Peacock breeding setup

[Ghost91]

I am wanting to set up a 10 x 12 shed to breed peacock cichlids. 

I've seen a ton of people who do 10 fish colonies in 29 gallons and was planning on doing 20 fish colonies in 40 breeders. Or 30 fish colonies in 75 gallons. 1 male to 9 females.

What I'm having trouble deciding is what I will need for grow outs.

I plan on doing a flow through system so water quality will remain pristine. I will put flow through enough water daily to keep ppm below 20 in all tanks.

Would 20 gallon to the 2-3 inch range then separate all males and move them to 40 gallons to sell and grow to maturity be reasonable if im flowing as much water as needed to keep nitrates low.

Also how many fry per 20 and how many juvenile per 40?

I'm trying to figure out how my racks will be set up and what my lay out will be. And how many colonies I can set up and have enough room for grow outs.

Thank you for any advice even if you have experience and wish to give advice on topics I didn't bring up. Ive had a ton of fun with my current small breeding setup and would like to try to break even and support my hobby by going a little bigger.

[Cory]

If you are gonna use the 29gs for breeding. I'd probably just do all 29 gallons. You could divide the tanks with matten filters or other dividers if needed to raise the fry. 

[Ghost91]

@Cory

Whoa a comment from the main man himself. Thanks so much I know how busy you are. Can't wait for more updates on the new fish room.

So after a couple of days of contemplating I think I'm going to roll with the 29s and just run them front to back to maximize the amount of tanks I can fit on both walls.

I have a 50x100 shop so I can throw up a another room for strictly breeder tanks if this turns into something I enjoy and want to expand. 

Now I'm running into the problem of water treatment. I plan on doing a manual drain and fill or a drip flow through, havnt decided yet on that.

But my water has 2.2ppm chloromine throughout the year according to my annual County water report.

I was going to build reactor style carbon filters using 4" pipe and daisy chaining a few 4' long upright sections together with the in line running down the center and the out coming out of the side near the top to push water up through the charcoal. Since its chloromine I know I need to use catalyzed carbon. Do you have any experience on how long x amount of carbon treats x amount of water at x ppm? 

To be safe im leaning to the water change option so I can test daily and if I detect chlormine I can hand dose the tanks.

But if I had a general idea of how long it would last a flow through system would be hands free and give me very stable water parameters.

 

Thanks agian for the help.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Ghost91

[Ghost91]

 This would be another option.

@Cory

I'm on 1.5 acres and could dig a pond behind my shop. Weld a stand inside the shop above the fishroom to put a 55 gallon drum on. Pump water up to the drum and gravity feed to the inside of the fish room. Then have an overflow that runs back to the pond and stack a bunch of 55 gallon totes for a trickle tower that would hold a massive amount of bio media. With a mechanical filter between the pond and the fish room.

This would have a few benefits. I could put covers over the overflows similar to the way the discus farm you toured so mulm gets pulled from the bottom of the tank greatly reducing the need to vac the tanks. 

I could make the pond as big as I wanted to dilute nitrates and I could just water change the pond without effecting water levels in the tank. This also means I could just do one dosing of seachem safe for the total water volume of the system. Which would be much cheaper than catalyzed carbon. 

And I could cover the pond and install a gutter across the back and run water through it to plant pathos in and lattice the back wall of the shop. Once grown out a 30' x 40' wall of pathos would be quite the nitrate suckered greatly reducing water changes.

The downside is the problem of one system. If I get an infection or parasite it could wreck the whole setup. 

But I've seen places you tour do central systems so if I med treated all new fish to the system would I be fairly safe from that?

Edited December 9, 2020 by Ghost91

[Cory]

I'd do auto water change with your city water. I haven't had to deal with chloramine but I know people do with fish rooms like that. So it must not be that bad to accomplish. Not easy I'm sure.