My new coral greenhouse

[ctenophore]

I'd like to show everyone a little bit about what's involved in building and running a commercial coral farm. This is my second one, which is a lot smaller than the first one I built in Florida. I've learned a great deal about growing cnidarians in the sunlight over the past 4 years, and I am really excited to see how "version 2" does in practice.

 

First, in order to grow a lot of coral, you will need big tanks. Lesson learned: make sure the fiberglass builder packs them properly. Oops! This one was ok though.

 

Next, you need a place to put those tanks, most importantly, a solid foundation so all that weight doesn't crack the slab. Here we have a 6" thick 4000psi with #4 rebar slab.

 

Getting all that concrete to the back of my house required the use of this bad@$$ piece of machinery:

 

Here is the finished floor, a nice stamped concrete slate pattern. Only the finest of floors for my coral tubs.

 

We moved the tanks into place before starting on the structure. Why did I do this?

 

...Because I needed space in the garage to store 11,000 pounds of glass and aluminum. This is an entire 28' trailer full of solarium parts:

 

Now, I just had to build the thing. Step one: find cheap child labor. This is my wife's cousin Kevin, who got to learn how to use power tools and practice his geometry and trig skills. Thanks Kevin!

 

Fast forward about 8 months. Winter is not a good time to work on this sort of project. The peak of this structure is 17 feet. After setting the first few main ribs with 5 guys and only a ladder (Scott711 and djcerna know exactly what I'm referring to, unfortunately no pics), I knew I needed to find some scaffolding. Thanks to craigslist, I got some mismatched parts for next to nothing, which did the job well enough. Don't tell OSHA!

 

Finally, it's starting to look like a project! This is in March of this year (09)

 

We had to build a gable to connect the solarium to the house. That's one of WAMAS' finest, HowardOfNoVA up there.

 

Fast forward another month. With Howard's excellent help, we got the glass installed in a few weeks.

 

Soaking in that balmy March sunshine

 

Here is another shot showing the reflectiveness of the glass. This will turn out to be a huge mostly-unforseen benefit. At last, I have a building for my tanks.

 

Fast forward to June 09. Solarium is finished close enough to start on the tanks. Step 1: water test to make sure they didn't develop leaks after sitting out in the snow all winter. A few of them did, but were fixable. Obligatory mermaid shot:

 

Step 2: get a few lengths of pipe and some fittings. I did almost everything in 3" to reduce friction.

 

Step 3: glue it all together! Only two leaks, one was not my fault, sort of. I usually don't like using DWV fittings but 3" sch40 gets really expensive, and I wanted to be able to run to home depot whenever I needed another fitting, which was often. I used the green-label heavy duty glue with very good success.

 

Many corals we keep in our tanks can't handle full sunlight in very shallow water. I get around 1400 umol of light (PAR) through that glass on a cloudless day. That will fry the majority of corals in the hobby. So I use blue chromatinet to alter the spectrum and provide shade. This gives me the equivalent of 10-12k 400w metal halide lighting, roughly 500 umol of PAR. Interestingly, sunlight does not drop off significantly from the top of the water to the bottom, unlike MH & T5 lighting in our tanks. This is because light intensity is a function of distance of the light source, an inverse square relationship. I get 500 umol on the top and roughly 490 on the bottom.

Here is 60% shade over the entire room:

 

Here is what 2500 square feet of shade cloth looks like spread out over my yard.

 

Finally, on July 16th the first corals go into the greenhouse! It has been 2 years since I settled on a solarium supplier. I love building things, so doing this large DIY project was a way for me to test my abilities. It was a good experience but next time I will pay someone to put it together in a few months.

 

Here's a wide-angle shot of the inside, courtesy of dshnarw:

 

The first tank filled with broodstock colonies:

 

Another shot of the same tank. The corals look brown in the sunlight, but looking at them through a viewbox shows that they still have good color.

 

A neat panorama that dshnarw stitched together:

 

The next two tanks will be online as soon as I get water made. I have some neat aquaculture experiments that I am going to run in one of these tanks, stuff that hasn't been done on anything resembling a commercial level, if at all. The final two tanks will get filled as soon as I need the space, which probably won't be long.

 

Finally, I'd like to give special thanks to a bunch of very generous, helpful, and understanding friends, both here from WAMAS and elsewhere:

 

HowardOfNoVA: without his help my solarium would still be sitting in pieces in my garage. His daily efforts helped me stay on track and we finished the glass in less than a month. If anyone needs reliable and good quality help, look him up at www.howardshavens.com

 

Jason the filter freak: Also instrumental in getting many things done with this project, and always willing to lend a hand.

