dave w March 8, 2012 Author Share March 8, 2012 Based on Joshua's smart advice, I found used peristaltic pumps at $200 from hospital equipment places, and other used peristaltic pumps starting at $50 on ebay. It looks like hospital grade pumps only move about 10 gallons a day, which is a little slower than I'd like. The Tom's aqualifters only cost $15 new and although they only pump 3 gallons per day I could use a dozen of them to lift zooplankton in stages. An ideal pump with large diameter tubing doesn't seem to be out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 March 8, 2012 Share March 8, 2012 Just bored and looking around found these: http://www.radmarine.com/servlet/Categories http://www.bestmarinepumps.com/peristaltics_pumps.php http://www.bestmarinepumps.com/permanent.php?ser http://www.pumpahead.com/fixed_systems_home.html http://www.pumpahead.com/peristalticpumps.html They make some big ones. First thoughts are these are TOOO big, but dig around and look for a small marine pumpout system. They prob make smaller ones? Goodluck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 March 8, 2012 Share March 8, 2012 This one comes in different size tubing... 700 Series High-flow Process Pump: http://www.pumpoutsys.com/marlo.php3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 8, 2012 Author Share March 8, 2012 Those look great but the price tags are in the $1,500 to $2,000 range, which is beyond me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 March 8, 2012 Share March 8, 2012 WOW! I didn't see that... Yea, that's not very realistic vs a $200 pump... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 13, 2012 Author Share March 13, 2012 The past few days a hybrid pygmy angelfish from Frank Baensch in Hawaii has hit the market at $3,000 per fish, and it appears that he sold every hybrid he could raise. What a smart man. The temptation to try and raise centropyge larvae never seems to go away for me. I think he divided a 55 gallon barrell in half so they had 30" of spawning height and then put a pair in each half, giving them 27 gallons each. Boy would I enjoy trying to follow his success. I hear that he used size sorted wild caught zooplankton, which is what Martin Moe used to raise French Angels back in the 70's or early 80's. Does anyone have a dock on the lower Potomac or Chesapeake where I could get a bottle of plankton? Or they could bring one back if they didn't want me to visit. Brackish water is actually very productive in terms of biomass and we in the Chesapeake have our own small pelagic copepods that may be the equal of the wild caught ones in Hawaii. We have a Parvocalanus nudi which I think is very similar to the Parvocalanus sp. used in the Hawaiian culturing. I think I remember reading that the Chesapeake was the most productive bay in the world until we trashed it, but I'm sure that plenty of zooplankton remains, and it has now been genetically selected to handle higher nutrient levels! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind March 14, 2012 Share March 14, 2012 Look into the Milton Roy LMI dosing pumps or something similar. I use them for chemical dosing and they seem to last forever. They can be had on E-bay for cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schenktank March 14, 2012 Share March 14, 2012 I think I remember reading that the Chesapeake was the most productive bay in the world until we trashed it, but I'm sure that plenty of zooplankton remains, and it has now been genetically selected to handle higher nutrient levels! sad but very true. never thought of it like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodreeef March 16, 2012 Share March 16, 2012 I have been following this thread for about a month now. I have read Martin Moe's notes and journal about his success and failures raising these fish. Do you have other references? I dont have the resources(money or time) to do this just curious! Are you going to treat with streptomycin? How are you planning on rearing the copepods, because based upon reading his notes they had to separate the adults from the juveniles in order not to upset the reproductive numbers of the culture(by passing them through finer meshes)? I would love to see your set-up someday? Eddie Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldReefer March 17, 2012 Share March 17, 2012 I have really been getting into this plankton stuff lately. I get the feeling that the real innovation that will make it possible to breed and rear many species, is the basic notion that the work can be distributed. Different hobbyists can crack different parts of the puzzle, and FedEx can knit the pieces together. For example, I see in the Coral Magazine article on Cross Hatch Trigger breeding, that a copepod in the Strombidium family seems to really have filled in a gap in the food chain. If I could ever transition to a job where I am home consistently, I might be willing and able to fiddle with the intricacies of raising that little critter in quantity. They could then go to somebody else in the club that has the ability to manage the larvea. Somebody else could contribute the eggs from their exotic broodstock. Maybe at takes a village (or a club) to raise a $3,000 fish. Just a thought. I wonder if those guys in Hawaii would put some of those critters in a bottle and stick a FedEx label on them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodreeef March 17, 2012 Share March 17, 2012 I have really been getting into this plankton stuff lately. I get the feeling that the real innovation that will make it possible to breed and rear many species, is the basic notion that the work can be distributed. Different hobbyists can crack different parts of the puzzle, and FedEx can knit the pieces together. For example, I see in the Coral Magazine article on Cross Hatch Trigger breeding, that a copepod in the Strombidium family seems to really have filled in a gap in the food chain. If I could ever transition to a job where I am home consistently, I might be willing and able to fiddle with the intricacies of raising that little critter in quantity. They could then go to somebody else in the club that has the ability to manage the larvea. Somebody else could contribute the eggs from their exotic broodstock. Maybe at takes a village (or a club) to raise a $3,000 fish. Just a thought. I wonder if those guys in Hawaii would put some of those critters in a bottle and stick a FedEx label on them? Dave , I would be willing to help, I am sure you could find many in the club to help you out. I plan on a 200 to 400 gallon system in my house, but the one thing i am struggling with is the amount of waste do/ri water. I know some folks use it for