FLIPPERS FRAG TANK

Flippers4pups · Jul 26, 2020

I have for sometime never pulled the trigger on a frag tank, until recently. My 125 6' DT setup in 2015, took sometime to settle and grow. Most of the corals started out as small frags, as most hobbyist start out. Then one day, it happens and they take off. With growth comes crowding and shading, coral warfare...etc.

I did earlier this year, take my refugium area in my sump out, removing the chaetomorpa and made a area for frags to live that would come from the DT. Idea is to sell them or trade them off to area hobbyist and my LFS's for store credit. This has been pretty good to me, but I'm limited on space.

I bought a Viparsectra 165w reef light to light up the frag rack and it's done a great job keeping the frags alive and growing.

So the space I've got for frags is limited. Then Idea came to mind.....

Flippers4pups · Jul 26, 2020

I have excess flow from my return pump. It's a Panworld 150 PS. Flow is at 1150 gph at 0 head with a max head at 27 feet vertical. I wanted a magnetic drive pressure rated pump to push water up from the basement to the DT upstairs, around 13ft and the 150 PS was a good fit.

Shooting for 3x-5x turnover through the sump, it works well, but there's excess flow that I waste back to the sump through a manifold. It's dumped back into my skimmer section. There's enough flow to run my UV and a reactor and still enough to waste off.

Flippers4pups · Jul 26, 2020

So....I have a old reef tank just sitting in the basement collecting dust, a 56 gallon column that I bought back in 2009. Its a marineland tank that came with a cheap stand. I drilled it for two 1" bulkheads and i made a coast to coast spillway box out of 1/4" black acrylic. Maybe it could be my new frag tank?

Back when the 56 was a reef:

The thought was to turn this old tank into a frag tank and feed the tank with the excess flow from the main return pump and drain it back into the sump. The thing is, I don't need two 1" drains to do this!

Before taking the coast to coast out:

Flippers4pups · Jul 26, 2020

The height of the 56 on its stand is just about the same height as my sump. Feeding the 56 would be easy, just over the top. But the drain would be a issue as it would have to go up and over the lip of my sump and that wasn't going to happen without raising the 56 up six inches.

But as luck would have it, a mistake years ago would make that a non-issue.

The sump is a 125, 6' reef tank that had stock corner overflows at each corner. When bought used, it was intended to be my display tank and i didn't want the corner overflows. So I ripped them out and intended to cap the bulkheads on the bottom glass.

I drilled the back glass for, you guessed it...., a coast to coast drain. But when it came time to fill it, I noticed that the glass was pretty scratched up. So that's how it became the sump with two 1" holes.

One of those two holes would come in handy soon.

Coast to coast out, one drain blocked....

Taking out the coast to coast spillway and I capped one side. The other got a 90 degree elbow for the drain.

Overkill using 1" pipe for the drain, but what the heck, I had plenty of 1" PVC pipe laying around. Drain is a drain.

Union to allow for taking apart if needed down the road.

And drain ends through that hole I drilled long ago. Funny how things can work out in the long run. Lol

Mastiffsrule · Jul 26, 2020

Those frags look like they have doubled in size since they were put in there. At least, double.

Flippers4pups · Jul 26, 2020

Feed line coming off the manifold:

Once done with the plumbing, filled the whole thing with RO/DI water and added salt. Waited six hours to mix and then turned the valve to slowly allow water in.

Adding 56 gallons to a established system all at once can't be good, but a slow trickle can hurt.