Minimalist frag tank?

[GT350pwns]

Just began collecting coral 2 weeks ago after finally being able to upgrade my lights. I'm thinking a bit ahead here. But, as we all say, nothing good happens fast!

I have had a 10 gallon lying around that I was going to build to house a dwarf golden moray. But, I'm thinking that is just too much to go into a small tank that likely wouldn't be up for more than a year or so. This has shifted my thinking into building a minimalist frag tank out of the 10g as my zoas have already began exploding growth wise (hopefully my monti cap and bta will follow suit soon lol) and there is really no spare room in my tank (36 gal BF) to accommodate many, if any, frags.

What would be the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM equipment that would be needed to start a frag tank?

Lights, obviously, are a must. Maybe a cheapo power head or two. Would I need a skimmer for such a small set up?

 

[grant778]

If it were me I probably wouldn't do the skimmer. I'm planning a 15 gallon tank for college, and i'm not going to go with a sump or skimmer, I'm just going to have a heater and decent powerhead. With such a small tank, if you do weekly water changes, and vacuum a portion of the substrate, there really is little need for a skimmer.

 

[GT350pwns]

Kind of the same thing that I'm thinking.

 

[enchelycore808]

I actually broke down my 10g frag tank a few months ago. All I had was a small filter (aquaclear that came with the fluval edge), lights and a powerhead with the hydor water deflecting nozzle. Worked perfectly fine, just kept shrinking so I upgraded it. Now it's the sump on my new tank. Changed water once a week 3 gal and no dosing. Mostly softies and lps with the exception of a couple montis in there that did fine. Last couple months it was setup, I added a nano protein skimmer but it really took up more room and wasn't really to effective.

 

[Swip]

I had a 10g zoa/mushroom frag tank for about a year. It was just a powerhead, some rocks and a cheap china par38. Did a 3 gallon water change with water from my DT weekly. Worked really well.
The only reason I took it down was because I'm moving soon and will upgrade to a larger frag tank.

 

[calhoun.22]

So... on a "minimalist" frag tank I assume the only thing, other than simple equipment (power heads, lighting and the like) there is only the coral frags and what they would be sitting on.

Is there a need for cycling the tank? I am really interested in starting a cost affective frag tank along the lines of what is being discussed here.