Does anyone have a fry tank as part of their reef tank's sump?

[Ribbon]

Like the title says, I was wondering if anyone has ever done this. I want to give raising some occys a go (I have a trio in my reef, the larger two are spawning... the small one likes to watch ) and was thinking of making the fry tank part of the sump to get around temp, water quality and water change shock issues.

My idea is to have a smaller tank sitting above the sump, with it's own wier which is protected by breeding mesh. The wier drains into the sump of the reef tank. Water is pumped through the fry tank by a very low flow powerhead (100-400lph, not sure exactly how low I need to go). For feeding, the pump is turned off. Following feeding the water out of the fry tank is drained into a bucket (ie, not back into the sump of the reef tank) and replaced with water from the sump. The missing water volume is replaced by new salt water, mixed into the sump, so there is no 'water change shock' to the fry.

So what do you think? Will it work?

 

[clownfish75]

Yep it will work fine christina, but you feed larval clownfish for all daylight hours, so you would still need to maintain temp during the day anyway, then flush at night.

Christian

 

[Nagel]

I do it, but on a VERY large system (i.e. one batch of ocellaris on a 1200 gallon reef system).. In Wilkerson's book, she states that she polluted a 120g (I think) tank in a week by 10g fry tank piggy backing.

You also want to have food available to the fry during all waking hours.. If they are awake, they should be eating. The idea to "turn off the pump / drain tank and makeup new water" is ok in principle, but not in practice, since it will not provide enough opportunity for the fry to eat.

My suggestion would be to do this. I have a 2.5g tank that I use for fry. I fill it with system water, and clamp it to the side of one of my frag tanks. No water goes between the two. It "bathes" in the frag tank (maintains temp). I feed and feed, and when I need to do a water change, I simply drain out what I need (vacuuming the floor of the fry tank first) and then I drip makeup water back into the tank. Never shall the two (fry water and reef water) mix.. Its a one-way street. Reef water gets used as replacement water on the fry, and fry waste water goes down the drain.