The main building is where we will house the majority of our broodstock. We learned many lessons at the old facility and did our best to ensure that everything in this new place would help maximize our growing potential and ease the labor intensive job of maintaining thousands of gallons of saltwater tanks. With only 1500 square feet in this building we decided to custom build everything so that we would get the most out of our space.
Our Tanks
Our tanks consist of 5 independent systems. Each one has 4, 4'x4'x2' tank with a sump of the same size.We determined that this was the optimal size that a single metal halide bulb could light efficiently. Each system is roughly 1000 gallons and can hold up to 4000 frags each. We only use natural filtration via our top mounted refugiums filled with live rock and a few small protein skimmers to reduce some of the excess nutrients in our stony systems.
The Surges
After much success with gravity fed surge systems we felt that the best way to incorporate surges into our new tanks was to scrap the idea of surge buckets and have the tanks themselves surge. The tanks were built in steps so that we could have the top 40-50 gallons of water surge into the tank below it. It was a bit of a risk since there was no way to test the idea before we built it, but our previous experience gave us the confidence that it would work. The results were better than we could have hoped for. The surges work flawlessly and are maintenance free. It produces an extremely varied flow without a single extra pump, timer or mechanical device.
Plumbing
One of the biggest labor issues that plague both hobbiests and commercial aquarists is the task of maintaining the tanks. Water changes, top off and water testing were always an issue in the past and we wanted to make it as easy as possible to maintain these tanks. We installed a laborynth of piping across the length of the building which bring fresh water, salt water and pressurized air to each system and also pipes which carry water from the tanks back to the testing station and directly to the drains.
