My New Fish Breeding Project

[Bonkaz]

Now where do i start, Ok my missus has had Discus for a few years and out of 6 fish we ended up with a breeding pair,
So it was a decision that we made to try and rasie the fry and see how far we could go with it, so we organised another tank, cycled the tank and set the pH to 6.4 and sofened the water to suit.

Then we moved all but the pair into the new tank and to date the pair have layed eggs nearly every 3 days and have had wrigglers maybe 6 times now. The must decide they are hungry and dont know what they are yet(common problem with new parrents) or there is to much traffic around the tank, so they eat them.

They are getting better thou as they are lasting longer and longer each time.

Then with some reserch ok maybe ALOT of research we started to plan a breeding setup that we could setup and have 4 pairs, then with some more research and the cost of expanding it if it all took off it grew, and grew, and grew.

The missus was happy with the 4 tanks, and the time it would take to maintain it because we both work full time, Me 55+ hrs a week working 80+ kms from home and she works in Brisbane so the commute adds up aswell,

The next thing you know out came the tape measure and a few things got moved around in the garage, pen met paper and the plans came together, it finnaly stopped when i ran out of room for grow out tanks, now to date the size of the setup had grown to 16 tanks and 1 sump.

The next thing to think about was the size of the tanks, more research and came to the decision of tanks of 600x460x460 and the sump was to be 1800x900x600, then i had a brain fade and had a chat to a certain BIG tank builder and was advised to make the sump as big as possible, so now its 2100x1500x600.
Oh how plans change... lol i think we will go with 1 1500x900x760 for the sump.

All the breeding tanks will be plumbed with overflows run from a manifold with each tank having its own ball valve and loc line for water control, the overflow will be plumbed with a 100mm drain on both levels feeding the sump through filter socks that will be interchangeable.

The final decision has been made on the return pumps, laguna 16000 there will 2, 1 run as the main and one as a back is the plan, if this dosnt keep up with the damand then they might be run as one either series or parallel, possibly 2x 10000 lph or there abouts.

Now the lighting hasnt been thought about to much at the moment bit it will be minimal.

As for filtration, it will be filter socks, Seachem Matrix, Glass noodles, peat, Ozone and air dryer and maybe a UV sterilizer for now.

Water changes are made with RO filtered water via a 500 lt water tub plumbed with a 20mm bulkhead and ball valve with a plastic chem loc fitting for easy water changes.

Heating may be 5 or more 300w heaters all set at different tempretures or a heating element run from the computer system it will also have.

Cooling for now will be 2x DIY cooling units using the evepritive method, but we will be looking at a chiller unit or 2.

Also we are looking at getting a Aqua Medic AT Control unit to run it all and so we can log all of the important data for the breeding cycle.

The stand has been made and was built out of 50x50x3 RHS steel and i recon you could service your car on it This thing has been built to last and was painted with rust guard, 10 legs hold if off the ground and are all ajustable.

Now no doubt i have forgot a thing or two but thats where you guys come into play so for now ill put some photos up so you can see the progress.

Cheers

Phill & Tess

[Bonkaz]

Ok now for some pics.


















Any and all comments welcome.

Cheers

Phill & Tess

[Bonkaz]

Oh amd the new tanks.

[seanyuki]

Very nice setup ....hope to see more pics when yr fishroom is done.......I have one metal tank set up that holds 5 tanks .

thanks for posting.

[Bonkaz]

Thanks, atm we have ordered 10 solid fire red stendker's to start this little project off, and when we have them paired we are hoping to get ahlod of either some golden sunsets or some nice checkerboards. We are trying to stick with pure strains to get some beautiful a grade fish, i dont think we will be playing with cross breeding (maybe we are a little old school but hey).

Any and all critisism welcome, oh and any advice will help.

Cheers

Phill & Tess

[rubinsteinnyc]

AWESOMENESS!!! did you have the tanks custom made?

[rubinsteinnyc]

BUT... that door... do you plan on opening it once the fish are in? these things are not very quiet and the fish might freak out to say the least...

[Rex82]

So is the photos of the breeding tanks? there looks to be more than 4 breeding tanks there

[rubinsteinnyc]

he said 16

[Rex82]

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20861

I knew i'd seen this before...lol

[Bonkaz]

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20861

I knew i'd seen this before...lol

Hahaha yes you have lol there seems to be more members on this site, and we moved so i had to ste things back up. And yes i only have 4 tanks atm but it has been setup for 16.

[Rex82]

How many Growouts?

[Bonkaz]

We have a 4x2.5x2.5 atm and we are looking at either 2 5x2x2 or 2 5x2.5x2.5 that should be a start i guess we have to see how well they go

[Rex82]

You will be surprised how quick you will run out of room for growout. breedng is the easy part thats for sure

[Bonkaz]

lol thats what we figured, so as soon as i get some junk and a dam vending machine out of the garage we will have some more room lol