The Largest Coral Farm You Will EVER SEE! Inside TSA's Huge Aquaculture Facility!

What's going on reefers? Blaine here. Today we're standing in front of the top shelf aquatics aquaculture facility, The Farm. And many, many times on YouTube, you guys have been able to see farm tours from all kinds of different channels. But today, I thought it was about time that I showcased the farm from Topshelf's point of view. And so, we're going to head inside. We're going to do a full farm facility tour. We've checked out the retail store before, but today let's check out where all the coral gets to growing. Let's check it out. [music] Soon as you walk into the top show farm, you're actually going to be greeted with a couple tanks. So immediately, right away, you see two systems. This is not everything of the farm, though. There is so much more to see. And then across the way from me, there's all the different holding tanks for some of the fish going through a quarantine process before they make their way into the farm systems. And also our online inverts. So these are all the different inverts that are getting sent out in online orders. We're going to see the packing team running around as we go through this video, but also you'll see the packing station as well where all the orders are making their way out. We'll kind of start our way through here and this is where the horseshoe begins. So, so many systems here and you're going to see a lot of people running around and working constantly all day long. This is a farm. It's a buzz all the time. There's a lot of people in here moving around. And some of these systems right here, you're going to see a group of or rows in general of some letters. And this is some of our wizzywig corals that are on the website. So, these are the what you see is what you get corals that have made their way onto the website, have been photoed, skewed, all that good stuff. [music] And now those are the corals you see on the website. [music] In the farm in general, there's a mixture of all kinds of different corals, whether it be softies, the beginner corals, LPS or SPS. Kevin is a huge fan of SPS corals. So, you'll see a really, really big selection of SPS corals in today's video or in the farm in general. And I would have to say we probably have one of the biggest selections of SPS in the country when it comes to [music] actively aquaculture different strains. When it comes to the systems themselves, they're all separated. So, when it comes to testing and makes things a little bit easier for the farm team, this whole system right here is going to be connected to itself. This system next to me is all going to be connected. And then that one is going to be connected as well. So in reality, there's a bunch of tanks over here, but only three total systems in water volume. As we make our way through the systems, you're going to see some unique ways that we've been trying to add in even more corals. So PVC structures. So, [music] there's these PVC arrays we've created, and they're a way for us to separate, add more corals, get corals into higher light, get some corals into some shaded areas. And also, for us being a farm system, we need the ability to get these corals in and out of [music] the tanks so that we can frag them up, we can ship them, whatever it may be. And if it was just rock work we had in these farm [music] tanks, the corals could grow onto them and crust and it would become much harder to get these corals out, do the fragging. So the [music] PVC arrays are kind of nice to be able to plug in and plug out coral frags or colonies. The other really nice thing when it comes to the array system is the ability to get rid of some nuisance algae. If we see any issues popping up on the array, we can ultimately [music] take them out, rebuild a whole new array system, get it completely cleaned off, put it through an acid bath, something of that sort, and then get them ready to go to be put back into the system. On the other side of things, [music] you're seeing there's walls with frag racks. I mean, we're at the point now where there's not enough room at top shelf when it comes to the farm facility to fit more corals. So, we've got frags all over the wall, [music] uh, the back wall that is. And we've actually started to realize that a lot of these corals actually do pretty well on these back wall areas. Specifically, the gnis we've seen [music] do extremely well. Some of the galaxas, the chalicees have seemed to do pretty good. Um, and then as we continue on down this row, [music] crazy to think this is just the beginning rows of the farm, but we're going to see a couple tanks that are just packed [music] full of SPS. We've got a ton of SPS in some of these systems. We're seeing a little bit more of that white spectrum right now. [music] Right here next to me, this system RD, this whole row and [music] all of these tanks are going to have their own names, right? So, we've got Slim Gym, we've got RD, we've got Bellafonte, so on and so forth. So many different systems in here. So, we have to make sure they're all named so that way we know which ones we're talking about. Underneath, too, we don't really have enough [snorts] space for sumps at this point. We need more space for corals. So, we've created more holding spaces, whether it be for bubble tips, mushrooms, [music] plates, anything of that sort. We put a lot more corals down below. The other thing you're going to see kind of continuously in the farm is there's going to be a big push for the utilization of refugeiums. The reason for that is a multitude of things, [music] but one main reason is our pH. PH is ultimately the goal here in the farm. Juicing up our pH to ensure that we can get these corals to grow [music] as fast as we possibly can get them to grow. The reason for that is because we're a farm, right? We're trying to get these corals, you know, growing at a fast [music] capacity and then sent out to the entire country for your guys' reef [music] systems. [music] As we continue our run, we've made our way through the first row of systems [music] and now we're on to the next row of systems. These are some of actually the older systems in the farm that were actually put in [music] first. These are a little bit different. Uh we've got about three tanks tied together, then three endcap tied together with a couple systems in the back and more and more. Once again, tanks everywhere. We're trying to get as much of these spaces filled in with corals that we can. It's uh at that point now, right, where we're just trying to continue to fill in space. When it comes to the equipment, you're going to see on a lot of these tanks, they're all going to be very similar. [music] Some are going to have some different lighting, but for the most part, we're going to see a lot of the Radons. We're going to see a lot of the uh blues. The Radon Blues have been really great for us. We've seen that they've been successful growing corals for us. So ultimately we're using on them a lot of the systems. We've got well over 130 plus radons all connected in here. So can be a lot of connectivity when it comes to the radons. As for flow, we've got a mixture of reef octopus stuff, Cchase stuff. You're going to see a lot of those big Voyager pumps all across the farm. Uh really juicing up the flow. We've got some longer systems. We want to make sure we get flow all the way across. So that's going to be some of the flow we've got going in the tanks. You probably can tell a lot of these tanks are turning over a lot when it comes to the water volume. Uh you'll see it in some of the shots we're going to overlay in the video, but there's going to be a lot of these systems that have some really really substantial flow. The baseline of a farm, right, is your water. What's where do you start with? Right? So, we've got this gigantic vat that is going to be for our RODi water. And then also on the next side, we have another big vat. that is going to be mixing up our salt water. When it comes to the salt that we're using here in the farm, we're utilizing the Red Sea Blue Bucket. We've seen that that's kind of closest to all the parameters we're shooting for here in the farm facility. But what we like to do is create what I call a super salt. We take Fonamearan additives, some of our own traces and things we do here in the farm. We've got Corey, the farm manager, doing a lot of work when it comes to mixing up [music] some chemicals and getting them all right and ready to go for the traces to then mix into our blue bucket. So, I call it a super salt in a way. So, we're mixing up all those extra additives we see that we're lacking in our ICP tests and then we fit it into [music] our blue bucket salt. One of the main questions I get a lot of the time whenever I bring people in or people start talking about the farm is how many gallons are in the farm facility at this point? And originally when I started it was about 30,000 gallons of aquaculture facility. I would say we've recently grown [music] and even more so when it comes to our offsite locations, but I would say now here in the farm [music] facility, we're roughly at about 35 to 40,000 gallons in aquaculture facility, actively trying to continue to grow more and more amazing corals. Another thing I wanted to touch upon, something I've mentioned in previous videos on other channels, and I think also on our own, is the fact that this place is like a seed bankank, right? There's a giant seed bankank that's holding all the different seeds for plants around the world. But this is kind of what Top Shelf Aquatics has become is a seed bankank for corals. There's so many different corals from so many different, you know, people, vendors, all these different things, you know, O pieces. We've got pieces from [music] all kinds of different people. and we're helping grow and keep that lineage alive here [music] at the farm. So, something I think is a little underrated when it comes to the farm facility is just the fact that we have such a huge selection of corals and it's created basically a seed bankank in a way. If you were interested to see how we make water here at TopShelf, we have our crazy RODi system all in here with some gigantic sediment filters, DI resin filters, [music] and then it kind of goes through another system here, another [music] filter, and then ultimately makes its way into the vats that we were talking about earlier. They've also kind of done some pretty cool plumbing here where they've set it up that the farm guys can run by and they can grab some fresh RODi water straight from the tap if they just need that outside of the salt water they can grab from the systems. This is always fun to see when it comes to the farm facility. I showcase this to a lot of people. Bellafonte, [music] there's two great examples of lighting right here. So, we have the radons, the LEDs, and then we also have the Kessle LEDs. Uh, the Kessle showcase the shimmer. Really awesome in this tank. But then the color portfolio over here with the radons is really nice. So, it's kind of cool to see the mirroring of the [music] two side by side. Obviously, some metal halits above these systems, but they're not kicked on at this time. This room over here is going to be for a multitude of different things. We'll be doing some fragging in here. There's a laundry machine or a washing machine to mix up or wash up all those filter socks. Still [music] utilizing some older stuff here in these tanks. Talk about that here in a second. We've got some quarantine tanks. We've got some hospital tanks. [music] Fragging quarantine hospital. All kinds of different mixture of things over here in this kind of frag system. [music] I mentioned the filter socks. Wanted to talk more about the equipment in general that's on these systems. For the most part, they're very, very simple. [music] In reality, yes, we have a ton of crazy corals and things inside these tanks, but for the most