WIR Episode 2: Deborah - The Dragon Tamer

Deborah Corker joins us to share her lovely Seadragons, that she has kept for 2.5 years at home! First, walking us through her journey that brought her to this point, then sharing exactly what was needed to set up for her new beauties!

Time Stamps:
0:00 Introduction
1:08 How did you get started in saltwater
1:47 Experience with seahorses
3:52 A look at Deborah's current tanks
6:28 What got you interested in keeping seadragons as a hobbyist?
10:46 How did you get them and what was acclimation like?
13:45 Is pricing crazy?
14:48 Describe the first day with dragons
16:40 Why is "shooting to the top" dangerous?
17:08 How much live mysids are needed to feed 4 dragons?
19:35 Do you worry about contamination from live feeds?
22:09 How long did the complete tank build take?
22:30 How often do you test?
23:23 Do you recommend an Apex?
26:18 Walk through the Abdominalis/Quarantine tank
27:12 Walk through the dragon tank
30:45 The sump room
34:53 The chiller room
35:48 Cleaning the tank
35:50 Cleaning the sand
38:06 Custom parts of the tank
39:50 Lighting
40:56 Courting
43:27 Clean up Crew
44:27 Top 3 tips
44:13 Do the seadragons love other animals?
45:52 Advice for someone wanting to keep seadragons
47:02 Advice for a new Woman in Reefing

A more detailed, longer video will be available tomorrow on Seahorse Whisperer youtube channel. It will cover more about live feeds and Deborah's experiences with seahorses (and breeding Reidi). A link will be shared here tomorrow!

Deborah's Tanks (ALL COLD WATER):

Dragon Tank -
6ft x 4ft x 3.5ft - 2000l / 600g (2600l with sump added)
Glass made by NDAquatics
4 x 4ft led strips
AI Prime for night lighting
2x Vortech MP60s - supported by 2x Ecotech marine battery back ups
Internal flow via Vectra L1 centrifugal pump

Sump Room -
Thermally insulated
Plastic coated with it's own circuit board
Glass made by NDAquatics
Water production Filterplus RO double membrane pumping to 800 liter storage
Neptune APEX to monitor ph, ORP, temp and salinity
APEX DOS used for automatic water change system
3 stage biological filtration:
1. Maxspect Nano Tech Bioblocks
2. TMC Trickle Bio-Tower pumped via it's own TMC pump
3. TMC Fluid Sand Tower independently pumped from sump by Vectra L1 (plus battery backup)
(In an electrical cut out, sand tower, return, MP60s all keep going 6-12 hours)
5 x 85 watts troptronic UV sterilizers
Vectra M1 pump to take water to chiller room
Smaller pumps for UV, water storage mixing and to take water stored in VAT to chiller
Vectra L1 acting as return to main house plus battery back up

Chiller Room -
Teco TK6000 - for sump water
Teco TK6000 - for VAT
Petrol generator to support chillers

Mysis Room -
2 x 60l mysis feeding tanks
2 x 10l bbs tanks
Various fridges for live mysis, phyto and etc
(LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS IN THE EXTENDED VIDEO)

Abdominalis / Quarantine Tank -
500l freshwater style tank with NO live rock
2 x Eheim canisters (cycled at the lower temp in case they're needed for an emergency)
HOB deltec skimmer
85 watt UV
Tk2000 chiller
(6 large abdominalis = 4 dragons, so the canisters could handle the bioload of the dragons if needed)

Backup Tank -
300l tank with Goby

Thank you Deborah for sharing with us! Not only is it amazing to see you succeed with dragons, but this video will help others understand the incredible amount of work and funds are needed to actually care for these beautiful fish! You are an amazing Woman in Reefing!

Make sure you're subscribed to the channel to be notified when the next video is released!

Credits:
NDAquatics - showing they made the tank
Apex - images showing that the apex runs the tank
Pang Quong 2017 - clip of egg exchange (watch the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8-3mln3q8I)
Ocean Reef Aquaculture - footage from Wine Wednesday and of tubs showing seadragons
Flipper Max - Deborah's preferred brand that will clean glass 3cm thick

Any copyright footage used under the Fair Use Act for educational purposes