Frag Tank Question

[aaronlp]

IF you have a frag tank going(with substrate on the bottom) minimum to no live rock can you keep fish within the tank like 4-5 at the most? While keeping up with weekly water changes?


Or

What if you had rock in the tank and took it all out and just kept the substrate with again around 4-5 fish at the most. Would it be fine?

Would you need to worry about any spikes in anything(nitrates, nitrites, ammonia)

Looking to turn a tank into a frag tank by removing all the rock with fish still in it and keeping up with weekly water changes...

 

[NirvanaFan]

It really depends on the size of the tank, the type of fish, and how many frags you have. If the tank has lots of frags glued to rock rubble, you should have a decent amount of filtration in there. If you only have a couple frags in a 20 long, keeping more than a couple small fish in there probably isn't wise.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Also depends a bit on the equipment on the tank and your overall approach to maintenance. Most people have a "frag tank" purely for growing frags, and a display tank to keep their fish in. Putting a lot of fish in the frag tank makes it more challenging/complicated (but not impossible) to quickly grow healthy corals.

A "frag tank" with lots of fish but no rock, to me, should be called a "DT with no rock" not a frag tank. But I guess that's splitting hairs from a terminology perspective. You can put whatever you want in it, just keep in mind what your own goals are and understand how the livestock you put in it will affect those.

 

[aaronlp]

its a 75 lots of frags and 2 clowns in and a tang soon to be added...i do a water change every week running on a skimmer on it as well. i have one huge hunk of rock in there all other has been removed. I think that keeping up with water cahnges weekly will hopefully not spike anything and as long as i dont add stuff right after the other it should be good right? But with the 75 being so large i justdont want any spikes basically so keeping this tank very clean is my main goal

 

[aaronlp]

Main Goals
-Water Change Every weekend
-Maintain healthy nutrient levels for corals/ fish without exsesive nutrient build up
-Feed fish/corals accordingly without over feeding
-Upgrade skimmer to be able to keep with up bioload
-Maintain filtration through refugium with macroalgaes and mangrove tank addition

If anyone has anyother imputs it would be very appreciated to help me out!

 

[rjmayes34]

how many tanks do you have, And how old are you? Im just curious? I know you said you had school and what not so im just wondering. I need to do what you do, it seem like every other week your starting a "new tank". Where is all this money coming from??? Im trying to get on your level

Me i'm 27 with 2 tanks. DT and Frag tank and i am in the rochester laborers union.
The only fish in my frag tank is a starry blenny, i plan to add a six line also. They both have their purpose in their. I think you should only put in what is needed if its a frag tank! Why have other fish in their?? No room in your DT? Remember that you'll have a lot less room with all the frag racks so that will effect the amount of swimming room they have.
And why leave the substrate in their? I think that makes cleaning frag tanks harder! If you want that, set up a sump with a DSB and you can also put your live rock in their for filtration and balance. I think taking it all out at once you will have spikes. Especially if your adding to it at the same time, IMO

Please dont take this the wrong way, im not hatin, just asking!!!

 

[rjmayes34]

Less fish = less money spent on fish = less food = less money spent on food = less waste = save money on upgrading a skimmer = more money to spend on frags!!! Just saying!!
Then you can proly make it every other week with out needing a water change= saved time!!
In the end a frag tank is made to make money so the less you put into it the more money you make!!

 

[aaronlp]

how many tanks do you have, And how old are you? Im just curious? I know you said you had school and what not so im just wondering. I need to do what you do, it seem like every other week your starting a "new tank". Where is all this money coming from??? Im trying to get on your level

Me i'm 27 with 2 tanks. DT and Frag tank and i am in the rochester laborers union.
The only fish in my frag tank is a starry blenny, i plan to add a six line also. They both have their purpose in their. I think you should only put in what is needed if its a frag tank! Why have other fish in their?? No room in your DT? Remember that you'll have a lot less room with all the frag racks so that will effect the amount of swimming room they have.
And why leave the substrate in their? I think that makes cleaning frag tanks harder! If you want that, set up a sump with a DSB and you can also put your live rock in their for filtration and balance. I think taking it all out at once you will have spikes. Especially if your adding to it at the same time, IMO

Please dont take this the wrong way, im not hatin, just asking!!!

