Frag Tank Success

krzyphsygy

krzyphsygy

Active member
Need help understanding why my frag tank is unsuccessful. The frag tank has been set up for 9 months. It's a 60 gallon Deep Blue frag tank. The sump is 30 gallons I have 40 pounds of live rock in the sump, aquamaxx Q2 protein skimmer. Auto top off system 2mp 10s. A 6 bulb ATI T5 fixture 54 watts each. Water tests really well Consistently no3 0 po4 0 calcium 440 alkalinity 8.4 pH 8.2 magnesium 1350.
Sps corals that have great color in my display, loose color in the frag tank. Water params are identical. Lighting, skimming, everything almost identical. Sps usually browns, or color fades. Everyrhing kin frag tank is on frag rack egg crates. The tank is plumbed seperatley. Zoas, lps, do great...only issue is sps color. No rtn or stn at all. Just color browning or fading.
Totally stumped. I thought maybe add more rock? I have 8 small fish in the tank. I set this up to store sps frags but I have no faith in the system. I lose color on easy stuff like confusa, its perfect in my display but brown in the frag tank. Water changes done 10 gallons every 2 weeks or so. Help please
 
Can you run it off the same sump as your main display? Same water, same water column nutrients. They probably wouldn't even know they are in a different tank because really they aren't.

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Sorry to hear, but your situation is good to know.

I was just about to start a ISOLATED SPS only FRAG tank similar to yours, but even more drastic. NO FISH.

I started this Tank (10Gal Frag Tank area, 10 Gal filtration tank), just to keep my hands out of my other two tanks.

I have a ton of coral foods, all kinds of additatives, that I decided to stop using in the one SPS only tank.

So I was thinking is it possible to setup a FRAG tank and use up these foods and additives to grow some SPS Frags.

From what I heard, I need fish (poo) or else a dead end.

How is your frag tank doing?
 
I have found with mine (also a DB 60g) that the only real difference is that they need to be very carefully acclimated to the different lights. I use AI Sol Blues on the DT set to 45w/65b/65rb and kessil A360w's on the frag tank. It takes about a month for new frags to recover/adjust. What I do is place a piece of eggcrate over the top of the frag tank where the new frags are and then place several layers of window screening on top of that to cut the light down (that way the established frags are not bothered by a lighting change) Over the next few weeks I remove one layer of screening at a time so they aren't shocked by the different lighting.

I also have a trio of chromis and a handful of snails to provide "extra" nutrients.
 
I would look into plumbing the 2 systems together. Currently you have 2 tanks that you have to monitor and adjust and to me that just seems like too much work to maintain, at least for me. I plumbed my frag tank into the same system so I only have to buy 1 set of equipment and only have to maintain one system since they share water.

But if I had to guess I would look at your nutrient levels. If they are truly 0 that's your problem IMO.
 
You say 'almost' identical? I have the same frag tank, but plumb mine into my main system (though it's 'isolated' with a UV). The issue for me is that although I am using identical lighting, the much shallower height means light acclimation must be done very carefully. BTW, I've long felt that some level of nutrients are required for good coloration. I will also say that I get much better PE in my frag tank die to the lack of picking.
 
ksicard said:
I would look into plumbing the 2 systems together. Currently you have 2 tanks that you have to monitor and adjust and to me that just seems like too much work to maintain, at least for me. I plumbed my frag tank into the same system so I only have to buy 1 set of equipment and only have to maintain one system since they share water.

But if I had to guess I would look at your nutrient levels. If they are truly 0 that's your problem IMO.
Click to expand...

ca1ore said:
You say 'almost' identical? I have the same frag tank, but plumb mine into my main system (though it's 'isolated' with a UV). The issue for me is that although I am using identical lighting, the much shallower height means light acclimation must be done very carefully. BTW, I've long felt that some level of nutrients are required for good coloration. I will also say that I get much better PE in my frag tank die to the lack of picking.
Click to expand...

I agree with both of them. It seems that your problem is lack of nutrients if your test are in fact, accurate.

I've said it a million times that your water is Too Clean, it needs to have around 5 nitrates or less and .025 phosphates or less but still need to have some of each. There is a thread in the Advanced forum I read a year ago ish that is about adding nutrients to SPS tanks. It would be worth your while to search for it. There is a lot of great information there as to why they're needed.
 
So here is the update. After some research and listening to others, I decided nutrients had to be the issue. Just not enough of them. I added a bigger bio load. 11 fish total and more inverts. I started feeding very heavy. About 3-4 times a day. After doing this color came back to my sps corals.
Because of the bio load increase so quickly and the heavy feeding, I also started getting hair algae. It arrived and took hold very fast. No3 and po4 still testing zero. I started to run gfo and replaced all the egg crate racks with new ones to remove the hair algae. That was about 1.5 months ago. The gfo had lightened the colors of the sps again. I am feeding more carefully now not to have the hair algae come back.
As of about 1-2 weeks ago, I turned the gfo off and am starting to see some color come back.
It was a low nutrient issue. But I have to be careful how I raise no3 and po4. It had to be done in a clean manner. Slowly, very slowly.
 
Many thanks for the update. I'm subscribed for life!!
Really hoping it works out this time.
Starting a Frag tank. Was going to attempt a isolated tank thinking I could pull it off feeding unnaturally.
After reading many thread, and then yours decided it's just not work the effort. Lots of extra work, frustration and failure at the end.
Btw. You color improvement after over feeding, the followed by Hair Algae is exactly what I went thru over last 2 years. Here is the thread point just after I got some colors from pale/brown corals (then the one by one Cyano/Hair Algae disasters start) http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2500379&page=5
 
Excellent information. A few years ago it seemed that everyone was all about 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate, and now that I have started up a new tank it seems that the general consensus is that we need some of each, but not too much.

Funny how trends change...
 
There is one things that I learned.
When Green Hair Algae is growing, your Nitrate and Phosphate tests are deceiving. You think you have zero/zero but hardly true.
Especially the Phosphate since the GHA is eating it up.
I learned this quickly (documented in that thread) that when I pulverized the Green Hair algae and ran it thru a sock to remove it (sock running in a sump), my Phosphate levels went from Zero to extreme (from what came out of the Algae Soup).
 
I keep a few dither fish - in this 5 green chromis - in the FT. Of the 5, 2 have taken the water slide to the sump, where they will remain - too much of a pia to catch them amongst #100 or so of LR!
 
Current Frag tank pics
 

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I feel like I am just about their if not good to go. PO.04 No3 0
Colors look good. Not quite as good as the display but the display is pushing 6 years old.
No GHA and I added another TUNZE pump to the mix. Things look pretty decent.
 
Your frags look great!
What are those bright vertical pinkish/red sps (acro) frags?
Also, what kind of fish did you add to your frag tank?
 
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