 

Coral Hind, who has spent more than a few Saturdays and lunchtimes helping me with stuff I could/should never do by myself.

 

Solarium frame crew, who selflessly put themselves into sketchy situations while lifting 160lb beams into place without proper equipment:

djcerna

Scott711

JTFF

Coral Hind

John M (who is a WAMAS member but never posts. Come on John, join the group already!)

Anthworks

 

Plumbing crew:

Coral Hind & JTFF, as usual

Chip the flowerseller

 

Fiberglass tank movers:

Raf saavedra

John M

 

I'm sure I've forgotten to mention some people, but it is certainly not because I don't value their help.

 

I'll continue to post updates as I have them. The next part will deal with equipment, design, and maintenance procedures. Feel free to ask as many questions as you can think of. Thanks for reading!

 

Justin

[Jan]

Congratulations! What an amazing job. Everything looks great.

 

Justin

[onyx]

Freaking awesome man.

[gsedlack]

Wow Just wonderful. Best of luck.

[Pat_13]

Very nice, great DIY.

 

What equipment do you have running?

[scott711]

very cool. Looks great Justin. I will have to stop by to take a look!

[tygger]

Wow, that's pretty amazing. Can't believe you all built this yourselves! Nice work

[DaveS]

Looks great Justin! Man, when you said greenhouse, I wasn't thinking about the HOUSE part of things. It's freaking huge!!

[mogurnda]

Great to see it's up and running! Looking forward to seeing how the story goes from here.

 

Interestingly, sunlight does not drop off significantly from the top of the water to the bottom, unlike MH & T5 lighting in our tanks

Yeah but it takes a lot bigger ballast.

[dschflier]

Wow. That is incredible. Will that huge skimmer you had in your garage be plumed to this? Is the filtration and equipment all in the greenhouse or is it in the garage.

[zygote2k]

Are you going to do any large scale production of macroalgaes? If so, I'd like to donate some different types.

[ctenophore]

Thanks everyone for the complements and well-wishes. I will need them as a coral farm is a lot of work!

 

As for equipment, here is how I'm doing it for now:

 

All coral tubs are combined into one large system along with my display tank. I decided that I only want to maintain one system rather than a bunch of independent ones. It is true that some corals do better in "dirty" water, but the tradeoff of less maintenance for slightly lower growth rates of some species is worthwhile to me. Besides, most of the really nice corals out there are pristine-water loving species anyway. So I built a system that focuses on excellent water quality.

 

Protein skimmer: Custom-built 8'x22" fiberglass semi-cone, powered by ReeFlo hammerhead with custom needlewheel impeller. This thing holds 115 gallons of water yet only draws about 330 watts.

 

Calcium/Alkalinity supplementation is currently provided by Korallin C-10002 reactor. As demand outpaces this reactor (It's nearing max capacity now), I will add a second chamber by converting an old Deltec fluidized media reactor. Also I plan to add a Kalkwasser reactor in the next few months.

 

I use UV to keep bacterial populations down, as well as slow down algae growth. There is one thing that grows faster than xenia in sunlight, and that is brown algae. The UV really cuts down on this. I also feel that by keeping bacterial loads low, the chance for opportunistic infection (brown jelly, STN/RTN, etc) is a lot lower. UV = better coral health. I chose an Emperor Aquatics 150w HO single bulb system which I have been very happy with so far.

 

Here is the skimmer, UV, and you can see the Ca reactor peeking from behind the UV:

 

The big grey tube to the left of the skimmer in the picture will be my new ozone reactor. I want to use ozone to maintain water quality, but not run it in my skimmer as I feel that the amount of ozone I need to keep the water clean will cause skimmate production problems. So using a separate reactor is the way to go. This design uses a high pressure atomizing nozzle to inject microparticles of seawater into a pressurized chamber with ozonated air, sort of the opposite approach to injecting microbubbles of ozone into a body of seawater. I will revisit this piece of equipment in more detail once I get it finished and installed.

 

Here is a shot of the sump, which is currently housing broodstock waiting to go outside. Although the sump is 270 gallons, it is too small and I am thinking of ways to fix this without getting a new one.

