Frag tank with no live rock

[ruckuss]

Hey,

I have a JBJ RL20 that I am getting setup, its an AIO, 24x20x9. I want to run this with no live rock. Was going to put Matrix or Marinepure in the back chamber..

Has anyone does this? How did it turn out? I have always seen LR in the sump.. i do not have a sump on this build.

 

[Dendros]

I think your going to have a lot of bacteria issues. Cyano and dynos to name the most common. A sump full of rock is your best option IMO.

 

[bristle]

I tried it and it did not go especially well.

Many of my corals eventually died despite good husbandry and the tank never really took off. It may or may not have been related to how I set the tank up (barebottom, no LR) but I've had better success with tanks with substrates and rocks.

 

[gavinsepanik]

Why dont you just put a bunch of rubble under your frag rack/eggcrate? That is how my frag tank is set up.

 

[ruckuss]

Rock rubble under egg crate is what I'm probably going to do. As for substrate.. is that recommended too? I just want to keep the cleaning maintenance down. n


What about Marinepure biofilter instead of live rock under the egg crate?

 

[samchag]

I think you will run into a lot of problems, LR is the basis of the filtration, whether there are fish or not IMO you need some

 

[Dendros]

I think putting rubble under your egg crate is a bad idea from personal experience. The rubble will collect ditritus and I have always found it a huge burden to take frags and crate out to clean. Being sps makes it even worse as you generally want to leave them alone. You will have to have a wicked CUC to go through the rubble if you don't want to maintain it. Nutrients will be a serious issue. Just a thought.

 

[ruckuss]

I will be running matrix.. Would that and the Marinepure biofilter do the job of live rock?

 

[Dendros]

You can try it. I ran a 20 gallon long with 2 hob filters full of rubble, carbon, and floss and one was used with chaeto. I also ran a hob skimmer. It was alright but if I went a week without a water change I would start to see the tank go south. I did 50% once a week.

 

[organism]

I can tell you from first hand experience that like others have said Marine pure or any ceramic media will not do it unless you like consistently horrific levels of nitrates. It basically creates a system that has extremely minimal denitrifying properties like a tank with live rock would have and is more of a nitrate factory. Live rock is anaerobically dense in a way that it's impossible for ceramic media to replicate.

I tried it just to see if it could be done and believe me it can't, you're welcome to try or save yourself a lot of time and learn from my experiment. There is a direct relationship between how much live rock you have in your frag system and how well it will do, what you do with that info is up to you but if you have your heart set on trying ceramic media then please post up when it fails so there's two of us saying we tried it next time maybe we can stop a third person from making the same mistake.

 

[ruckuss]

Fair enough. How much love rock would be sufficient.

 

[organism]

For a frag tank it's better to go with as much as you can fit in whatever area you're putting your live rock. Rock under egg crate is great but the bigger the better. The issue with rubble is that it can trap detritus which will leach nutrients into your tank, imo it's easier to vacuum the dead spots around larger piece of rock than sifting through rubble but to each their own.

 

[Fish guy 91]

I have the same tank and only 15 frags atm and the 3 chucks of live rock, all half the size of my fist, seem to do just fine.

 

[Coelli]

I have to disagree with the negative comments about MarinePure. There's a very large thread here with many, many success stories (I have some in my sump too). If anything the spheres are less likely to trap detritus than LR (the holes are very tiny). I'd say they're your best bet for a system with no LR.

 

[Deefish714]

Hmm was wondering the same thing. I love my marinepure. I was also thinking of having a small frag tank with no LR. Now from everyone opinion would live sand/live rock/chateo/marinepure work in the sump. with no LR in actual tank.

 

[organism]

I have to disagree with the negative comments about MarinePure. There's a very large thread here with many, many success stories (I have some in my sump too). If anything the spheres are less likely to trap detritus than LR (the holes are very tiny). I'd say they're your best bet for a system with no LR.

The spheres do not denitrify, which means without live rock nearby you've got a nitrate factory. You must have a link to a success story of someone using only spheres and no live rock since you're recommending someone do so, I'd be interested in seeing it seeing as how I tried and all signs pointed to it being an impossible way to keep corals healthy.

 

[organism]

I was also thinking of having a small frag tank with no LR. Now from everyone opinion would live sand/live rock/chateo/marinepure work in the sump. with no LR in actual tank.

I think that would work, it's basically what I use now after the failed no live rock experiment. Sump full of rock and a few liters of Siporax with some chaeto, everything from Acros to mushrooms looks great

 

[shiftline]

Marine pure will work. Tons of area for bacteria to grow Just put the brick on your main tank for a month or two to colonize with bacteria first

 

[loui]

Anthony Calfo in his coral propagation book never used live rock because he didn't want to introduce pest. He always used over size skimmers and water changes. I don't remember if he used deep sand beds or not. He had pretty good success.

also he did this before the magic in a bottle stuff came out. not saying they are all bad just pointing out they where not available 10 years ago.

 

[HereFishy1]

Help please on frag tank!

Help please on frag tank!

Glad to see this and wondering how it turned out? I'm working on a 20 gal long for a frag tank. Was planning to go bare bottom for ease of cleaning. Planning to use a small protein skimmer and a hydor coral wave maker. Used some clam shells out of my dt to see the tank along with bio spira. Getting my coral in this coming week. Please tell me your opinions on what else I need. I'm guessing from reading above that I need to take out the rubble and use live rock. I have extra in my dt. Can I just put the lr in the frag tank and not in a refugium or I could set up a HOB overflow refugium pretty easily... Opinions please!