part, they're very simple. We're talking about bashy reactors with carbon. We've got skimmers, we've got filter socks, and then we've got that's pretty much it. I mean, we're, you know, adding in the additives that we need. We're dosing what we need, but the farm relies heavily on calcer, another driving force of our pH and also helping out with some of our other parameters. But calcer is going through the farm. Actually, there's a bin, we'll see near the end of the tour, that is running calc lines throughout the [music] entire ceiling, running to every single one of these individual systems to make sure that we're getting enough calc. Some of these tanks, this tank in particular, Bellafonte is going through upwards of 15 20 plus gallons of calcer [music] in a single day. [music] Now we're [music] on a section where we're seeing more SPS, more and more SPS. We've kind of made our way around past the quarantining sections. Now we're in [music] some more of the SPS. This is kind of a unique situation we're seeing right now right next to a tank that's actually getting a water change. So, we're still frequently doing water changes in the farm, replacing all those trace elements, getting our parameters back to the baselines we're looking for, but we're trying to make sure that we're doing those water changes and with our service system, [music] too. Some of this water we're actually using in the installations to give them a great kickstart. [music] These are some more of those PVC arrays that Kevin has created to create more space in [music] these systems, helping bring some more of those light demanding acros higher up and the Monty's a little bit lower. As we make our way around though, you're going to see more and more and more tanks. It really never ends. Something that's new, new new and unique to the farm is we've started to create these tabs in the farm systems so that the packing team, as you've seen them kind of running around today, [music] as they're packing up stuff and they have the orders for all of you guys making your purchases at home, they can run in, they can grab the things exactly that they need. Say they have a order for a frag of [music] the fairy ring, they can run over right here. They can see the tag, they can grab it and get on their way. Something that [music] I think is not talked about enough and undervalued in reefke keeping is going to be coral nutrition. So for us here at the farm, we're feeding an extensive amount of things and we have actually what I would like to say our coral tool belt. So we've got a multitude of different foods that we're actively using depending on what's going on with the system. If we see that the phosphates are low, we're going to feed heavy with reefids. If we see the phosphates are high, we're going to feed with benipets. Now, obviously, we're feeding the entire reef genetics [music] line of phytolanton each into each of these systems. And then when it comes to the fish, they're getting a little bit of some nori here and there. We try not to silver [music] platter our fish so they don't get too much nori. And then also every once in a while, some frequent feedings of PE micis, but that's pretty much it. When it comes to the feedings of the corals, we're going to be giving them, you know, a hodge podge, a coral slurry. Um, but really for the fish, they're not getting a ton of feeding. We're trying to ensure that they're working ultimately during the [music] time period that they're in these farm systems so that we don't want to try overfeeding them and giving them too much food. So, that's going to ultimately be the goal for when it comes to the feeding in the system. We're looking at some of the numbers. We're going to tell you guys time and time again, stability is the ultimate goal, right? But if we're looking at ranges of some of the numbers we want to try to [music] keep, our alkalinity has recently changed. We were ultimately always trying to shoot for 8.9. We've recently gone up to now 9.0. [music] 9.0 is our new goal for our DKH. Our phosphates are going to have a range from 05 to 0.15. 0.15 we're going to want [music] to actively get it down. 05 we're going to actively want to get it up. And then for our nitrates going to range from system to system. Some of our cleaner systems are going to be around 5ish or so. And then some of our dirtier systems are going to have 20 to 25. And then for the magnesium and all of those other ones, we're just trying to stay [music] in the basic range of the numbers we're ultimately looking for. Uh specifically, we're going to stay within those ranges that we're getting from the Red Sea [music] Blue Bucket. But for some of those big main parameters, that is what we're going for. And then pH, trying to get it as as high as possible, right? Trying to get that as high as we can go higher than natural sea [music] water at times, but trying to push the growth of these corals to their max potential. Now, for fish in these systems, you're not going to see your everyday clown fish, fish of that sort. We are not giving out any free rent when it comes to fish here at Top Chro Aquatics. So, a lot of working fish. We [music] have a lot of different zebra somomas. We've got a lot of different tangs in general. We [music] have some rabbit fish, some fox faces. There's a mixture. You're going to see a lot of rasses, some dragonets as well that'll do a little bit of the work. And then when it comes to the cleanup crew, we're going to have a robust amount of cleanup crew. We're going to see a ton of different urchins. You're going to see a lot of different snails. And we don't really use a lot of different crabs. [music] Um, but we do like to utilize harlequin shrimp and things like that. But for the fish that are going to be in the systems, you're going to see a lot of bigger tangs that are going to provide some good food for the corals, but also do some really good work. Corals, we haven't really talked enough [music] about them