the most ideal size for a frag tank

[robcampman]

I'm figuring out how my frag tank should look like.

i already have 150 watt's 10K mh, 2 times actinic t5/pc.

aquamedic 1000 skimmer ( riff 500), calcium reactor, nitrate reactor. carbon reactor and phosphatereactor.
4 tunze turbelle 2002 classic 2400 lph ( 600 GPH?)
iks aquastar with ph,temp,waterlevel.


The frag tank would be dedicated to fragging, but i want to build it from glass so i can see thru..

Now the big question is what size should i get?

I was thinking of a 1 feet high square tank with a size of 2 by 2 feet ( 60x60x40 centimeters) . so the volume would be ideal for the Mh lighting. 5 watts per gallon that is.

The volume of the sump can be a lot bigger, so i have some kind of buffer when toxics enter my tank by death of coral or something.

main occupation of the tank will be sps and lps. in the sump maybe some soft corals.

Any suggestions or tips are more than welcome.

[Bebo77]

yeah.... 2 x 2 x 1 is perfect

[Brandan]

I would almost make it 32x32x12. MH have great coverage at 2 feet, but if you add 4 inches or so to each side it will allow you to use all that light, because you are not necessarily going to use all the water all the way up to the glass. Thats just my 2 cents, that is what I would do if I was building that.

[robcampman]

That's great advice, i haven't thought of that!! The MH's don't have to reach that far down the water so i'm not wasting light.

I like the reverse lighting period system of a refugium, easing my corals by balancing the ph values in my tank at night.
not to mention the benefit's of chaeto eating nitrates.
Problem is i can't find chaeto here in europe (netherlands)! The LFS's just don't have any..

But does a reverse period lighted sump with live-rock and maybe soft corals do the same trick?

I'm a bit scary about the calcium reactor, it's a second-hand one for a 1000 liter tank. If i control it with the aquastar computer with ph-probe and solenoid on the co2 tank will i then be free of sudden changes in ph-values? Is there a guideline for the amount of aragonite per liter/gallon?

[madadi]

i agree with brandan, since the depth is so small you can afford to put it a bit higher to get more coverage then the recommended 2 by 2 feet. make sure you keep your sps and light demanding corals in the center though. MH tend to put out a grater PAR in the center i hear but im no lighting expert

[robcampman]

The weirdest thing happened to me yesterday. I had seen a few second hand tanks for sale and got in the car to pick it up. This guy had about 25 tanks piled up for 5 euro's each.

At the location he asked me what i was going to do with it, so i told him i was going to propagate corals.

He said he was already doing that for 25 years and then i saw the sign on the building " de jong marinelife"

He invited me to come see.

A 30 foot by 10 foot table lighted up with 20 MH-pendants!! I was getting my prop tank from the biggest marinelife wholesaler in europe!! He didn't propagate them though, he just imported corals. but it was an enormous tank of corals shattering my dream of getting filthy rich propagating corals.. In the same building he had 10 feet sharks swimming and thousands of marine fish.

I got excited, you can imagine. the man saw the hunger in my eyes and worked me out of the building as soon as he could. I saw him thinking " damn marine junkies". And he was right, i would have stayed overnight if he didn't force me to go....

anyway, i got the tank , and soon i will start propagating. It's a rectangle, the square ideally-sized tank will have to wait a while.

[bradford]

For propagating I never liked the use of tall tanks. I always thought the shallower the better. It made for more intense lighting. I guess it also depends on what u r fragging. but for sps i like it a foot high max

[coralnut99]

My three prop tanks are all 2 X 3 X 1, converted 45G tanks. From experience, not only is the MH not needed, you'll find yourself fighting some serious heat issues with shallow prop tanks. T5's do just fine.

[raskal311]

30x30x10” btw watt per gallon doesn’t mean anything. Maximize your foot print, you’re going to get the best lighting inside 20x20 or so on a 150 pendent but you can still grow plenty outside that.

