About the LiveAquaria® Coral Farm & Aquatic Life Facility

First opened in July 2005, the LiveAquaria Coral Farm & Aquatic Life Facility is one of the nation's premier coral propagation facilities.

This cutting-edge facility employs the most sophisticated technology in lighting, filtration, water movement, and quarantine systems to ensure your new purchase makes a safe and successful transition into your home aquariums.

Quick Stats:

• 1st Opened: July, 2005
• Renovations:
  • 2017 Expanded with (7) additional dedicated freshwater holding racks
  • 2016 Added (7) Dedicated freshwater holding racks for Diver's Den® WYSIWYG Store
  • 2016 Expanded marine fish quarantine system
  • 2007 Facility expansion more than doubled size of operations
• Size: 30,000 gallons across eleven discreet holding systems
• Staff: 26 employees, working shifts year 'round
• Power Backup: The entire facility is hooked to a 130KW external Natural Gas power backup generator
• Air Handling: Sealed building fed by two air handling systems maintaining humidity levels of below 60%, and a stable temperature of 76 degrees Fahrenheit.

Water Storage Tanks

• RO Unit: 3,500 gallons per day unit with industrial deionization resin cartridges producing 0 TDS pure water
• Heater: 9,000 watts
• (1) 2,000-gallon water storage tank for holding pure RO/DI water
• (5) 4,000-gallon water storage tanks for holding freshly mixed LiveAquaria® Professional Reef Salt saltwater

Facility Overview

• Handling:
  • (11) Discreet systems with independent filtration
  • (3) Dedicated fish systems (treatment, quarantine, and main)
  • (3) Main coral holding rows
  • (1) SPS quarantine system
  • (1) LPS/Soft Coral/Invertebrate quarantine system
  • (1) Clownfish holding system
  • (7) Freshwater fish holding racks - 225 gallons each
  • (7) Freshwater fish holding racks - 330 gallons each
• Controller: RK2/Aquadyne automated system monitors pH, ORP, and Temperature; doses Kalkwasser; sends alerts if needed via mobile/email. Corrections can be made remotely via software.

Parameters:

Facility Tour:

Designed by LiveAquaria Director Kevin Kohen, this unique facility is dedicated to education, conservation, and the advancement of the hobby through best practices and smart choices. As a result, reef and marine aquarium enthusiasts enjoy one of the largest selections of premium, captive grown, aquacultured, and maricultured aquatic life for the creation of a unique, beautiful, and thriving marine aquarium.

Acclimation Room:

This room is used to unpack shipments of corals and fish we receive from around the world. Our custom acclimation tables feature drip lines that slowly introduce clean, new water from the specific quarantine system the new aquatic life will be transferred to for a stress-free acclimation process. At the LiveAquaria Coral Farm & Aquatic Life Facility, our priority is to protect our brood stock and coral frags from pathogens and pests but also to prevent exposure of these potentially devastating organisms or sick fish to our customers.

SPS Quarantine System:

The blue raceways are used to house and quarantine new SPS corals so that they can be dipped and monitored to ensure that they are parasite- and disease-free before we introduce them into our main holding-systems. These raceways are each equipped with their own independent filtration system and have their own protein skimmers, chiller, calcium reactor, and sump filled with filter socks and live rock rubble.

Testing Bench:

Each day, we manually test for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate on the fish systems and manually test the Alkalinity and Calcium levels for all of the coral systems. Nitrate, Phosphate, and Magnesium are tested weekly on the coral raceways. Specific Gravity is tested twice per day with calibrated hand-held refractometers and Hanna Instruments Digital Seawater Refractometers.

Dedicated Fish Systems:

We have a dedicated quarantine system for new fish, a dedicated conditioning system, and three main fish systems for freshwater or marine fish that are designated for the Diver's Den® WYSIWYG Store. Once again, all fish brought into our facility are quarantined, observed, and medicated (if needed) for a minimum of two weeks. We make certain all aquatic life offered for sale are eating well, and is fully adjusted to a captive environment to make a smooth transition into your aquarium.

Soft Coral, Polyp, Mushroom, LPS, and Clam Quarantine System:

Most of these corals require a more nutrient-rich environment to flourish and are housed together in their own system separate from SPS corals that require less nutrients. This Soft Coral QT System is illuminated by Ecotech Marine XR-30 Pro LED light fixtures. The filter skid for the Soft Coral QT System is identical to the main coral row filtration system, but utilizes a fluidized sand bed for greater biological filtration. Soft corals, polyps, mushrooms, sea anemones, and other corals we QT in this system will often produce a great deal of waste when they first arrive, so it is important that we are able to export this waste quickly to maintain stable water parameters, and avoid any ammonia or nitrite spikes.

Pack-Out Area:

All aquatic life leaving this facility is packed in fresh, clean seawater that matches the water parameters in the entire facility. This is best practice, as there are no bacteria in the new water to compromise the health of the fish or corals that are being shipped. We use pure oxygen to fill the multi-layered poly bags, and then a clip machine to quickly secure the bags. Once the order has been bagged, it is carefully boxed and brought over to the manifesting machine and scale so that order quantities can be updated, and a shipping label printed.

Fish Holding Systems:

A 2,000-gallon fish-holding system is home to all of the marine fish offered at the LiveAquaria Diver's Den® WYSIWYG Store. A separate 4,000-gallon marine fish-only system is used to quarantine fish, and another 3,000 gallon marine fish-only system is utilized to condition fishes prior to offering them for sale. Each of these systems utilize a very large skimmer, fluidized sand bed, 1,000 mg ozone generator on Aquadyne system controllers, and 960 watts of UV. Return water is passed through Baker Hydro Filters that contain 30 micron cartridges to remove particulates from the water, so the UV will function at maximum efficiency.

Coral Brood Stock and Grow-Out Area:

Our three main coral raceways house the majority of corals we keep in the facility. Each one of these raceways is equipped with its own independent filtration system. We also have another set of three raceways upstairs on a second story level. The coral raceways upstairs are our propagation and grow-out vats for our Certified Captive Grown Coral frags. Each of the coral raceways in the facility are equipped with sumps that hold 3,000 pounds of live rock.

Water movement is critical to coral health. Water returned into each raceway is diverted through return jets outfitted with a timer-operated switching device, so we can alternate the direction of the water flow. These return jets are set up to switch back and forth every 15 minutes to ensure the water flow is not going in one constant direction.

Lighting used on the main coral raceways includes Ecotech Marine XR-30 Pro LED light fixtures, along with 400-watt Mogul-base metal halides. We use a variety of halide bulbs in the facility from 10K, 14K and 20K. They are on motorized light rails to slowly move across each vat. This prevents “hot spots” from forming in one place in the raceways and helps to distribute the light more evenly over each raceway.

Where to find our Aquacultured Corals & Captive-Bred Marine Fish:

Shop our selection of LiveAquaria Certified Captive Grown Corals, backed by an extended 30-day guarantee, in our Coral category and find a large selection of Captive-Bred Marine Fish in our Marine Fish category online. In addition, please visit the Diver's Den WYSIWYG Store for a huge selection of one-of-a-kind aquacultured corals, inverts, fish, and more all housed in our LiveAquaria Coral Farm & Aquatic Life Facility.

Please note: While our LiveAquaria Coral Farm & Aquatic Life Facility is closed to the general public, we open the doors to the public, Reef Clubs, Societies, and other interested hobbyists during our scheduled Open Houses.