today, but again, like I said, there's a huge selection of different corals here available at the TSA farm. A really wide selection. You know, zoas, we've got Monty's, we've got Acros, we've got LPS stuff. Um, we've got something, you know, for everyone really. [music] I think something that's also cool from TSA is something called cut to order. So, you can see it on our website where we have these different strains of corals. Maybe you really want an organ blue tor and over time you're like, man, I really would like them. [music] uh we didn't have any wizzywig frags available. We can actually go ahead and go forward with just grabbing an organ tor from the you know cut to order section. So kind of cool. Uh something that we do here at TSA is like if you have something you would really like to grab from the farm, you can end up doing like a cut to order piece. And then as for some of the rest of the stuff, we've got these huge toad stools over here in the corner, which is really cool. Uh probably one of my favorite parts of the farm is going to be these toad stools over here in this section. I'm a big fan of sarcoitans in general. And so when this whole area finally got the flow that it needed and all these corals really started to open up, uh really started to look ultimately super nice. And then of course right on the other side you have some of the hottest acros in all of the US right here next to me. And I'm geeking out over the toad stools, [music] right? But specific coral-wise, it really is going to be dependent on what you guys are going for or looking for. If you want to see more specifics on some of these corals, you know, we have our coral spotlight care series where there's a mixture of different [music] corals that we're talking about in all these different videos. Um, but one of my favorite parts of the farm and a story that I always like to tell is about the TSA baby rail. So, this is a torch that's kind of been um beaten over and over again cuz we've talked about it. so much, but it's a story I like to tell. So, I would say this [music] was probably five to six, maybe seven now at this point years ago that Kevin [music] and the team got a wholesale order in of some Zoa plates. And on one of the zoa plates, there was this tiny little gold nugget that was on a corner of a plate. Uh they were wondering what it was, didn't know if it was a pest of some sort. And Kevin was like, "You know what? Just throw it into a sump, let it grow out for some time." And over time it grew into this amazing uh specimen here. So the TSA baby grail now grown into well over hundreds and hundreds of heads. He's had to split it over multiple times. Uh is probably one of the nicest aquacultured euphilia pieces. Probably one of my favorite uh corals in the farm. And I know we talked about it earlier, but here's that cow quaser bin all the way in the corner that's helping feed all the systems. You can actually see the uh wire track that runs along the side with all the lines running up to the ceiling and running all those lines all the way across the farm. I'm going to do everything in my power not to get too much in the way right now. But again, over by the packing station and I wanted to talk a little bit more about kind of the packing station in general, the process of packing up orders. But as you guys can see, we've got four different frags all inside of one bag that are labeled themselves, each one, and it shows the light [music] type that it needs, the flow type it needs, just trying to make it as easy as possible for the consumer on the other end. And then after they get all bagged up, they're going to then be put into the boxes. is uh we have a really cool software that actually takes the temperature from the address that we're shipping it to, tells us what we need to do, whether it be heat packs, ice packs, or nothing, and then it helps us get it all set up for the box to be going into the right direction with their corals going to be as happy as possible. That pretty much wraps up the farm tour. I mean, checking out a bunch of the systems and the tanks. Kind of wanted to end in this area. Um, this used to be where Teras was. Teras at one point was all in this section with his phytolanton cultures and things like that, but as top shelf continues to grow, we've gotten some more space. So, Teras is now, as you've seen, at the Calypso, which is offsite. So, it's adding an additional, I would say, another 15,000 or so gallons of aquaculture facility to top shelf aquatic, which is amazing. I mean, it's so cool to see. Uh this as well was also a system that Teras was utilizing for our Bergia grow out. It was to grow Aptasia, but now it has turned into some more coral flat, some more space for us to [music] grow some more corals. Uh but ultimately, the farm is evolving and changing all the time. In the 3 years that I have been here, I've seen it change so many times. Uh a lot of exciting and fun new projects happening here. We're learning all the time here. There's an amazing team. I do want to stop real quick and shout out the entire TopShelf Farm uh team that makes this entire place tick, right? I mean, we couldn't do it without them. From everybody from the packing team to the farm manager [music] to Kevin, the main curator and one of the owners of TSA. Big shout out to the entire team. They're killing it here. As you guys see, all the corals look insane that end up at your home. If you guys are hoping to pick up any of the corals we talked about today, saw today, or if you just want to see more about what we've got available and we're curating here at TopShelf, head over to the website now and check out all of our live corals available for you [music] guys. If you guys have tuned in all the way till the end, I want to say thank you very much. Finally, we did a farm tour. We needed to do this one pretty badly. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell notification so you guys don't miss out any future uploads.