wash machine, hoe are you planning to deal with that? I am reading all i can about the plankton as well. Jist getting back in the hobby after a 10 yr hiatus. I use to have a 180 gallon tank. eddie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 17, 2012 Author Share March 17, 2012 I have been following this thread for about a month now. I have read Martin Moe's notes and journal about his success and failures raising these fish. Do you have other references? I dont have the resources(money or time) to do this just curious! Are you going to treat with streptomycin? How are you planning on rearing the copepods, because based upon reading his notes they had to separate the adults from the juveniles in order not to upset the reproductive numbers of the culture(by passing them through finer meshes)? I would love to see your set-up someday? Eddie Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 17, 2012 Author Share March 17, 2012 Eddie, first off, welcome back to the world of marine keeping. I was also out of the loop for 10 years and was amazed to see how far the hobby has progressed. Corals I thought were impossible to keep then are grown commonplace now. Wow. There aren't too many references on angels because they are the holy grail of fish rearing. Potentially they are so lucrative that any successful attempt is kept "black box" secret. I don't blame them. Bill Addison in puerto Rico raised them but didn't provide much detail to the Breeders Registry that was organizing info at the time. Today MOFIB looks like the preferred venue for information, as well as Reef Central. Several groups in Hawaii collaborated on Pygmy angels and had quite good success. They published some of their data 3 or 5 years ago, perhaps some of them received public funding and had to report, maybe someone had to publish as part of their PhD. I just guessing at both those possibilities, I could be completely off base. But their breakthrough was the culture of two calanoid Copepods with nauplii around 50 microns to fit the mouth gape of a Centropyge larvae. First food has always been the obstacle. Moe used streptomycin, others have used probiotics. I prefer the shotgun approach in which you try everything in different ratios until you figure it out by trial and error. I figure someone with average smarts like me needs to try everything in combination because I'm not set up to find a magic bullet like the experts. But reports that the Hawaii guys are in boats collecting plankton tells me the experts don't have it yet either. Although they're 5 years ahead of me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 17, 2012 Author Share March 17, 2012 Dave , I would be willing to help, I am sure you could find many in the club to help you out. I plan on a 200 to 400 gallon system in my house, but the one thing i am struggling with is the amount of waste do/ri water. I know some folks use it for wash machine, hoe are you planning to deal with that? eddie No hoes available here, just the wife. Sorry, I couldn't resist. I may be making a major mistake to go with well water on the initial fill, but I will bloom Microalgae to clean out all the contaminants, then use brine shrimp to eat up the algae. Vacuum poop off the bottom and I have a poor mans RO system. Future top off will use RO water. I hear it's good for watering the garden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 19, 2012 Author Share March 19, 2012 Here's the last piece of the tank, the 10' connecting tube that links the settlement chamber from one side with the refugium from the other side into a circular flow. The tube is sloped the wrong direction so we could access it, and we took out the temporary wood stairs to get working room. When the tube is finished, the welder will come back and will put in permanent steel stairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thefishman65 March 19, 2012 Share March 19, 2012 Dave - when you are ready for the glass suction handles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w March 19, 2012 Author Share March 19, 2012 Thanks for that great info, Rob. I didn't know that WAMAS has them for rent, but I will be paying my $25 and getting in line. The heaviest piece of glass will be 9' long by 37" high and it will be 3/4" thick. The 3/4" part is what will make it very heavy. It will probably be tempered and two pieces of laminated 3/8". Will this make the best viewing glass? Rob (fishman65) has been a real big help on the fiberglassing work the past few weeks. He wanted to learn the art of fiberglass and now he's an expert. It took him about 5 minutes. It really is a good skill for aquarists to know. I have some friends who work at a glass shop (Dulles glass) else around town might have the best price for low iron "starfire" type glass? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowsingle March 31, 2012 Share March 31, 2012 Any idea when we are going to see this bad boy up and running??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thefishman65 April 5, 2012 Share April 5, 2012 Dave is busy this week. The fiber glassing is almost done. Then the glass needs to be siliconed in. The hope is for water by the end of the month, but it probably salt . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w April 5, 2012 Author Share April 5, 2012 Rob is right, sorry I haven't been checking in. I am snorkeling in Florida with our daughter and haven't been near a computer. I was going to brink back a bunch of gorgonians for friends but logistics will probably prevent that. Maybe I'll bring some alligators instead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LanglandJoshua April 5, 2012 Share April 5, 2012 Maybe I'll bring some alligators instead! I'm going out on a limb here, but that might NOT be one of your best ideas! Have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallreef April 5, 2012 Share April 5, 2012 as long as its alligator meat!!! mmmm fried gator is GOOD! (I'm down for killing it myself if you can't make yourself do it.. but I need atleast a 4 ft one to make it worth it, lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LanglandJoshua April 5, 2012 Share April 5, 2012 Haha, mmmm grilled protein! Gotta admit didn't think of it like that, thought meant a live one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallreef April 6, 2012 Share April 6, 2012 live is fine.. i got a gun and a knife!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w April 6, 2012 Author Share April 6, 2012 live is fine.. i got a gun and a knife!!!! The car is already full of camping supplies, maybe the cooler could fit a small gator, or pieces of a big one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now