Frag tank

[Palmer]

Over the next few months I am thinking about setting up a frag tank. I was planning on piping it in sync with my main tank (primarily to save on duplicate costs and leverage the investment of the main system.) The tank is a 30 Gallon (36x12x16") old ALL GLASS Aquarium and currently naked (not drilled, no plumbing etc etc)

I would like to have a coral growing machine (capable of anything i.e. SPS)and also to try a few things I havent done with my main display. Does the following sound good?

Sunlight 36 " T5 6 bulb... The tank is 12 inches wide. The fixture is 15.75 " wide. I am thinking this shouldnt be a problem? I will likely use a bracket to set it on the tank.

Thinking of having one bulkhead around 1 1/2" for the return from the sump. And a Herbie overflow installed on the inside of the tank (likely just on one side) going back to main sump

Thinking of a Vortech MP10 for all flow

Other than adding another heater to my system to handle the increased water volume I wasnt thinking of doing much more? My display is 120 G with a sump that has 30 Gallons give or take so this will then put me at around 180 Gallons total. Oh yeah I was thinking of doing something with carbon directly in the frag tank since I plan on keeping lots of different creatures in there.

Thoughts??

Palmer

[Palmer]

Okay then... no serious issues? Nothing to worry about, pretty simple?

[Trabby]

Sounds like it will be a spiffy little coral machine!!

[Palmer]

So other than more bulb/color variety will there be much advantage to a 6 bulb fixture over 4 bulb?

[digital-audiophile]

More Par becuase of the extra two bulbs, although there will be a great amount of light spill over the tank from the last two bulbs.

[Palmer]

I have been doing some reading on RC and I am leaning more towards the ATI sumpower 4 x 39 W. Even though this is only 4 bulbs I should be able to get decent growth with this footprint and the right bulbs correct?

[lastlight]

Since it's connected to the main tank I don't think you need a dedicated carbon. It's all the same water I'd guess.

MP10 would be pretty fancy for a frag tank. All the bigtime fraggers I've been to actually keep their frag systems very simple and their wares are incredible. Save a few bucks and have a couple smaller powerheads on opposite ends and have them blow to make a whirlpool. One on right hand front, other on left hand rear?

[phi delt reefer]

Since it's connected to the main tank I don't think you need a dedicated carbon. It's all the same water I'd guess.

MP10 would be pretty fancy for a frag tank. All the bigtime fraggers I've been to actually keep their frag systems very simple and their wares are incredible. Save a few bucks and have a couple smaller powerheads on opposite ends and have them blow to make a whirlpool. One on right hand front, other on left hand rear?

get the sunpower (i just ordered a 8x39 unit after selling my tek) They have good resale value too :)

last light is right;

save you money and get two koriala evo 750gph units. that 1500gphs = to vortech - yeah its not the same flow pattern but frag tanks are open with little to no rock so water movement will be pretty high with those two powerheads.

have the sump of my main tank do all the water polishing/filtering - no need to duplicate efforts in the frag tank. just keep good flow so "crap" makes its way into the overflow eventually and into the sump

[Palmer]

Since it's connected to the main tank I don't think you need a dedicated carbon. It's all the same water I'd guess.

MP10 would be pretty fancy for a frag tank. All the bigtime fraggers I've been to actually keep their frag systems very simple and their wares are incredible. Save a few bucks and have a couple smaller powerheads on opposite ends and have them blow to make a whirlpool. One on right hand front, other on left hand rear?


Thanks I will take that advise and spend it on lighting instead of the MP10.

I think my carbon is a little low for my size system (only have one small bag.) I am thinking of running a reactor on the frag tank simply because I have no more room in my sump under the main display but point well taken. What do you think about the choice in light Brett?

[Palmer]

Thanks Phi so you like the ATI fixture. Think 4 bulbs is sufficient for growth on this small tank?




get the sunpower (i just ordered a 8x39 unit after selling my tek) They have good resale value too :)

last light is right;

save you money and get two koriala evo 750gph units. that 1500gphs = to vortech - yeah its not the same flow pattern but frag tanks are open with little to no rock so water movement will be pretty high with those two powerheads.

have the sump of my main tank do all the water polishing/filtering - no need to duplicate efforts in the frag tank. just keep good flow so "crap" makes its way into the overflow eventually and into the sump

[phi delt reefer]

sunpowers are the bomb - 4 bulb is fine - coral placement will optimize the smaller light. So SPS directly under the light, and low light stuff closer to the glass. You dont want a ALL HIGH light tank or you wont be able to grow other corals.

get a BRS reactor - it mounts outside of the sump and all that sits in your sump is the mj1200 pump that powers it. You can put the mj1200 in the frag tank if you want so the carbon filtration step occurs once the water cycles through the frag tank.

as for bulb combo - depends on what you want. Are u looking to setup a true frag tank (ie. optimize growth above all else) or do you want it as a "display frag tank"? If its the first than all you want is high par bulbs, if the latter, than you want to mix up the bulbs a bit to get some good colors.

[Palmer]

sunpowers are the bomb - 4 bulb is fine - coral placement will optimize the smaller light. So SPS directly under the light, and low light stuff closer to the glass. You dont want a ALL HIGH light tank or you wont be able to grow other corals.

get a BRS reactor - it mounts outside of the sump and all that sits in your sump is the mj1200 pump that powers it. You can put the mj1200 in the frag tank if you want so the carbon filtration step occurs once the water cycles through the frag tank.

as for bulb combo - depends on what you want. Are u looking to setup a true frag tank (ie. optimize growth above all else) or do you want it as a "display frag tank"? If its the first than all you want is high par bulbs, if the latter, than you want to mix up the bulbs a bit to get some good colors.


Yeah thats a great question... I dont want to sacrifice growth too much but would still like to have some great visible color for photography. Looking at Grimms thread on RC I was thinking of the following-

ATI blue +
UVL actinic white
ATI aquablue
ATI blue +

[phi delt reefer]

may want to swap the uvl actinic for the ATI Purple plus or KZ fiji equivalent or at least pickup that bulb as well to give you some options as you dial in the color.

thats the great thing about a 6 bulb or more unit. Easier to dial in the perfect color. 4 bulbs limits your bulb choice but there are PLENTY of amazing 4 bulb tanks so its going to be up to you to work with what you like. color is a personal thing but all of those bulbs have good par so growth shouldnt be an issue.

[Palmer]

Will the light spill over on a 6 bulb unit be much of an issue with the tank being 12 inches? If not I would just go with the 6 bulb to give me more options

[phi delt reefer]

too much spillover with a 6 bulb unit - u'll just be wasting light. I think somebody just listed a 5 bulb aquatanics tx5 unit in calgary for 200 a few minutes ago. they are pretty good fixutres and the 5 bulbs open some combo possiblities.

[lastlight]

So long as you feed the frag tank with clean water (downstream from the filter socks etc) it should be a fairly maintenance free tank as well.