1st pics of

[Martyn]

my Mother Colony Grow Out Tank 72"x30"x15"H.









Pics taken of this tank where by Carl Glasser with his dig cam thanks Carl.

I will add the other 13 tanks when people come to visit me if they take pics for me or untill i get my own Dig Cam.

The system was set up in May 2000.
Its been very hard for me in many respects the building up of the SPS coral propagation system.
I had no support as in financial or free help (SimonH has always been helpful over the years) I had no commercial base so no chance of getting corals at trade prices (no Pet licence only keeping corals which are invertabrates) no donations of corals except a few frags I exchanged to increase my species level.
Not owning a shop I am not known or have a customer base or advertise and not being in bussiness there are many disadvantages.

But My plan was to propagate SPS corals I had problems with the system which took time and money to correct which set me back on the time scale of buying corals so a lot of frags where grown out to stock corals and exchanged frags are kept and grown out as stock corals also the aim is to collect 150 to 200 species of SPS corals.

The propagation system now consists of a 3 tier wooden rack support holding 14 tanks plus a sump tank 36"x30"x30"H which feeds the whole system.
The Top tier has three tanks that measure 72"x30"x15"H two 400w 19"x19" hydroponic reflectors over ( Pro-Ultralite Lighting System ) each tank 6 system in total.
one 48"x30"x15"H one 36"x30"x15"H two 150w twin units over these two tank I may upgrade to 250w over these two tanks sometime in the future.
The first top tank which is 72"x30"x15"H feeds into the first bottom tank which is 72"x30"x18"H which has eggcrate sitting on lengths of 1" dia pipe running from front to back then 4" of crushed coral grain sizes of 2mm to 4mm that sits on top of the eggcrate which has a fine mesh between eggcrate and crushed coral.
The remaining top tanks feed directly back to the sump.
The middle tier has three tanks that measure 72"x30"x15"H one tank has a 3 250w unit over it the other two tanks each have 3 150w over them
one 48"x30"x15"H one 36"x30"x15"H they have 2 150w over each of them.
The first middle tank which is 72"x30"x15"H also feeds into the first bottom tank which is the 72"x30"x18"H plenum.
The remaining middle tanks feed directly back to the sump.
The first bottom tank 72"x30"x18"H (triple 150w unit) plenum feeds into a 48"X30"x18"H (double 150w unit) plenum tank that then feeds into a 72"x30"x18"H (triple 150w unit) plenum tank then that feeds into a 36"x30"x18"H (double 150w unit) plenum tank which then feeds into the sump sump has no lighting.
The top and middle rows of Tanks are fed from the sump by a ITT Marlow JEC series Argonaut 1 speed
J75ec 1 phase pump 0.37kw This pump delivers 8.5 cubm/hr of water against a 10m head, shut off head is 15m and self priming head is 2.6m. This is a very reliable high performance unit suitable for continuous operation in freshwater, marine systems and even some corrosive chemical applications.
A 3 phase 6kw Inline titanium heater is fitted to the pipework output of the pump.
Lighting over the tanks are all Metal Halides ranging between 400w 250w 150w all the plenum tanks have 150w over them.
The first inline 72"x30"x18"H plenum tank (not mentioned) broke several months ago I will not replace it as it gives me extra space in this cramped garage hopefully it will not have any adverse effects once I have every tank full of sps frags and mother colonys.
The sump holds an deltec AP 703 deltec skimmer that is rated for For Aquariums up to:
Heavy Stocking 2000 Ltrs (uk444 gals)
Normal Stocking 3000 Ltrs (uk667 gals)
This is not in use but there as a back up and used for 24 hours when doing a fragging sesion of a 100+ frags in one go but I only run 2 of the pumps on the skimmer in that situation then after 24 hours its turned off.
Also all the top and middle tanks have an inch depth of very fine sand not all yet as not all tanks have corals in them yet but slowly adding to the rest cost is the reason. plus all these tanks have some rock work at the back and sides that have sand in them.
I find that when I need to start using more tanks I turn the bank of lighting on over those tanks they go through an algae phase and the sand and rocks seem to help give a balance to each tank even though they are on a cetralised system once the infauna and fauna is diverse enough.
Extra pumps are added to tanks once I bring the lights on when I have filled up existing tanks that are lighted ready to stock with more frags.

A large 3 speed industral fan is fitted into the wall that is on a timer (I tried temperture control and humidity controlers but found they did not do a very good job of controling humidity levels)
I have settings for the timer for summer and winter to regulate air temp and humidity levels to my liking also in the summer the fan is set at its lowest setting in winter it is set at the middle level setting.
I have no insulation in the garage and in my situation I think that insulation would have caused more problems.

I upgrade all my electrics (my electrician name of sparky on this board did a great job)
Very important to have weather proof switches, connections, junction boxes, distribution board covers etc etc.
LOL I am lucky to be alive from when my electrics where not weatherproof.
Just pulling out or pushing in a plug into or out of a socket with damp hands I got electric shocks at times.
And all the water you can splash about when working in the tanks and fragging does not mix with unprotected electrics.

I likely have forgot to mention many things will add later

Martyn

[Reefland]

Awesome Martyn! The torquoise color of those SPS is awesome! I'm curious what you mount your frags to? It appears to be fairly large and thin?

