ISSUE # 7 page 3 July 1997

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This is a project that you can set up in your garage or spare room. We now have four 300 gallon round tanks. One tank has 40 watt lights and the other three have 400 watt halides. We are growing aquaculture live rock in all of the tanks. Now that rock has grown a good coat of coralline algae we will be gluing reef animals to the layer of rock that is on top. I have been cutting frags of sps corals and gluing them to the coralline rocks. I glue four or five different frags to each rock and then I move them under the lights. This type of rock would be hard to ship , but they are very easy to deliver to local shops.

Zoanthids are one of the best inverts. to grow in these tanks for a profit. You can glue several small groups of five or six polyps to each rock. I use the plugs from the rack tanks to get my cuttings. This is a good :

PROJECT OF THE WEEK ZOANTHID COMBO ROCK Materials: Three colors of Zoanthids One lb. coralline covered rocks - this is a great project for AragocreteTM One tube reef glue Tools: several plastic bowls One small chisel This Zoanthid colony was started by using super glue to attach polyps to a coral branch Start by cutting your Zoanthids off of the rocks or plugs they are growing on. I put each color in one bowl of reef water. Place the rocks one at a time on your cutting board and glue several colors to each one. Zoantids are available in many colors. These green polyps were tank grown from a colony that came from Fiji. Palythoa and Zoanthids can be attached to the same base rock. Now you can put all of the SEA MAT ROCKS in the HORSE WATER TANKS .

STAGE TWO - LARGE SCALE GROW OUT TANKS This grow out tank is made from a plastic horse water tank that holds 350 gallons. We purchased these tanks for only $70.00 each. We have also used 5 foot Lerio® tree pots that we ordered with out the drain holes. My new sps coral system will consist of 8 - 4' square by 30" tall plastic fork lift boxes. These boxes are molded out of food grade plastic and they have double walls with a 3" air space between them. We purchased these tanks for only $50.00 each because they are seconds.

LIGHTING FOR GROW OUT SYSTEMS We are using two 40 watt shop lights - Each fixture holds one Triton and one Blue Moon bulb. This system is used to grow coralline algae on AragocreteTM base rocks. We have been placing Gravel bowls with mushroom cuttings under the lights. We have several other systems like this that we light with Halides. Your lighting will depend on your budget and your product. For most uses the more light the better as long as it does not heat the system above 80 degrees.

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LOW COST TANKS This grow out tank is made from a plastic horse water tank that holds 350 gallons. We purchased these tanks for only $70.00 each. Call the factory and ask for seconds. These tanks have defects that will not make them leak.

My new sps coral system will consist of eight four foot square by 30" tall plastic fork lift boxes. These boxes are molded out of food grade plastic and they have double walls with a 3" air space between them. We purchased these tanks for only $50.00 each because they are seconds. These tanks are used to move produce into storage. I saw some like them last month on the coast that were used for moving fish at the dock.

A good tank to do a Summer experiment with costs only $14.00 and it is six feet wide. These tanks are made by using a childs hard plastic wading pool. It is fun and it can produce several hundred pounds of coraline covered Aragocrete^TM live rock before it gets too cold outside. I place these tanks in a location that gets morning sun and afternoon shade.

LIKE I HAVE SAID BEFORE - THE WAY TO START , IS TO JUST START!

ENJOY- LEARN - AND SHARE :)

LeRoy Headlee

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I anchored each piece with a piece of GARF GRUNGE rubble. Within two days each piece had almost an inch of new growth! In three weeks each piece had replicated itself several times by runners and in five weeks there was over twenty inches of runners with 'feathers' and /or 'grapes' all over the sunny part of the tank. meanwhile, on the other end, one live rock with about a 3" length of grape caulerpa had only grown about two inches, with 3 each 40W florescents overhead. the difference between the growth is astounding!

I cant reccommend enough that if you want good growth on caulerpa - get it into the sunshine! It also needs to be kept in mind that spring is when caulerpa grows best, but, I believe that it will also do better in its 'log' time with sunlight then only overhead artificial light.

I think that this has an application for those who want to use 'reef scrubbers ' if they can get the scrubber into a good morning light window and then use strong overhead light all night. I think that this is worth a try.

One other point, cultured reef rocks versus conventional "live rocks" for cycling new tanks. I am beginning to think that there is a strong advantage to using cultured rocks over the purchased 'live rocks' now available.

With the cultured rocks you have a known quantity, it will have strong active denitrifying bacteria, and NOT creatures that you dont want, bristle worms, bivalves and other dead or dying organisms to send your nitrites/nitrates off of the scale. Cultured rocks will usually have several species of life that you want in addition to the coraline algae, and, these are already acclimated to tank life.

Comparing 'mushroom rocks' in a large pet shop in Rochester,NY to 'live rocks' I found the mushroom rocks to be slightly less expensive than live rocks- about $23-29 per rock to about $5 per pound for the 'live rocks', which were larger but, had less desirable life forms. This needs to be balanced out, also, these mushroom rocks were 'wild imports', not cultured.

The cultured rocks that we are beginning to produce have coraline algae, caulerpa and 2-3 reef species grown on them, and, in the process of growing the coralline rock have acquired a healthy microfauna on them. and NO bristle worms etc to provide unpleasant surprises. These are each healthy colonies of desirable reef life forms.

I am going to be soon cycling two more tanks, and intend to use all cultured reef rocks to start them. A plenum, with 3-4" of arogonite, about 5# each of GARF GRUNGE for the 'goodies' in it (including all the coralline algae on it) and then about eight or ten cultured reef rocks on a base of cast rocks with coralline on them. Two powerheads and 3 each 40W flo overhead and a heater in each, I will also have them connected by syphons, and they will become the colony tanks for a production module of 3 more growout tanks plus a vat for coralline growout. All of them syphoned together for common water flow through them.

I think also, that I will finally buy a test kit to track the nitrite/nitrates on this module to see how it tracks ( gasp, horrors, he doesnt own a test kit!!!!!). Nope, no kit yet, but, if I can find an accurate one, then, it would be interesting to track this with all cultured reef rocks.

Truth be known, the only test items that I own are thermometers and an aquarium systems hydrometer. I do have several 'skilters' that I check regularly to dump any accumulation, and adjust my feeding accordingly. Skilters on colony tanks only. plenums in everything.

LeRoy has the 'Bullet Proof Reef', maybe I will call this the "Kiss System"? as in' keep It Simple Stupid'. I dont know, I thought Lee Eng was nuts back in the 70s, now I wonder how he got so smart! Ten years from now we will be further along then we are now, I wish you all well in getting there!

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