Frag Tank

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onehawksfan

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Have you ever wanted to start a frag tank or already have one? Do you have good design ideas or a setup that is working well for you? If you said yes, I need your help!

I want to build a frag tank but I am not sure where to start. I want ideas about tank design (material, shelves, etc.), lighting, filtration, etc. It would be nice to propogate corals (by the way - sps, lps, zoos, etc.) instead of stealing from our natural reefs.

I am currently thinking about a custom tank (doesn't necessarily have to be traditional glass or acrylic, right?) that is maybe 72" long. Shallower is probably better? Maybe a few halides with VHOs. Calcium reactor and home-made skimmer. What type and amount of flow? Is a sump full of live rock okay? Probably no or very few fish.

I haven't found much information about this so please post threads that you know have information or post your own ideas! Thanks!
 
good luck on the tank!

Do you do infomercials by any chance? It sounds like it:p

-augustus
 
Well it looks like we are going to be adding a frag tank so I am wondering what type of fish, if any, would be useful and what types of cleaner crew critters would be most useful in the frag tank.

Candy
 
Re:I am wondering what type of fish

Candy thats a good question but to give a good answer we need size of the frag grow out tank. As far on what I have seen in a lot of LFS is young Juvenile Tangs used for keeping and algae growth under control But thats no fair as if they have small frag tanks they sell off the younger tangs before they get to big...AKA make a bigger frag tanks, Snails and tons of them, Wrasses for pest control KevinPo keeps leopards in his tanks up in spokane, That got me hooked on keeping them in my tanks but they require sand So if you go sand less think about a sixline. Wrasses are jumpers so think about that as well.
Read lots of corals Propagation books they have good suggestions like the ones I mentioned.
I have seen allot LFS keeping Pipe fish in very mature frag tanks as well This was a new thing for me to see and this really took off when we started seeing Red Bugs on our acroporas. I don't think these should be kept unless you have a very good understanding on how to keep them they are extremely hard to keep alive..
Hope this gives you some thing to think about...Jeff ;)


MCSInc said:
Well it looks like we are going to be adding a frag tank so I am wondering what type of fish, if any, would be useful and what types of cleaner crew critters would be most useful in the frag tank.

Candy
Click to expand...
 
Jeff,

I missed the fact that you had responded to my question... I apologize.

Hmmm.... great answers.

I do not yet know the size of the frag tank I want. It will depend on the stand I find to put it on. I have inquired into the cost of having it custom built and ouch says it all. So I am not getting it today but I plan to proceed as soon as I have a solid plan in mind. I intend to have it plumbed in with my 120 gal tank which has a 30 gal refugium and a ?15 gal sump with a dsb/mangrove garden in it. I know that I want it about 14 inches high. That I want hanging metal halide pendant lighting with no hood for ease of working in it. I know that I want a sand bed in it (no egg crate) and that I will only glue frags to rock pieces (homemade is ok as long as they look like rock not plugs). I think I want a center overflow type of return but don't know if any one else is doing that or likes it. So that is about it for the "I wants"... wow I sound either spoiled;) or opinionated or both:p .

As far as the helpful critter list. I really understand the wrasse idea and I will have sand but will have to address the idea of jumping because I still do not want to deal with the hood idea. Snails, great, got it, I have two different types of snails that reproduce constantly and one of them is worse than a plague of flies. I didn't see any mention of blue leg hermits??? I have them in both my tanks and they were definitely on my list. I will have to study on the pipe fish but it doesn't sound like they are in the option list for a long time. My husband loves conchs so they will have to be in there stirring the sand. As far as the tangs (are you referring to the yellow ones), that is tough because they grow so fast. My tank is mostly tangs and angels so when they out grow the frag tank they cannot go to the main. They might be able to go in the 90 gal rose tank but that is where I have my clowns so I will have to think on that. Currently I have a rabbit fish that does my grazing but talk about growing to monster size. It is like having a bull in a china closet. Thank you for the info. Any more thoughts are apreciated.

I have a couple of small overloaded frag racks in my tank now but I cannot put anything down on the sandbed because we love our engineer gobies. Also they way I placed the rock left very little "floor" space except in the cave areas.

More thoughts are appreciated. I am looking forward to moving ahead with plans.

Candy
 
I have sent a quiry to IAP for a custom acrylic 72 x 24 x 13 frag tank (about 100 gallons) and I am still waiting for a reply. Anybody have ideas on how I can manage flow? I'll probably be using raised egg crate with plugs for the frags. I would like to build a high-flow closed loop system (for sps) and I am looking for recommendations on pumps and plumbing ideas (including sizing of pipes). I am looking for maybe 20x flow. For illumination, I will be using 3 250w 6,500k mh and t-5 actinics.
 
Okay, it's been a while, but I'm almost done with my setup. IAP did a great job on a 75 x 24 x 12 tank. I have 3 250w MH and a Dart pump on a closed loop (2100gph) and a 75g sump with about 130lbs of live rock. Hoping to get a euroreef cs8-3 skimmer (pending sale) this weekend. We did some electrical and made custom light canopy (if you call it a canopy), and stand. I'll hopefully get some pics soon. The only thing missing - corals :( Again, Brian at IAP does some great work! (spendy, but great)
 
tank leaks or plumbing leaks? that frag tank the Big T had I bought it just waiting for the room to set it up. so Im tagging along with your thread.
 
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