Congrats,

[kevinpo]

Wonderful collection and setup! Do you have a big enough market for your operation? Can I come stay and play in the garage for a week or so? Are you using metal halide lighting only? What color temperature bulbs are they?

Cheers,
Kevin

[Reeffantic]

Hey Martyn, when ya selling some of those corals?

[Martyn]

Hello Scot.
Thanks thought it was time to share with everyone that knows me.
I know its been a long time But been a tad busy the last year or so and cut down on the boards and usage.
Colours are interesting many Acropora get pastel colours for some reason can't put my finger on exactly why.
For the plug discs i use a two part epoxy called milliput, the discs are around 1.5" to 2" dia and as you noticed thin.
Benifits are a good area for base growth and holds frags steady as they grow and light reflection back up to branches.

Hi Kevin
Thanks its taken over two years to get what I have now and in the other tanks.
Market is slow but it will build there is a large demand for these types of Corals in the UK and so far no one is on the same scale I am doing this at.
You are welcome to visit and stay but it is a long way from you as I am in the UK
I have only 6 x MH 400w 3 x 250w 27 x 150w BLV 10000k lamps.

Hi Reeffantic
I am selling but not exporting to the USA sorry I am based in the UK.


Regards
Martyn.

[scubadude]

Martyn that is absolutely GORGEOUS! WOW! My hats off to you, what an awesome job!

[kevinpo]

Martyn,
I was working in Southampton for a while at the end of 2000. I really liked it there. I used to fly 150,000 miles a year for 3 years so I have a few miles saved up. For me England is rather a short hop compared to Brazil (I spent 18 months flying back and forth there. 7,000 miles each way).
So you never know when I might take you up on the offer and drop in for a Guinness

Cheers,
Kevin

[MtnDewMan]

Martyn,

Awesome collection of frags, and some pretty amazing colorations too ... Very impressive setup.

[reddhaus]

Just thought i would tell you that you have a great looking setup.

Wish you were in The States so i could buy a few of those nice looking frags from you.

[Martyn]

Thanks Red

Mtn Thanks.
You have some Acropora's i would love to have Blue acro is very very very rare in the UK.







Kevin Please do visit your input would be great to have.
Any chance of sneaking in a few solid Blue Acropora frags for me if you visit
Like this one and the ones Mtn has.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/attach...&postid=976168

Martyn

PS
My email is mhulyer@aol.com

[Martyn]

All above pics in my posts are growing under 400w lighting in one of my 72"x30"x15"high tank.

Frags that are growing out under 250w MH 72"x30"x15" high tank since this pic was taken the tank is almost full from back to front and end to end.



Frags that are growing out under 150w MH 36"x30"x15"high tank.



Pics Taken and supplied by Carl Glasser Thanks again Carl

Martyn

[almostdiva]

Martyn,

I LOVE that first Looonnngg shot of the whole tank -- you can really see all those cool pastel colors -- I love all those pinky/peach ones and the teal blue ones.

Obviously you have worked extremely hard (mostly by trial and error) and you should be EXTREMELY proud of your accomplishments! The UK reefers are going to be a fortunate lot, IMO...

Rebecca

[turtlespd]

SOrry if this sounds dumb but whats a 150w blv light? Is it only available in the Uk..i havent heard of it in the U.S. But i have seen may outside of the states list 150w blk and just wondering.

[Martyn]

Just over 3 months.
An update

Some pics taken by Kevin Ling at the weekend.

Tank one.













Thanks again Kevin for the great pics.

Regards
Martyn

[Martyn]

Is there a pic uploader here ?

[kevinpo]

Hi Martyn,
Quite the collection It looks like it will be getting a little crowded soon. I enjoyed the pictures very much. Thank you for the update and sharing them.

Cheers,
Kevin

[Martyn]

Hi Kev thanks I got 7 more tanks to fill yet out of 14 tanks.

Here are a few more pic updates.

Pics of the cramped prop system showing 14 tanks (3tier racks) with two of tanks with lighting on shows how cramped it is in there.
The ro unit needs changing its gone a tad rusty and TDS are high thanks to Kevin Lings meter readings it struggles to keep up with evap in the winter anyway so an upgrade was on the cards anyway.
Yep that ugly fat old slob in the 1st two pics is me








The above pics where taken by Sparky did not realise he had taken it and was to late for me to hide I hate pics of me being taken the second pic I had managed to hide

Regards
Martyn

[Martyn]

Some pics by Andrew (aka Sparky) of my system With his brand new cam.

Tank one.

[Martyn]

Tank One still.

[Martyn]

Tank 2
This tank has had no lighting over it for nearly 2 years and I used one bag of sand Natures ocean not used in any other tank and I have been going through a hair algae phase in this tank even though none of the other tanks have this algae and its the same water circulating in all the 14 tanks.
the hair algae is nearly over and corals and frags are being added.
I have a few more pics of this tank to sort and add..
I will in the next week or so get new pics of this tank.
From Andrew who took these pics.









Tank 4
Not many pics but will get more new ones at a later date.



orange monti from Brian (aka IrishReefer)



Also got to get pics of tank 5 and tank 6 and tank 7 and tank 10.


Regards
Martyn