[reef / aholic]

I was thinking about a 48" x 30" x 16" with a 30" x 20" x 16" sump/ref.

[robcampman]

I'm almost finished plumbing the frag tank, got a 4x24 watts t5 unit and 2x24 watts. Now i have enough light for sps i think.

The 150 watt mh illuminates the sps, the t5 will be hanging above the soft corals.

I am thinking of storing the live rock in a separate tank, with the 2x 24watt t5 above to light it in reverse photoperiod. Do i then have the refugium effect or should it contain chaeto for the ph- stabilising effects? Cheato linum is hard to get here in holland.

on the bottom i will use no substrates. 2 hermit-crabs will clean the place up.

photo's will be here soon.

[hoodrat]

You will like the bare bottom thats what i did in my 90 frag tank and i have no probs with sps but i am also runnin 8 54 watt t5s. I too should prob post some pics

[robcampman]

Well i finished her up tonight ( europe). 3 turbelle classic 2002's (2400 L/h) and 1 powerhead (2000 L/H) and reef-flush are stirring the water up. So i have like 10.000 liters per hour of flow in a 150 liter tank . do you think i should lose a few powerheads? it's a 40x turnover .

it's lighted by a 4x 24watts t5 unit and a 10K 150 watts hqi (MH). Because of the eurobracing i can't fit the MH in the middle so i decided for the 4x24 watts t5.

in the sump is a aqua-medic turboflotor, and a fluidized reactor for active carbon.

sorry for the bad english...

Now i have to bring the old 80 liter tank over to this tank, how should i do this?
I will only be using the new tank, as a frag tank. later on this year i will adjust the in-house pond for saltwater, so it will be a saltwaterpond/tank.

thanks in advance for your advices.

[robcampman]

Sorry for double post, but i have an electrical issue. The tank gives me quite heavy electrical shocks, but when i keep my hands in the water it goes away. I figured out by eliminating appliances it's the return pump shocking me. should i lose it or could i just install a ground-probe?

[hoodrat]

i would try a diff pump

[robcampman]

Well here it is:







And below the nano that will be transferred to the frag tank completely, after that the nano will be a refugium.







so what do you guys/girls think?

I refitted a new powerplug to the return pump and no more shocks are felt.

[hoodrat]

lookin good i am tryin to get the energy to go take pics of my frag tank. What is behind the green slimer?

[robcampman]

i was hopinbg someone could tell me that. it's a very bright purple coloured algae/seaweed. it grows like crazy, and has a very firm structure. when i get it out of the tank i can crumble it in my hands.. .

[Mr..Tang]

How about 36"X48" with 2 sets of 4' florusecent with power glo and marine glo bulbs about 5" off the water? You can also swing the fixtures out of the way

[robcampman]

sorry, i don't reaaly get your point....

[micromount]

GHot to admit. Looks like a nice setup.

http://www.dejongmarinelife.nl/

[robcampman]

last night i 've seen my redleg hermit crab walking around naked, so i started to search for his shell cause i don't tolerate obscene behaviour in my tank. (it's tank policy).

I found it so i wanted to pick it up,it was stuck, the electric-blue hermit hijacked it!!!

Problem was the redleg is way bigger than the blue-leg, so the red leg won't fit in the blue legs house... I found a snail-shell on a decorative plate in the livingroom, and he got in!!.

Well i just wanted to share this, i was laughing my pant's off!!! Mutiny in my tank...

[robcampman]

I have a quastion about my setup. It's now running on the berlin system. Live rock and a skimmer.. On the side a canister filter with floss and carbon.. in a reactor some phosban...

I am thinking about pimping this setup with a refugium.. is reverse photoperiod stabilizing the ph-values during day/night? And is this beneficial for coral growth ( mostly sps)?

I also wondered if a Remote deep sand bed could stimulate growth rates..

So what is the most common system used for frag-only tanks?

[robcampman]

my sort of vertical reversed photoperiod refugiumtower with live rock.



The Full Tank Shot:




more pics are here:

Click for picasa webalbum