 

Water circulation is managed with these three small pumps:

Total system volume will be near 5000 gallons, so if you think about that, a pair of hammerheads and a dart isn't all that much pump. I am able to run all 5 greenhouse tubs from one hammerhead- about 1000gph turnover each. By using 3" plumbing for all return lines, I minimize head loss due to friction and get nearly all 5800 gph of the pump. The other hammerhead feeds my display tank and the equipment loop (skimmer, UV, CaRx, ozone rx). The Dart runs my small "color-up" tanks- 5x 30 breeders with T5s that will be used to color-up any stubborn corals that don't want to look nice under the sun.

 

In-tank circulation is done by Tunze streams.

 

Here is a shot of the heat pump, it is a 3 hp model. The extra valve connects into my saltwater mixing tank, so all I need to do to add new water is turn one valve. I can dump saltwater by the bottom valve, but I won't have to use it much since most water will be lost when packing & shipping.

 

My new water mixing tank, a 600 gal HDPE vertical storage tank.

 

Finally, a shot of one of my favorite corals, neon green sinularia that I am growing by the bucketful.

[ctenophore]

Are you going to do any large scale production of macroalgaes? If so, I'd like to donate some different types.

Possibly, it really depends on how quickly they grow in a nutrient-poor environment and how much space they take up vs. sell price. Hard to justify a square foot of space for $10 of macroalgae when I can use that same space for $1000 worth of coral. That said, I am keeping chaeto in the tub overflows for now, but I would much rather put something in there that I can sell. Each overflow space = 50 gal, so I will have 250 gal of space that could be macroalgae. Plus the sump could become all macroalgae to act as a bubble trap.

 

So in short, I'd love to try out some of the cool varieties that you have.

[arwndsh]

My husband and I have had the pleasure of seeing this system in person. It really is amazing and its just right down the road too.

[Nate]

Holy Crap this has to be the coolest thing I have ever seen. Good news is that you'll be saving some money on your electric bill, bad news is that greenhouse probably cost more than I wanna know.

[Origami]

I'm speechless, Justin. Amazing job.

[ctenophore]

Holy Crap this has to be the coolest thing I have ever seen. Good news is that you'll be saving some money on your electric bill, bad news is that greenhouse probably cost more than I wanna know.

Thanks Nate!

 

Yes the GH wasn't cheap, but I designed it to complement the architecture of the house and become a focal point after we move out and the tanks are gone. It can convert to hold an endless pool, so it adds value as an indoor pool room when we sell the house. In short, it isn't going to become an eyesore like a plastic greenhouse would be.

[www.fishnreef.com]

Justin,

Looks great. It's always nice when you have an idea, which get's you labeled a nutcase...and then lo and behold, when you are finished...it's all oohs and aaahs!

Congratulations!

Nadir

 

Notes:

Nutcase by non-reefers...because we all think we should be doing the same thing.

Plug for Howard...a great help and DIY guy, and a great person. Hire him now! (oh..he's too busy doing landscaping) :-)

[Boret]

Congratulations Justin.

I saw the Fiber glass tanks almost 2 years ago when they were sitting in your garage. (I believe that's what I saw... you had a bunch of stuff in there )

Seeing the final product is amazing!! Excellent job! Such a cool project!

 

From what I've been reading O3 tends to break down in a matter of seconds, one of the reasons you really can't put it in a canister. That is why you use coronas to produce it on the spot. Aren't you concerned that by having the O3 stay in the tube and injecting the water/air mix you are losing some of the potency from the Ozone? I probably didn't understand it correctly and you already have thought about it, but , care to further explain how yours functions? Thanks!!

[Leishman]

Where is the "Thank You" section for those of us who offered up 'moral support'? With out us you would have given up long ago.

[ctenophore]

Where is the "Thank You" section for those of us who offered up 'moral support'? With out us you would have given up long ago.

I was saving your Thank You for when I start posting pics of the broodstock. I gotta get back to work on the supp. lights so they don't look bad for the pictures

 

Boret I will explain ozone reactor in better detail once I get pics of it assembled and working.

[capsfan]

This is simply amazing. I would love to do this some day.

[stratos21ss]

Beautiful project! Congrats on it..it looks fantastic. What are you going to use to maintain the water temp (heat)?

[Leishman]

I gotta get back to work on the supp. lights

 

I'll drop off the T5 reflectors and the Lumenarc one day next week.

[ctenophore]

Beautiful project! Congrats on it..it looks fantastic. What are you going to use to maintain the water temp (heat)?

 

I am using a 3 horsepower heat pump, which is basically a big chiller that also can heat, like a standard house AC/heater except for salt water. It is the big black box in the second to last picture above.

 

Thanks again for all the great compliments from everyone. I really appreciate them!