New Propagation System!

Hello to all,

The past 4 weeks have been busy as the new coral propagation system was installed and fine tuned. The total water volume of this system is 500 gallons with a total holding capacity of approximately 30 boxes of coral. The tanks consist of three 42X48X24h" white food grade HDPE stock tanks along with a 24X48X10h" glass refugium tank on a steel Gorilla rack shelving unit.

Filtration

 
  

Choosing a skimmer for this system took a lot of research.  A Reeflo Orca was the final choice after checking out several skimmers on display at Reef-a-Palooza 2007 in August.  The Orca's benefits include a balance between energy efficiency (120w) and price (MSRP $1500).  This skimmer is driver by a Sequence Dart needlewheel pump which needs to be plumbed externally.

In order to prevent overflows from the external skimmer a wet table was constructed.  The wet table consists of a Gorilla rack steel shelving unit with upgraded ¾" plywood shelves and a 3'X5' sheet of pvc shower liner (similar to pond liner).

The wet table's plywood shelf was drilled with a hole for a 1.5" bulkhead and the pvc liner was placed over the plywood.  Next a hole was cut in the pvc liner over the plywood's hole and a 1.5" bulkhead was installed through both the pond liner and the plywood shelf. The bulkhead was then tightened from below and a short length of pipe was glued to the underside of the bulkhead connecting it to the refugium tank below.  In order to form a lip for the wet table, a set of the Gorilla rack's steel shelf braces was used around the top edge and the pvc liner was fitted over them and trimmed to form a seamless basin.  Extra care was taken not to cut any slits into the corners of the pvc liner below the upper rim in order to assure a leak free basin.

Water is fed to the skimmer from the center stock tank using a Quiet one 4000 submersible pump (50w).  The water then exhausts from the skimmer into the glass refugium tank on the shelf below.  Once water passes through the refugium it overflows to a tee that splits the water between the left and right stock tanks.  From the left & right stock tanks water overflows into the center tank and completes one full cycle.

Extra filtration is provided by a Deltec FR616 Fluidized Reactor running 3mm pelletized activated carbon 24 hours a day.  An adjustable 200mg/hr Ozotech ozonizer feeds the skimmer with ozone periodically.  When new corals are added a polyfilter is sometimes used as well.

Lighting

Lighting for the left and right stock tank is the same; 250w  20k Helios bulbs driven by Icecap ballasts through Luminarc III reflectors.  This provides good coverage of the 42"X48" stock tanks. Lighting on the center tank consists of five Helios T5 retrofits mounted to the underside of the plywood shelf above the tank.  The retrofits consist of two 11k and three Actinic plus bulbs which creates a similar spectrum to an overdriven Radium MH.

Questions?

If this overview missed any questions you have about the system please feel free to email and ask.  Updates to this Blog will be made as new questions are received.  Thanks for reading & happy propagation!