DIY Brine Factory... (1 Viewer)

[Niko5]

I will soon have some Dwarf Sea Horses and I need BBS and I cant do anything the easy way so I made a Brine Hatching Factory out of acrylic (what else) it holds 4x 20 Oz bottles. I went with the smaller ones because I only plan to keep maybe 4 horses's and I dont think ill need as many BBS and because im quickly running out of space .

I had planed to put a shelf on the wall to sit this on but after I made it i got to thinkin ited be easer to just put a couple screws through the back and hang it off the wall. So hopefully ill have some pics of it running soon.

Brine Shrimp Station Pic

 

[Guest]

Hey, that came out really nice! I had a DIY BBS Hatchery as well, but was arranged as a 2x2 instead of a 4x1 (or inline ) as you have here. Also it was made out of wood and not nearly as attractive as yours. The advantage of your design is that it is easy to hang on the wall (or run along the inside of a large enough sump). What I like about the 2x2 design is that you can put a small 15 Watt incandescent light bulb between the 4 bottles. This gave equal heat and light to each bottle. The BBS would gravitate to the bottom and were easy to siphon out. Most of the unhatched eggs would be floating on top ( the unhatched eggs were not at all good for the baby fish I was working with at the time ). I just thought I'd mention this alternative setup.

Again, nice work!

 

[Niko5]

wow I wish I had thougt of the 2x2 layout before I made this I like the idea of the light right in the middle hummmmmm I was thinking of using a 2ft strip florecent light behing thease but im not sure just yet... I had also though of placing a white LED by each bottle any idea how they would respond to the LED light?

 

[Guest]

The LED lights would look cool in your acrylic setup. Whether they work is only a matter of experimentation! On the flip side you can't beat the ease and the price of a cheap short florescent fixture from WM. I always used incandescents for the additional benefit of heat, but also have had success hatching in the low 70's as well. What is the optimum temp for hatching BBS anyway?

 

[Niko5]

*flips to page 97 of his plankton culture manual that happense to be sitting on the desk* it is 77F - 86F.

I dont think ill have a heat or cold problem they will be in my sump room and its always plenty warm in there.

 

[Niko5]

Well iv got it screwed to the wall and hatch my first bbs yesterday just thourhgt ied show a picture with all the airline plubing in place.

Each bottle has alittle 3/16" "fuel line bulkhead" in the bottle cap wiht an oring so it doesent leak then comes out with a T in the airline and 1 way has a check valve which is where the air comes from the the other way has a small valve I can open for draining the brine out.

Picture 2

 

[pernelf]

the only thing I could suggest is some type of lid to keep down salt water splatter out of the bottles, I have a hatchery and that is my biggest complaint.

 

[Niko5]

I have some small plastic bags i put over the top with a rubber band and a hole in the top to let air out.

 

[Guest]

Well, it happened again this week. No one's fault. Due to the weahter the supplier for my LFS didn't ship the live brine shrimp for my horses. I know how to hatch bbs, but what are the special needs to get them to grow to adults? I have been unsuccesful each time.

Do any members have any adult bs that I could buy from you? I would pay you for shipping also. We live 7 hours from Houston.

Thanks for any help, h. Barbouris family

 

[Niko5]

I know it takes like 3 weeks and phyto plankton to grow bbs to adult size... but i have also herd it can be hard. Sorry not really any help.

 

[Cakepro]

Adult brine shrimp are nutritionally deficient. I hope that you enrich them with phytoplankton or Selcon for 6 - 12 hours before feeding them to your seahorses or your seahorses may eventually starve.

Brine shrimp reach adulthood in 8 days. You only need to feed them phytoplankton or rotifers daily to get them to adulthood. If I had adults, I'd help you but I only hatch baby brine.

~ Sherri