Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

excuse me for being a might drunk Steve. could you possibly be a little more expressive? I have nfi wtf you are talking about :-)

Hey Nic - try Lorenzo at Pisces Aquariums in willetton . Last time I was there ( admittedly a year ago now ) he was selling captive bred seahorses . I should drop in there and say hello to my Queen Trigger that he's "looking after" while I get around to having another tank

I remember seeing some captive bred ones at a shop in cannington too , shopping centre side of the highway but further along , past cannington raceway , that was a while ago though

KP, i was having second thoughts about J's kids terroriing around the house, pulling my dogs ears and unplugging pvc from my AP system..................was seeing if your offer was still open

don't worry Steve, they know the rules

kidding K, if i can handle 6million O'keeFFe kids at the family get togethers then i'm sure your angels will be fine

OIC! I get it... you're talking about July! Aren't you!?!?!

Ok # 1 I have no coral. But I would highly recommend reading The Reef Aquarium (Julian Sprung)(I have Vol 3), and Coral propagation techniques (Anthony Calfo). I think those 2 books will give you a real clear how to on commercial coral growing system. I read that some coral "growers" put their corals on shelves, on bare bottom tanks. I'd also consider using a big Carlson surge device for water movement (Google CSD waikiki aquarium) & a big (or several) protein skimmer(s).

If live rock is real expensive for you, what I'd do is make my own with cement (Make sure its well cured!!!!) Maybe buy one live chunk of rock as a "starter". The cement should fill up with all kinds of critters in a few months. I'm pretty sure there are recipes for home made rock online.

My dream setup would be having a tide pool in my back yard! But back to earth...

About my current setup, I'd be a liar if I said I've checked the nitrate (or any) levels on my tank.
However, from the looks of the critters living in it, it must be doing great.

I have a 125 G tank with 3 protein skimmers, a hang on filter (mainly for water circulation) 2 other powerheads inside the tank also for water circulation. My bio filter is made up of a pro clear 75 & (2) 10 gallon fish tanks linked together.

I guess the aquaponics in this setup is that one of the fish tanks is a refugium, which I had originally tried growing caulerpa. Since Caulerpa is alive today & gone tomorrow, I scratched that idea. I brought a patch of turf grass from tide pools at the beach, & its doing really good. I harvest the darkest patches every few days to allow for new grass to grow, & at the same time I'm removing nutrients. The turf grass is real great, because copepods grow in it, & many end up in the tank & serve as food for my mandarin. I turn on (2) 6500K daylight CF bulbs around 6AM, & turn them off before bed. If I go on vacation I leave them on full time. The lights on the main tank are turned on for a couple hours at night, & sometimes I don't even turn them on at all. (But it does get the afternoon sunlight through an open window.

The bio filter- weird setup thing I have will soon be replaced with an old 55G tank I turned into a filter.

One thing I also have in the main tank is a deep sand bed. The purpose of this is for nitrate removal, but again, I haven't checked the levels in at least 8 months. Once I set up my new filter, the deep sand bed will go into the refugium.

I also change about 30 gallons of water every month & a half or so. I use sea water.

I'll post photos tomorrow!

I highly recommend those 2 books.Worth every penny!!!!!!!

Cheers!

Cool, i am hanging out for those pics

Refugiums are the marine hobbyists best pal, i know of many systems which use them for the growth of corals and copeopods/amphiopods. What fish do you have in you tank?

The mandarin for all those who where wondering if he is talking about a fruit is the marine keepers challenge if you like. This is a vibrant coloured fish which hovers around the tank eating tiny coral lice (copeopods) and scavaging other food. They are a challenge to keep due to its very small mouth and strict diet, if your tank is full of copeopods your doing very well so to keep and feed the mandarin requires optimum tank quality.



Is this a fish only system? and if so why not start getting a few corals?

Currently i am propagating zoathids, i have brown strains, blue and a sort of purple colour which have all be fragmented. If there is any marine keepers out there after a few frags i will have more to come

Good to hear of a few marine keepers on this forum

Beaaaaaaautiful fish !

I can get them for something like $60ea and they grow to around maximum 6-8cm so a small, beautiful but expen$ive fish well worth every $ imo.

Nic

ok guys. Here are the photos.

A grow bed of Mangrove trees, flooded twice daily might add well to the mix. BTW great pics

I used to have red mangroves, but they got too big. I wanted to drill a hole in the wall & put another tank on my porch with mangroves, but my bosswife didn't allow it

nice setup ya got there...is that an anemone in the refugium? I dont have a sump or anything...just a CPR bakpak skimmer and the whole system works great, i figure if it aint broke dont fix it.