. GARF is one site that has a ton of info, also old reefcentral threads (I finally got a search in!!). What I am thinking about is trying to design a very small scale farm for zoas, rics, and mushrooms. I am just in the 'Hmm that would be cool' stage of this. I'd like to propagate enough to use as a source for trades and to sell cheap to other club members, nothing large scale not even medium scale.

Anyone want to have a discussion on what this would take? I'd like to design the poor mans mini farm.

 

[dz6t]

A very nice idea. May be a small scale Live rock farm too?

 

[dedfish]

In one of the garf setups they do used a portion of the farm to grow coralline on DIY rock after it is cured.

 

[ScottM]

how small is small?.....

 

[dedfish]

What I was looking at that got me thinking was this.

 

[dedfish]

Maybe use a rack like this and custom made acrylic tanks.

Bottom shelf would hold sump, the 2 middle shelves could hold tanks and the top shelf a gravity fed top off.

 

[JohnK]

I call this "excuse for more tanks syndrome".

If all the stuff you want to farm is compatible with your main system you might consider putting that rack system next to what you already have set up and sharing a sump. this way you only have to maintain one system but you would have the farming element built in. It gets annoying to have to do water tests, reactor adjustments, skimmer cleanings, water changes.......... on two or three seprate systems.

I don't know how big your thinking but Pet Club is selling a bunch of pre drilled 40G tanks (not breeders) cheap.

Whatever your thinking, just be sure your being realistic about the expenses in money and time you'll need to put in, then go for it. (but you might need a strudier rack than the one in the picture, duh). I kept a 20L frag tank growing leathers for about a year and a half. Once I got my fragging routine established It was producing about 10 frags a month that I could sell or trade for 10$ or so easily (LFS's and frag swaps). It's worth it as long as you have the time to keep up with it.

good luck
jk

 

[dedfish]

Thanks jimmy. I wish I could connect it to my main system, but right now that is not possible. As far as the expenses and time thing goes...for me half the fun of it is building it. I enjoy building things and if I end up spending a bit more to get exactly what I want then that is ok. The pride I take when sitting back and thinking 'I built that!' is well worth it. The stand pictured above is good for 400 lbs. It is an idea that I was just tossing arround. The tanks would be custom acrylic tanks ideally. They would varry in height depending on their purpose, sump would be much deeper than say a tank for mushrooms which could be pretty short. I will definetly be keeping tank weight in mind when selecting a stand. I could easily build one, but I can probably find something pre-built for less. That rack cost $40 and can hold 400lbs. Pretty cheap. The volume of water would wiegh approximately 375lbs if I used the dimensions of that rack. Put the sump on the ground and subtract almost half that. Ideally the rack would hold all the water though.

This is something I just thought of. I'm sure I'll be kicking arround plenty of ideas though. Like plastic tubs instead of acrylic tanks, or glass if deals like that pet club deal are still arround. Alot depends on space and the stand to start with I guess. I would like to do this as frugally as possible. Hopefully with the help of a fine group like this the ideas will roll in and I won't know which ideas to kick next.

 

[dedfish]

what about filtration? What is important in a propagation setup? UV Sterilizer? Carbon? Live Sand? DSB? Skimmer? It will be a closed system, not attached to anything. Things that make me go hmmmmmmmm.

 

[ScottM]

id opt for a nice skimmer, just because i tend to overfeed. go with nice lights. cheap containers/tanks. also think about pumps to run some spraybars, this will help disperse the flow in the shallow water. i'd run live rock in the sump with plenty of flow. (to keep waste from settling.) chances are you'll be target feeding the corals and you'll need the bio process from the rock. good place to store future rubble frag mounts too.
if displaying in your tank i'd also try match the lighting to your current tank. you'd be amazed how much things change under different lighting. matching the water chem will play a big role if keeping SPS.

figure lights will be $$$ depending on brand.
the tanks will probably run the same cost. you'll need 2 sheets. be sure to brace or they will bow over time. go to CRA, you'll see what i mean.
frag racks are a big undertaking.

 

[dedfish]

Here is another example of what I am thinking about.

http://www.reefs.org/library/farmertodd/
click on 'The Multi System' links.

 

[dedfish]

Looking back at the wire shelf idea I am convinced the weight wouldn't be an issue. Maybe the paticular rack linked above is not that good, but I have seen some that are not too expensive that will handle 600-800lbs per shelf. That's plenty.

 

[dedfish]

I will not let this thread die!

Any reason a rubbermaid container like the one below couldn't be used as a frag tank?

Is there a certain type of plastic that must be used or certain types to avoid?

Thanks!