---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"cheers, Todd... and welcome to MD my friend!

I hope that I/we can help with your project indeed. As per your questions:

1) painting the interiors white (pool or tub&tile pain - nontoxic once cured) will improve reflection and light... though perhaps not by much and even then likely not worth the maintenance required (algae scraping/control to keep them white. My suggestion is to not bother.

2) DSB... no mystery to why they work or not to me/many. If you keep adequate water flow to prevent solids from settling over time (nutrient sink) then you can enjoy the benefits of DSB (minerals/Ca, buffering, plankton vector, etc). I generally recommend them for farm tanks, but not for casual display tanks (use RDSB instead)

3) setup: all four tanks for farming... no sump... and all separate (only 4 species too unless you will use ozone and do large weekly water changes (until sales kick in enough to take care of this).

Anthony Calfo"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anthony,

Thank you very much for the advice and the welcome.

Considering the depth and size of the 100 Gal stock tanks, what would you recommend for filtration and circulation for individual tanks. I will be starting with anemone's, so I obviously don't want anything that will suck them in, i.e. powerheads. Would it be possible to move enough water with air in this size tank, and is it safe to use air from an air compressor in the garage if there are no contaminants in the air for the air compressor to suck in? have a 60 gallon upright compressor that I could tee off of and the garage will be fish only. Am I right in assuming that a clean up crew is unnecessary as long as there is enough flow to keep detritus from collecting on the bottom?

I plan to put at least 6 inches of sand in the bottom and support eggcrate about 10" below the surface.  I believe after reading the other threads that I should only keep one type of anemone in each tank, correct? I am very interested in giving a Martensi a try after reading the anemone info in your Fav's links. Phil's (phender) cutting of the Martensi in particular from Reef Central.

I plan to start with a Martensi and RTBA, what other two anemone's would be best for resale in your opinion. Regarding the choice of anemone, I will only be using HD shop lights with two 40 watt 6500K bulbs each. I think from reading the other threads that this will be sufficient light for many anemone's. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I will be having clavical surgery the end of Oct and be layed up for 3 to 6 months. I am going to order the Brood Stock anemone's in about a week and put them in my display until I have recovered from surgery, so they should be ready for ppropagation after 3 to 6 months of feeding and healing from transport.

I know you are a busy man, so I will end this book here for now.

Thanks again for your help...

Todd

 

Todd

Yes... air lifts alone are enough flow for anemone tanks and many shallow tanks. You will not need much/any scavengers wif you have enough flow... but still do co-culturing diatom (brown algae) eating mollusks that will reproduce (can be sold) and useful such as "ceriths" (Cerithium sp) and Stomatella ("paper shell" snail). Skim aggressively too and do large weekly water changes until sales move enough water out for optimal water quality.

For two other target species... hands down it would be Heteractis crispa and H. malu

These are hardy, popular, salable and good prop candidates (better than the carpets in fact by far)

Skip the egg-crate for anemone culture (use only carpet to line the pool) and double up on the lights (four "plant" type 48" fluorescent bulbs over 8 ft sq here)) and be sure to target feed small amounts of food frequently. Cyclopeeze and/or rotifers may be good choices.

.

Anthony Calfo

Would large pond sponges and one inch PVC be sufficient to fabricate air lift tubes for this size, and how many per tub?

Could you please describe the use of indoor/outdor carpet? Are you saying to simply line the walls of the tub, or should I have something suspended in the water (egg crate) to attach the carpet to? If this is described in your Book of Coral Propagation please direct me there, I received it last week and started reading it, I will get to it soon.

Todd

lease no... never. Always avoid centralized anything in farming/culture. This only works for short term holding (ala wholesaler/transshipper). You need one skimmer per. DO check out the effective and affordable DIY Nilsen style skimmers in my Book of Coral Propagation.

I beg to differ... I don't think these styles are top shelf performers, and I am sure that they are far from being efficient. i am not joking at all when I say I would not take one for free. I simply would not invest the time or money to make such a skimmer work optimally.

This issue and the other questions you ask hit upon the fact/reality that you are very new to the business/industry of farming/producing. Thats not a bad thing my friend. Quite wonderful in fact (welcome aboard!). But to help you help yourself... you need to get better informed before you ask premature questions and confuse yourself to the point of becoming disillusioned.

Please take the time to tread the links in my Fav links sticky atop this forum. Specifically go to the anemone propagation threads as well as the business links (both listed alphabetically in the post called "discussions"

You will find many of the answers you seek plus more that you have not asked yet

.

Anthony Calfo

I have the next 3 to 6 months while recovering from surgery to read and attain all the knowledge I can. I understand that this will still leave me very green to the business/farming side, but you have to start somewhere. I will also be purchasing the "Business PLan Pro" softwear soon and start developing my plan Please know that I don't plan to jump into this unprepared.

I will continue reading your Fav's threads and Book of Coral Propagation and any information I can get my hands on and get back to this thread when I am more prepared to ask questions.

Thank you for your help

Todd

Anthony Calfo