setec69
New member
I am sorry about this post. I am sure it has been covered, but I cannot find the thread, so I am hoping someone can lead me to a good solution.
First off, let me say, I now understand why people say "when you start a reef tank, you don’t just get one tank". These things multiply and fast. I now have my display tank, my QT tank and now I am looking to do a frag tank.
My main desire to do this is, I have a lot of small starter corals that are getting picked on by my clean-up crew and not growing or opening up like they should. I figure if I grow them out in a frag tank for a while, I can get them to a size where the cleaners won't mess with them. This a good idea? Also, this gives me a QT tank for my corals, and a place to frag off pieces for trade as my display gets more mature.
So, with that said, what are the mins I can get away with and still have a decent frag tank?
I was thinking just a simple bare bottom 25-30 gallon tank with some egg create stands, maybe a few live rocks, a koralina 1 or 2 for current, a small sump with live rock rubble and a simple return pump.
I cannot see a reason for a chiller or any fancy equipment on this set-up.
So, I think I should be ok with a simple lighting system, maybe a t5 24 inch with a 14k bulb, or a PC set-up, something low power.
Does the temperature of the light affect the coral much? I am running 10ks in my display because it is what came with the Halide set-up, but am wondering if moving to 14ks would help, if so, I would want to start with that in the frag tank.
Do I really need a skimmer? I was not planning on any fish in this tank, so there should not be much waste, no more than a micro filter pad could handle.
If I pull rubble and water from my display, I would think I should not need to cycle it since there would already be all the bacteria that I should need to support coral correct?
Any info on this topic is much appreciated.
Thanks as always
First off, let me say, I now understand why people say "when you start a reef tank, you don’t just get one tank". These things multiply and fast. I now have my display tank, my QT tank and now I am looking to do a frag tank.
My main desire to do this is, I have a lot of small starter corals that are getting picked on by my clean-up crew and not growing or opening up like they should. I figure if I grow them out in a frag tank for a while, I can get them to a size where the cleaners won't mess with them. This a good idea? Also, this gives me a QT tank for my corals, and a place to frag off pieces for trade as my display gets more mature.
So, with that said, what are the mins I can get away with and still have a decent frag tank?
I was thinking just a simple bare bottom 25-30 gallon tank with some egg create stands, maybe a few live rocks, a koralina 1 or 2 for current, a small sump with live rock rubble and a simple return pump.
I cannot see a reason for a chiller or any fancy equipment on this set-up.
So, I think I should be ok with a simple lighting system, maybe a t5 24 inch with a 14k bulb, or a PC set-up, something low power.
Does the temperature of the light affect the coral much? I am running 10ks in my display because it is what came with the Halide set-up, but am wondering if moving to 14ks would help, if so, I would want to start with that in the frag tank.
Do I really need a skimmer? I was not planning on any fish in this tank, so there should not be much waste, no more than a micro filter pad could handle.
If I pull rubble and water from my display, I would think I should not need to cycle it since there would already be all the bacteria that I should need to support coral correct?
Any info on this topic is much appreciated.
Thanks as always