Frag Tank

DRC Archive General Saltwater Discussion
1

Hi all,
I want to start up a frag tank with my spare 55. Do I need to cycle the water before I put my corals in there or can I just add the salt, lights, power head and heater? I do have a couple of extra pieces of large rocks that have been in a bucket of water but no power head or heater. Can I put these rocks at the bottom of the tank if I clean it real well first with salt water or should I just leave the rocks out?

Thanks

Joe

2

Well, it depends on how much maintnance you want to do. What I do on my frag tank (only 10g or so) is every time I do a water change I take the water I remove from the main tank and used it to fill the frag tank. After it was filled I have been using it to do a series of waterchanges in the frag tank. Since I usally change about 10g a week or every other week I generally change out 100% of the water in my frag tank each two weeks. I have no rock or anything else in it for filtration, just a heater and a powerhead. Kind of a bare bones setup but for what I needed it works just fine.

3

Thanks Icy,

Do you think I could start out with 50% of new water and the rest with the water from my main tank to start with? After that, I would replace it with whatever I get from the main tank.

Thank again.

4

Yeah, that should be fine. The new water will actually dillute any nitrates and is probably a good idea. The only reason that I used 100% W/C water was because it was free and I already had it on hand when I was setting up the frag tank.

5

Yeah, I cascade some of my primary tank water changes to other tanks too, like Icy. saves cost and time while doing a water change on the reef. A 55 is fairly deep. if you want to grow frags, with less watts of light, i would add your extra live rock to the bottom of the tank to help filtration and denitrification, then make an easily removable egg crate platform half way up to hold your frags closer to the light. more lumens!! You can still use the bottom of the tank, below the egg crate, to grow low light things like mushrooms and some polyps and maybe GSP. that way you can almost double your growing area.

Ideally, frag tanks are shallow to use less water and salt, and less watts of light, and less heating and supplements… just use less to grow more of your good frags!

6

These are all extra things I have left-over around the house so not costing me anything. I planned on doing exactly what Ken say. Bare bottom with LR and the egg crate about two-third of the way up. I got 4X65W PC that I can put in there as well. I just want to start some frags so I can put it in my 180RR when that tank is ready to go.

7

It will cost you about $30+ in salt just to make up that water. It would be cheaper and more efficient to use the same container as Icy. His under bed tray cost $16 at Lowes and is only 7" deep. You can put the egg crate on the bottom and your lights would be more then enough. I would not use the 55 for a frag tank it is too deep.

8

Ok Al, thanks. I will do just that. I already have the 55 half-filled with old water from the DT and LR. I guess i can use that tank to collect more LR and fish to put in the 180 later on. My plan is to combine the 55, 65, and nano to the 180 when it is ready. I also have two 20’s empty. I can use one of them to mix the salt and the other can be use for a Refugium. The 55 will become the sump. How does that sounds?

9

If your interested in the tote that I used I have a spare in the closet… 5$ and its yours. (these can hold alot more frags than I initally thought… I have way to much room)

10

Thanks Icy, I just bought one today from Wal-Mart.

11

Ok, thought I would offer. They seem to be the way to go in my opinion… If I’m using frag plugs I can probably fit 3-500 plugs in one of them.

12

Yeah, you guys are right, but now I need another light for it since I used the lights on the new 55 :-)lol

13

I’m planning on using shop lights for mine the next time I take a trip to NY to pick them up from my mom’s house. It will be about 30$ for the bulbs and they will use less electricity than the PC’s I have over it now. At that depth, it doesnt take much light for them to grow well.

14

I think craig had some pcs available for cheep

15

for cheap lights on the under bed bin, shallow frag tank I think a couple cheap, electronic ballast 4 foot 32 watt T8 shop lights with some Zoo Med 50/50s and actinics would work just fine. to prevent splashing on the lamp sockets, you could put a piece of 1/8 inch plexi over the tank below the lights. maybe lay it and clamp it to a couple sticks or 1/2 pvc pipe to support it.

My 48 x 18 x 12 deep home made plexi frag tank is lit with a home made hood with 4 x T8 lamps over-driven a little at 37 watts each, by this ballast:

and two VHO actinics driven by the Hellolights kit:
http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=184
great light , great colors and growth. about 370 watts. but only 6 inches of water above the plenum sandbed.

16

[quote=“a1amap, post:14, topic:684”]
I think craig had some pcs available for cheep[/quote]

Actually I traded them off about a month ago. All I have now are a couple NO T5 actinics but no fixture to put them in.