Reasonable coral propagation tank?

[mudplo]

Hey all,

We have a 24-gallon nano with several xenias, mushrooms and zoas,and all are growing very well. In fact, they are growing too well, beginning to crowd one another out.

We live in a small enough place that we can't fit a big new tank right now, but would very much like to move some of these corals to a new propagation tank, then trade them back to the LFS as they mature.

My hope is to put together a reasonably priced 10-to-20-gallon tank with sufficient flow and lighting to allow these soft corals to grow (no interest in hard corals/clams for the time being). Again, this needn't be top-of-the-line, because when I move in a year or two I plan on getting upgraded equipment.

Would someone mind offering suggestions on the parts/prices of items (filter, lighting, etc.) that would help me with this goal? Again, I'd prefer to opt for for an economical tank for now, and then I'll drop the big cash in a few years.

Thanks for any thoughts,

Clint

[crsaz]

20 long with 20 long(or tall( fuge, hob overflow mag 3-5 return and some t5ho or vho lighting,and a skimmer if you want but a softie system would be sweet without one(they love nutrient rich water "dirty" if thats what you want to call it) looking at a few hundred if you have to buy every thing new. could be as little as $150 depending on what you have lying around and what you can score by bartering with members local reef clubs. with a set up like this you should be able to grow most softies. zoa's, shrooms and xenia will just explode in a tank like this. and if you add a skimmer you could even try some lps

[redfishsc]

My frag tank is pretty simple.

It's a 20-long, lighted by a cheapo 4X24 "New Wave" T5 light (got it for $100 online, just google it).

It has a modified (ghetto) MaxiJet 600 for flow---- a very low-power pump, but I did the ghetto-mod on it by slicing off the output spout to throw off a wide pattern, and also drilled small holes in the bottom of the powerhead for the intake. Just google the "ghetto maxijet mod" and you should find several variations. No parts to buy, just drill bits and a hacksaw.


Finally, the tank has a small sump sitting directly beside it connected with a U-tube. The sump has a small skimmer (DIY) driven by a Luft air pump, skims very well (and very wet).
I also have a small filter for carbon and some mechanical filtration pads.


It works well, and is very cheap (well, not "very" but it is cheap compared to some others).

[LPS_Blasto]

I have a 10g tank with a HOG refugium that I bought from aqua traders for like $50. Filled it with 6" of sand and some cheato. Bought a cheap $10 clamp-on light at the big box hardware store for the cheato. I have a PC fixture from Catalina. It's a 6 bulb fixture and uses those little 13w T4 Biax bulbs.

http://i437.photobucket.com/albums/qq92/LPS_Blasto/PIC_0007.jpg