# Gilles' shrimp farm (report)



## Gilles (Oct 12, 2007)

At this moment i have a small 10 gallon tank in which i have red fire shrimp. I haven't finished my big tank or i allready have the next project i am working on. This time i am going to create my own (as cheap as possible) DIY shrimp farm. I have ordered shrimps from Ryan Wood (Excellent service btw), and shrimp need space to hatch, so had to build something. The shelves the shrimp tanks would be placed on, had been lying weeks in my garage.

*Idea fase*
My initial idea was to place 3 tanks on the shelves, measuring 90cmx40cmx30cm high. This tank would be separated into 3 smaller tanks measuring 30cmx40cmx30cm. Filtration would be done by using an air pump and the plant lightning (yes i want some small plants) would come from a 11w energy saver bulb. My garage is shared, which means i have my own little space behind a sealed door. This means it is semi-heated.

After some carefull consideration, i decided to make my tanks out of so called "betonplex" (I don't know the English name) in the Netherlands, which is really plywood with a really good water resistant coating. This meant i'd skip the large tank idea and go for the 9 smaller tanks idea. A smaller tank is also better to lift from the shelf. Each tank will have 8 US gallons of water.

*Construction*
I ended up using 2 plates of 255cm by 125cm which normally cost about 126USD per plate. This would mean i had to buy 250$ wood  Luckily, i ended up at a cheap timber shop which did all the sawing for me, and i ended up spending 140$ for 2 plates! That is a better price!

The glass for the tanks (front, so i can see something) costed me 80$, so i ended up (construction wise) spending 140$+80$+20$(glue/screws) 240$ for 9 tanks, meaning 26$ per tank. If i bought the tanks from glass, they would cost me 47$/piece. This means almost double the price i made them for!

*The (semi) finished tanks*
All tanks are assembled on thesame way. They have been screwed and glued (hehe) Screws are for strength :boxing:, the glue to make it water tight. All holes where pre-drilled using a vertical drill. This means that each part has thesame number of holes on thesame position. I have tried a number of different techniques (while building, you learn..)

Technique 1:
I started by sanding the edges where the glue would come. This because the web said i had to in order to create a good glue connection. This meant i sanded, degreased it, put kit (glue) on it and next i screwed the plates. This resulted in glue coming out of every hole. When i cleaned this using my finger it still resulted in a lot of glue ending up on the sides of the tank which i did not like. On the indside, i put glue in the corners to seal it watertight.

Technique 2:
Thesame as above, minus the sanding. This still gave to much glue and was very dirty work.

Technique 3:
Don't glue the boards, just screw them together. When the tank is done, put glue on the inside to make the seals water thight. By far this was the cleanest result and costed me the least glue. It should be as water tight as technique 1/2 but time will tell.



















*The shelve*


















*Making some room to glue in the front window*
After i finished the tanks, i had to put in the front window. First i had to clean my garage since it was a mess  I glued the windows with black silicone kit to the wood, and after that had dried i glued with transparant silicone on the inside to ensure it is water tight.




























*Press the glass using all you can find*


















*Filtration:*













































*Lights/electrics:*
Instead of using 11w energy saver bulbs which needed a lot of custom wiring i ended up with a fluorescant light of 21w (T5) with exactly the length i needed.



















*Overview:*


















Right now i am priming my tanks with salt water to eradicate any dirt or bacteria left behind. Today i am going to switch the air pump i currently have (550 liters / hour for 9 tanks) for a bigger version (1800 liters / hour for 9 tanks). This saturday i am going to fill the tanks with water from my big tank and put the spongue in so the filter can prime.


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## GlitcH (Aug 21, 2006)

Very interesting.
I hope you were right, just screwing the boards together then gluing. Personally, I think I would have played it safe and slathered the stuff on. LOL 
One thing I'd like to mention about the black silicone......some of it is mold resistant......that's bad for shrimp. I hear that some fish can deal with it but not shrimp. Read the package well, hopefully it doesn't say mold or mildew resistant.
Anyway.......great thread and I hope it all works out for ya.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

That wood material is interesting. Do you know what the water proof coating on the wood is? 

I think I would have relied on the glue for strength, instead of the screws, based on my experience with "woodworkers glue", which is stronger than the wood itself. But, I understand the squeeze out problem too. The tanks aren't so big that there is a lot of pressure trying to separate the joints, so I suspect they will work fine.

Very interesting project!


