ScooterTDI

I am selling all my remaining aquarium items. I don't have the time or interest to part it out and schedule meet ups with many people, so whoever buys has to take the whole lot. I'll take $200 obo. I'll entertain all offers and the best offer by Friday night gets it. Pick up on Saturday morning only in Woodbridge. MRC MR2 protein skimmer MTC HSA1000 protein skimmer MTC waste collector Tunze 9002 protein skimmer PCX40 pump Sunlight supply 400w ballast Lumenmax elite reflector (400w SE) JBJ auto top off 1/2 a box of instant ocean

Still available: MRC MR2 Protein Skimmer with pump - $150 MTC HSA 1000 (I think) Protein Skimmer - $100 Tunze 9002 Protein Skimmer - $50 400w Metal Halide Ballast - $50 Lumenmax Elite Reflector - $75

Still available: Aqua illuminations Sol blue -$200 MRC MR2 Protein Skimmer with pump - $150 MTC HSA 1000 (I think) Protein Skimmer - $100 Tunze Osmolator - $75 Tunze 9002 Protein Skimmer - $50 400w Metal Halide Ballast - $50 Lumenmax Elite Reflector - $75

Hello: I'm selling a number of tank components/accessories as I'm moving. I've started listing items on Craigslist, but then thought I should first offer them up to you fine fish-loving folks. Here's my Aqua Illuminations LED light: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/for/4803298675.html Also available -- 65g Reef-ready Aquarium (free!) 27g Aquarium (also free!) MRC MR2 Protein Skimmer with pump - $150 MTC HSA 1000 (I think) Protein Skimmer - $100 Tunze Osmolator - $75 Tunze 9002 Protein Skimmer - $50 Marine Magic Triple Head Peristaltic Dosing Pump - $50 Ecotech Vortech mp10 - $75 Ecotech Vortech mp10 (needs new bearing) (free with other mp10, if you like) 400w Metal Halide Ballast - $50 Lumenmax Elite Reflector - $75 3g Fluval Aquarium (free with other items) Broken Grey Seas Kalk Stirrer -- needs new motor (free!) Please let me know if you're interested in any of these items, or have any questions. Buyer(s) to pick up from Woodbridge, VA. Thanks! Scott sweinrich at gmail dot com

I have a feeling you may need to periodically restart because it seems that cultures always go bad no matter how careful you are. I'm not sure if you are going to get the production quantity you want. I know you have a pretty large system, so you'd probably need a really huge culture vessel to supply significant quantities and an even larger phyto culture because algae like rhodomonas (sp?) typically are relatively low density (at least that what I've heard). Naup densities don't get anywhere near that of rots. In my case, I'd plan on have a copepod culture many times the size of the larval rearing vessel, so the naups would be concentrated significantly in the rearing vessel relative to that of the bulk culture vessel. You might want to calculate your desired density in the system you are feeding and see how large of a copepod culture you'd need to achieve that. As Chad mentioned, you'll probably have to find a way to add juveniles/adults back into the adult population. You could screen the effluent of the naup area with a mesh that would retain some of the grownout juveniles/adults. These could then be periodically transferred back to the adult area. Scott

In my case, I think I am going to need to go pretty much full scale in order to get any survival. My plan would be to have a drain from the inner "naup" area from which naups would be strained/concentrated. I'd pass the "naup" water first through a 100 -250 um mesh to catch any larger juveniles or young adults. Those would then be added back into the "adult" area. Hopefully, this would keep adult populations low in the "naup" area and give a constant supply of fresh breeding adults to the adult area. You have a good point about the egg collection, that might be a pain. I like the principal of your idea, but with some slight modifications. How about a adult tank that has a cone bottom (found on places like the aquatic ecosystems website), with a drain at the bottom of the tank that is used to periodically collect the settled eggs. Just quickly open a valve and all the gunk and eggs that collect at the bottom are flushed into a container. The adult tank feeds a "naup" tank through screens as you describe. Grownout juveniles and adults are removed from the naup tank when naups are collected to feed the larva and these adults are placed back into the adult tank. That mysid generator was was i was thinking about when considering this system. Scott

I've been looking into setting up a system for A. tonsa with filtration, automatic seperation of adults/naups, and automated phyto feeding. Hopefully, this would reduce the amount of day-to-day work put into food production which always seems to be the most tedious part. The design I am considering involves a ~50g plastic barrel with a sump. The standpipe would be placed in the middle of the barrel and protected by a ~50 um screen to prevent naups from draining. A second 100-250um screen tube maybe 6-8" in diameter and would surround the standpipe and act as a divider of adults and naups. Hopefully, the naups would be flushed to the inside of this screened area by the return plumbing from the sump that feeds the area outside the seperation screening, but the adults would remain outside the screening. The flow rate through the system would be very low and the sump would contain a wet/dry and a protein skimmer. A peristaltic pump would periodic add phyto from a nearby phyto culture. Thats the plan right now anyway... Scott

Yea, copepods are great, but I think you'll have a difficult time supplying them in the quantities necessary to raise a reasonable size batch of erectus if you intend on making that the primary diet. I would have to go dig up the journal article, but from what I have read, it seems that a base diet of mainly artemia with a comparably minor supplimentation of calanoids is very nearly as good as a diet of solely calanoids. Again, I think you'll find that you can achieve enough success with artemia alone that you may have a little bit of a difficult time finding homes for all the young. I was lucky that fuscus were not as readily available and somewhat in demand. It made it very easy to wholesale to a company that could then sell them at retail. It might be a little more difficult with erectus because there are many more reputable breeders of erectus. Selling retail isn't much fun. You'll probably have a hard time finding enough buyers locally, so it will mean a lot of trips to the FedEx store. It has been awhile since I have been over on MOFIB, but I do remember that Luis had a "maintainance" culture protocol in which the goal was just to keep a culture going, but not necessarily producing a large amount to be harvested. Is this the maintainance protocol or does this produce enough to yield a significant harvest? You may what to look into culturing Rhodomonas (sp?) lens. Lots of journal articles seem to indicate that A. tonsa really thrives on that particular algae do to its large cell size and really good nutritional profile. I've heard that it is one of the more difficult algaes to culture, though. From what I have heard, T. iso cell size is on the lower limit of what A. tonsa will consume and while it will sustain A. tonsa, the culture won't really thrive on it. Scott

Assuming you are keeping the tank relatively clean, Chaeto has got to be the best way to keep nitrate down. Often, water changes do very little to keep nitrate down. @ 40 mg/L nitrate, a 25% water change will only bring you down to 30 ppm. By the next time you do a water change, it is likely to be right back to 40 mg/L. Scott

I wouldn't bother with any of that. For erectus, all you really need is a big can of artemia cysts and some decent enrichment. fuscus are a little easier than erectus, but I would easily get 80-90% survival without rots or copepods. In my opinion, survival rates for horses like fuscus or erectus typically relate more to husbandry than they do to diet, but adding in copepods never hurts. I don't think the rots are going to help at all though. If you get an A. tonsa culture going again, I'd be interested in getting a starter from you. I am planning on moving to some more difficult species soon and will probably have to resort to copepods to get decent survival. Scott