Coral farm

[Darylb]

So as some of you may know I built a stand for a friend of mine just recently. Today I took it to his house and I had quiet a shock he has about 15 tanks he has a tank rack with 6 tanks on it and then more random ones all through out his house. When I was there he asked me if I wanted to help him build a coral farm using natural light for all the corals. Has anyone ever tried this before can it actually be done?
We are going to build a patio over the deck area and have clear sheets on the roof and run a massive sump out of a 1000 litre container

 

[Rutrag]

Yes, two coral propagation facilities I know of do this: Pacific East Aquaculture and Atlantic Sea Farms. They essentially use wide but relatively shallow troughs in a temperature controlled greenhouse to grow out colonies, frag them, and let heal.

 

[Darylb]

Wow that's crazy yeah he has 2 really shallow but long tanks for frags how would he go about temp tho I mean we get heat up to 45 degrees some days and that's celcious

 

[TheTodd]

I would imagine heaters and chillers could work to control temperature. The chiller would have to be larger, due to the tank being exposed to higher temps than the average indoor tank would get.

 

[mr_X]

Yes, two coral propagation facilities I know of do this: Pacific East Aquaculture and Atlantic Sea Farms. They essentially use wide but relatively shallow troughs in a temperature controlled greenhouse to grow out colonies, frag them, and let heal.

Pacific East? This must be something new. I drove out there a few years ago and all I saw was frags- not one single colony. The things he had for sale were the same things I saw on a wholesale supplier's stock list that same week.
I did see some pictures on the wall of him with some islanders holding up big coral colonies, but all that means is he flew out there to see it in person.

 

[Rutrag]

Last time I was there he had several colonies in the sunroom part at the front of the building. That was around 6 months ago I guess.

 

[bribo12]

I was just there today and they had a couple big monti cap colonies outside in the greenhouse. However all the acro colonies out there looked like they just came in that week and they were fragging them up.