Whats your frag tank secret?

[Fretfreak13]

What do you think contributes to the fastest growth/healing in your frag tanks? Obviously a frag tank is meant to propagate, and nothing is better than faster results. Do you feed something special? Are you adamant on dipping all your fresh cut frags? Sporadic flow patterns? Is your frag tank plumbed into your display system, or separate? Where do you keep your nitrates? Etc.

For my purposes I'm looking to do zoanthids and high end mushrooms. Obviously the nutrient levels in my frag tank will be different than someone doing acros.

Thanks for any tips and tricks! :wavehand:

 

[organism]

Vodka dosing and dripping kalk through the auto top off are huge for me.

 

[Marcoss]

I keep mine ultra clean and simple. GFO, carbon, and bare bottom. Tons of flow and my system is small. I don't dose since I do weekly water changes with a good salt.

 

[Fretfreak13]

Vodka dosing and dripping kalk through the auto top off are huge for me.

I've learned a ton about kalk in top off these past few weeks and I'm super excited about it! What do you use for top off, organism? I have a tune osmolator, but I'm worried that the force of the pump kicking on will disturb the kalk that has settled out at the bottom. I would suspend the pump if I used it, but still worried. I can't afford a liter meter at the moment so I'll probably wind up using an aqua lifter valves and on a timer.

I know you mainly do acros, yes? I'd be worried vodka dosing would make the water "too clean" for my zoas and shrooms. Thoughts?

I keep mine ultra clean and simple. GFO, carbon, and bare bottom. Tons of flow and my system is small. I don't dose since I do weekly water changes with a good salt.

I love it! I think I'm going to use crushed coral in the bottom of my soon-to-be frag tank and no actual rack. With the larger grain substrate I could use a decent amount of flow and my sliced up mushrooms could just be tossed in there after fragging to attach anywhere they want. Once the grab substrate I could glue it to a plug and just bury it in the substrate until the frag is sold/traded.

Could you share a photo of your system?

 

[TankRazr]

tagging along.

I have a 40 long "holding" tank up and running that I'm going to turn into a mini propagation system.

First thing I plan to change is to slowly remove all the crushed coral substrate. I'll likely replace it with a slab or to of Cermedia Marinepure. Then again I may just leave some of it in a shallow tray for its buffering capacity. But most of it will be gone.

Got all the parts to drip Kalkwasser as well. So I'll probably finally get around to putting that together.

TR

 

[organism]

I've learned a ton about kalk in top off these past few weeks and I'm super excited about it! What do you use for top off, organism? I have a tune osmolator, but I'm worried that the force of the pump kicking on will disturb the kalk that has settled out at the bottom. I would suspend the pump if I used it, but still worried. I can't afford a liter meter at the moment so I'll probably wind up using an aqua lifter valves and on a timer.

I know you mainly do acros, yes? I'd be worried vodka dosing would make the water "too clean" for my zoas and shrooms. Thoughts?

Actually I do mostly non-Acros, it's just I like my signature The color of my zoanthids and mushrooms before and after I started vodka dosing is huge, probably the best thing I've done for any of my tanks.

I use a JBJ ATO since I like the backup switch, for the ATO container you want to have a pump in there moving the water to keep the solution super-saturated, I use one heaping tablespoon per 5 gallons. That way there's no settling on the bottom.

I love it! I think I'm going to use crushed coral in the bottom of my soon-to-be frag tank and no actual rack. With the larger grain substrate I could use a decent amount of flow and my sliced up mushrooms could just be tossed in there after fragging to attach anywhere they want. Once the grab substrate I could glue it to a plug and just bury it in the substrate until the frag is sold/traded.

Crushed coral will trap food and detritus, and pretty soon you'll have a lot of algae and nutrient issues as a result. Also you can't just bury mushrooms in substrate or they'll float away, they need to be attached to something larger to grow onto. It's a bad substrate for anything having to do with a reef tank imo, if you want to attach mushrooms then I'd do it in a container before attaching them onto a rock or frag plug. A bare bottom frag tank lets you really crank the flow and is also much easier to keep clean.

 

[Sapelo]

Good question! Following...

 

[ShesEasy]

ive heard, and thats all....IVE HEARD....that T5 lighting is huge for growth, but dont yeild colour

 

[organism]

Oh I totally forgot, my frag tank secret is carbon dosing. Don't know where I'd be without dosing vodka in my tank, no comparison.

 

[RainbowReefer]

I think T5 gives amazing color. I currently have about 250g of frag tank right now, everything is plumbed into my display, keeping it plumbed into my display so I can move frags around and it keeps things more stable. Also its a lot easier to monitor one system then 4 in my opinion.

 

[oceanarium]

I found the frag racks always with time get encrusted and then you can have more issues with detritus algaes etc.

I made all my racks the same now each its own species and color. Easy to keep track of stock numbers. Once a tray is needing restocking, I have a bunch of spares so I start an all new tray moving the older clones and topping up the tray to full again with new clones.

The old trays get cleaned up with a pressure cleaner and good to go again.

 

[mr9iron]

I found the frag racks always with time get encrusted and then you can have more issues with detritus algaes etc.

I made all my racks the same now each its own species and color. Easy to keep track of stock numbers. Once a tray is needing restocking, I have a bunch of spares so I start an all new tray moving the older clones and topping up the tray to full again with new clones.

The old trays get cleaned up with a pressure cleaner and good to go again.

Do you have any pictures of your system?

 

[oceanarium]

Do you have any pictures of your system?

This gives an idea of the trays i use. You can also see another frag tank secret I cut a slot in PVC pipe and attaching it with magnets to the tank side. Using ceramic tiles to grow brood stock on otherwise unused space on the side of the tanks.

 

[mr9iron]

This gives an idea of the trays i use. You can also see another frag tank secret I cut a slot in PVC pipe and attaching it with magnets to the tank side. Using ceramic tiles to grow brood stock on otherwise unused space on the side of the tanks.

:thumbsup: Pete, that is an insane amount of frags. Great job on your system.