Frag Tank

[Neoz]

In all the reading I've been doing and the tanks I have been seeing, I am just in awe of all the frags seen on here. I have a few questions..

1) What would a person need size wise etc, for a frag tank? Not to display them but to grow them? I'm fascinated by this. Get them real small like the ones I seen at thePircs.

2) Are you limited in what kind of frags or the amount of frags you could put in the tank or could anything frag wise go in there. No fish of any kind just frags.

3) How long does it take to grow frags up. Not huge but you know see a nice difference. Obviously it probably depends on the frag right? And the tank conditions. But generally speaking we talking months, years roughly how long?

4) Can anyone recommend a book or a link here to read up on this more? Not really sure what it would be under. Thanks for any help......

 

[thepircs]

Try this link for an insane frag tank

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1215102&highlight=portugal

dave

 

[reefscape15]

If you are just planning on growing out frags, i'd setup a barebottom tank and add rock just on the back half of the bottom of the tank. Take a large eggcrate piece and place it across the entire bottom just above the rocks leaving just a few inches away from the front glass. Then add another crate piece about 6 inches higher and make it about 6" smaller front to back, but still have it stretch the entire length of the tank. Keep adding eggcrate in this manner untill you reach the top of the tank, this will give you a ton of surface area to place frag plugs on. Make sure you have very high flow and a monster skimmer. No fish are needed, but maybe just a couple snails and hermits. Lighting should be somewhat varried, but include MH and T-5 bulbs. I think the best results for growth would be having 3 MH bulbs; 400watt, 250watt, 175 or 150 watt starting at one end and decreasing wattage towards the other end. They should be close to the 10k range for best growth, but it may not look all that great as some 10k bulbs are pretty white and don't bring out a lot of flourescence to the eye. The T-5's can be either all actinics or a mix of 10-15k and actinics. As for coral placement, keep SPS on the top rack and the uncovered portions of the lower racks. The covered parts of the lower racks can be used to keep LPS and Zoas, and the very bottom rack on the part that is covered should be kept for soft corals if you were trying to grow any of these. There will be enough light to make it through the frags above and reach down to the lowest level if MH lighting is used, and with a variety of wattages, you can find where your frags would grow the best. Keep your chemical dosing on track and vaccum out any detritus out of the front part of the tank often. This will give you a nice low maintenance tank with a large amount of surface area to place frags, and you will find enough different lighting ranges to keep anything you'd want to grow. I hope this helps, i know it's a lot to read

 

[daveverdo]

I have a 90g display plumbed to a sump in the basement. I also have a 30g tank in the basement that is plumbed to the same sump. I guess you could call the 30g a frag tank. I use it for corals that need a little TLC, are getting big for the display, or ofr something I want to trade or just traded for.

I don't have it set up with a plastice rack or stands. I have the bottom of the tank covered with LR rubble. I will place something like zoas down on the rubble and let it grow and spread to other rocks. I keep some LPS and SPS in there until they get big enough so that the fish in the display won't harm them.

I like that the second tank is plumbed to the main system. The water changes, top offs, addidtives don't have to be done twice.

The biggest challenge is a second set of lights that provide enough energy for the frags to grow. I had the tank and lights because it was my old display before I upgraded to the 90g. A shallow tank will save on lights because the light doesn't have to penentrate as much water. So a 20g long or 15g would most likely be better than a 20g tall.

As far as growth rates. That depends on conditions and what corals. Fast grwoing corals grow fast and slow growing corals grow slow. Haveing them in a frag tank dosen't change that relative rate that they grow.

I have snails in my frag tank and plan to add more and and possible a Mithrax crab and peppermint shrimp.

Just my opinion.
Dave

 

[Neoz]

Dave that link is totally insane. Now thats a frag tank!

reefscape long but a good read. That gives me some ideas.

daveverdo thats what I was thinking about doing is somehow getting a smaller longer tank and hooking it to my main tank. Just don't know if i can convince the wife to go for that expense right now . I believe the main cost would be for a very nice light setup correct? Thats one area you can't cut corners on if you want good growth correct?