Would not take this the wrong way. I am 20 years old i work my *** off and i love this hobby. I only have 2 tanks(DT and the new 75 being transformed into a FT) I will only have about 3 fish in it and thats it. i will be adding live rock in to the sump for the FT once it gts hooked up (im too lazy:facepalm

Ive notcied alot of the frag tanks ive seen theres fish and substrate and a high matience level which im more than fine with it gives me something to do that i love in this hobby!

 

[aaronlp]

Less fish = less money spent on fish = less food = less money spent on food = less waste = save money on upgrading a skimmer = more money to spend on frags!!! Just saying!!
Then you can proly make it every other week with out needing a water change= saved time!!
In the end a frag tank is made to make money so the less you put into it the more money you make!!

I know what you mean 3 fish is all ill have. I also control how much to feed so im not over adding nutrients into the tank. As far as skimmers you can get some very good ones for a decent prices(not to worried about price on that) And as far as frags just buy small and let it grow out and you have stuff to frag from there.

 

[NirvanaFan]

I would be hesitant of putting a yellow tang in a 75 with little rock. They like to pick at the rocks a lot. If you don't have much rock, I wouldn't suggest keeping one in there. I like the idea of a couple fish though. Corals enjoy fish poop, so a few fish certainly won't hurt. I would go with something like a 6 line wrasse though. If not that, then maybe a marine betta, or a dottyback, or a lionfish, or even a whole bunch of damsels. There are some pretty cool aggressive dottyback's that you don't see very often like Cypho purpurascens.

I would suggest limiting your fish to 3 or maybe 4 at most. You don't want to have to feed too much, which will hurt the water quality.

 

[rjmayes34]

yeah that's understandable, and i agree this is a wonderful hobby!!! I think as long as the LR is in the sump you will be fine, just take it out slowly is all i would do if its not going into the sump right away, like 10% a week take out.
And as long as the YT has plenty of swimming room then go for it!
And as long as you dont mind the extra cleaning time then yeah your good to go! I like the look of sand in a tank too, but my FT is bare bottom.
I have 2 mangroves and wan more because they do look sweet, id like a tank with some sweet macro algae like your planning. Their has been a lot of threads of mangroves and planted SW tanks and i think its a awesome idea to incorporate in.
The you can trim the macro and sell that too, a win win!!!!
Best of luck!!!

 

[aaronlp]

I would be hesitant of putting a yellow tang in a 75 with little rock. They like to pick at the rocks a lot. If you don't have much rock, I wouldn't suggest keeping one in there. I like the idea of a couple fish though. Corals enjoy fish poop, so a few fish certainly won't hurt. I would go with something like a 6 line wrasse though. If not that, then maybe a marine betta, or a dottyback, or a lionfish, or even a whole bunch of damsels. There are some pretty cool aggressive dottyback's that you don't see very often like Cypho purpurascens.

I would suggest limiting your fish to 3 or maybe 4 at most. You don't want to have to feed too much, which will hurt the water quality.

What tangs would you suggest idt im going to be putting a yellow in with my experience with my last yellow tang i didnt like it, it was to aggresive towards other ifsh. I have 2 clowns in there now. If i dont go with a tang maybe a six line would be good as well. But no more than 4 fish at the most

 

[NirvanaFan]

I wouldn't suggest any tangs with very minimal rock in the tank. If your tank was much larger (like 6'x2' or so) the smaller tangs would be fine because you could have that many more corals and surface area to grow algae.

6 line wrasse is a good choice because they will usually eat some flatworms and other undesirable bugs. I'm not sure how well a 6 line would interact with a dottyback because of their similar shape, but there are lots of beautiful dottybacks to choose from.

Or, instead of a 6 line, you could go with a real peacful tank and try to pair up a couple firefish.

 

[pascal32]

personally I'm starting to believe more and more that corals grow better in tanks with a lot of fish.

 

[NirvanaFan]

personally I'm starting to believe more and more that corals grow better in tanks with a lot of fish.

Corals (including SPS) feed on things in the water column more than some people realize. Check out this article by Borneman. The entire series of articles is pretty good and worth a read if you have time. Links to the other articles are at the bottom of the page.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-03/eb/index.php