want to start a frag tank

[super1man]

i am wanting to start a frag tank now that i got my display tank up and running. just wanted to know what equipment i should run i was thinking a 48"x24"x13" acrylic tank with a 36"x16"x16" acrylic sump. a Korallin C1502 Calcium Reactor, Bubble King Mini 160 Protein Skimmer, nova extreme pro tHO 6 bulb light 6 hours on 6 hours off cycle and 2 vorTech mp40w power heads. anything im missing or should change? should i go BB or should i add sand or crushed coral?

thanks much garret

[NeverlosT]

that sounds like the fanciest frag tank on earth! I should think any frag would be stoked to live in such a ritzy dedicated tank! Good luck and post some pics when it is built!

[chadfarmer]

you can do that or something that is more basic


its all person preference

[crsaz]

why not just tie into the main tank?

[super1man]

if main tank crashes or frag tank crashes dont want to lose everything. i am finding out this "hobby" or addition is very expensive.

well tank is ordered and should have pictures of it beeing biuld this week its 48"x24"x10" with a center overflow made of 1" acrlic on the front back and bottom and sides are going to be 3/4" so i can use my vortechs for flow, also got a custom sump 36x16x16 on its way.

[crsaz]

nice, I like the dimensions, Im about to order my tank, I will be going with a 48"x24"x10"(or maybe 8" not sure yet) and with that thickness Im guessing its going to be a rimless.

on the subject of tieing it into the main tank the advantages I see would be that the conditions would be exactly the same and it would give you more total water volume=more stable.

[super1man]

yes rimless is the way im going


and my main tank is 120 with about 50 gallons in the sump and ya more stable if i tie it into the main system but i dont want to risk something going wrong and crashing one system and taking out everything i got.

[itachi]

yes rimless is the way im going


and my main tank is 120 with about 50 gallons in the sump and ya more stable if i tie it into the main system but i dont want to risk something going wrong and crashing one system and taking out everything i got.

I have a very similar setup. Honestly i would go with as large as a sump as possible.. IME ... My frag tank is 60x30x13 rimless ... with a 8 bulb tek fixture, two 6205 tunze's. Because generally you won't have much Live rock in your frag system, you want to have as much as possible to help with biological filtration. Also the larger water volume helps with fluctuations , given frag tanks are generally not taken care as well as displays. There's also the fact that you will be either trading/selling from the setup ;) So you will need to hold more water. My sump currently carries over 120G's of water + 200lbs of LR ...

[CoralHolic]

All good points... I am in the R&D of a 560g DT with a couple of frag tanks of about the same size as above. I am planning on making it one big system solely for the mass water volume. I figure as long as I go slower and watch my tanks all should be fine.

[itachi]

Oh and BB ... it will save you lots of frustration =) and less work ... Why i mentioned the amount of live rock in the sump ... or your PH will suffer so will your biological filtration .

[super1man]

yep going to run as much live rock in my sump as possible.

thanks everone

[Izzone001]

WOW! That is a really nice setup for a frag tank. I feel it is probably better than my setup for my main tank lol

[mkenny1818]

Awesome to run it as one system, but what if one goes down?Where would you put hold all the items before everythign is stable.. Multiple tank syndrome is sometimes a good thing.

[super1man]

Awesome to run it as one system, but what if one goes down?Where would you put hold all the items before everythign is stable.. Multiple tank syndrome is sometimes a good thing.



in my main tank i have a spot in my sump about 1/3 of the 75 gallon tank that has nothing but live rock and a very bad coral banded shrimp in it currently i could make a makeshift holding tank if needed. i just dont really want to take the risk of kill everything. its an expensive obsession and i dont really feel the need to keep buying the same corals over and over because i make a mistake. plan is to keep mother colonies in main tank and frags in frag tank. sell/trade/collect frags and try to keep my hands and other body parts out of the main tank. dont need another full time job selling frags just enought to keep the wife off my back about all the cash i am spending.

[Azar]

I would run both systems together. If you are going to have the same corals in there why not the same water par. I know I just moved my main system 250 gal to my 300 gal frag system for that same issue, just makes it easer.