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## Gilles (Oct 12, 2007)

@Hoppy: The coating is made of epoxy, and the English name is "film-faced plywood". So far, none of my tanks started leaking and they have been filled with water since 2 weeks now. The tanks have started priming and my shrimp will arrive in 1,5 week 

New pics will follow then.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Another annoying question: Gilles, do you know of anyone with tanks build similar to these? How long do they last, or are they essentially good for life, as glass tanks are?

I have heard and read about people building tanks with plywood, then coating the inside with epoxy for water proofing, but I think they also always use fiberglass in the coating to prevent any cracking of the epoxy. I have a dim memory of the tanks tending to leak a bit.


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## yum (Feb 11, 2008)

wow. what a cool project! i'm too nervous about leaks to attempt something like this! well... that and the lady won't have it in the house. lol. i get a 20 gallon in the living room and that's it... although when i finally get a home with a basement she said i can go nuts.


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## Gilles (Oct 12, 2007)

Still no leaks (all is running for 2 months now), going to start in my new house this weekend with construction.


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## xpistalpetex (Mar 31, 2008)

pictures!!!! pictures!!!!


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## BenBOMB (Apr 25, 2009)

I know this is an oldish thread, but you should update this.


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## studdedsham (Oct 2, 2007)

Agreed. I enjoy reading Gilles' threads.


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## Gilles (Oct 12, 2007)

Thank you guys! 

Since i made these pictures i moved houses and now the entire thing is in my shed. I am planning on moving the entire thing up to my attic, since i have a spare room there and it will save me lots of power (heaters) and even more power in the winter (electro-heater for the ambient tempereture). Last winter was a bitch here in the Netherlands. I barely got the water temperature up to 13 degrees celcius (wheras it should be +/-22).


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## zdam20 (Mar 8, 2009)

I built an aquarium out of plywood, painted inside with epoxy paint and it lasted 10 years without leaking. Cheap way to make a tank.


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## Gilles (Oct 12, 2007)

Well i moved it from my shed to my attic, but that isn't working also. I've been neglectful with maintenance causing some shrimp to die. Currently the tanks have in total 180w of power for about 10 hours, meaning 1800w per day, meaning 0.67$ per day only for lights. The tanks are not isolated at all and heaters have to be put in the tank since the room has no heating. Also, the room has to sink, etc. etc. 

So i have decided to make 1 'farm' in my working chamber. I'm almost always there, meaning maintenance will be much better (since i see the shrimp daily). It is almost done, meaning that i saw the wood, created the cabinet, finished wiring 12 electrical sockets yesterday and started with the powerled assembly. Above each tank a 3w CREE led will be put, which should be enough. Power consumption will drop to 36w/hour and approx. 0.13$/day so that is 1 fifth of the old usage. Also; the tanks will be insulated with Styrofoam, bottom, back and left/right meaning it is isolated which was not the case on the attic. Pics will come soon.


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## Gilles (Oct 12, 2007)

First shrimpfarm i made:









Time for an upgrade:
6 tanks each measuring 1 meter by 40cm by 30centimers high; made by myself off course. Each tank is separated into 2 tanks holding approx. 56 liters of water. Closet made of high-grade plywood very good quality don't know the english word for it, sorry...

Every tank has its own socket and air will be fored into the closed circuit via 1 channel. Lighting is DIY also using 3watt powerleds (which can be dimmed by adjusting the knob on the DIY driver box). All in all it only uses 36wattas of power for 12 tanks  If all goes as it is right now i don't need heaters at all since my room is 20 degrees celcius all the time.

All tanks will have ADA amazonia II to get the PH to a comfortable level. Furthermore i have a water connection in thesame room so doing maintenance is easy! behind the tanks there is a black cardboard just for the looks. More pictures will follow (if it is filled with shrimp).






























































































































































































p.s. on the last picture, the lights are dimmed


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## Chuppy (Aug 5, 2007)

NICE! looks very neat and I can't wait to see how it goes!

Drew


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## R33 GTR (Aug 4, 2008)

looks awsome


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

very nice


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## Jeff.:P:. (Nov 20, 2007)

very sharp. congrats.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Pretty amazing! Can't wait to see it done!


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Very cool! Makes me think... do I have enough room for something like this???


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## Jdinh04 (Oct 7, 2004)

Stunning farm, can't wait to see what it'll look like once its all done, filled and have living critters!


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## joshd (Oct 16, 2009)

It does look fantastic. Please keep us posted on the progress.


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## londonloco (Sep 25, 2005)

tagging along.....


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