Frag Tank - What do you think?

BlazinNano · Sep 13, 2009

Alright so let me start with the basics. I have an extra 20 long. What I want to do it make a frag tank with no sump. I am thinking of a decent skimmer but don't know what kind. Something on the cheaper side. I am broke. But there is a catch to this. I will be taking down my fiances tank because she only has two fish and a starfish. The catch is the starfish is a Choc Chip. What I was thinking about doing is using white egg crate to make a wall in the tank to keep her starfish away from the corals. I can not get rid of the starfish she has had it since I started her tank. This would also help because the light fixture I have is only 24" long where the tank is 30" long. I am going to use some of her rock over by the starfish side and throw some ruble under the frag racks. I have a maxi-jet 900 with the ecosystems mod on it so it pumps out a good flow. I have a aqua-clear 500 that I am going to use as a HOB refuge. Will this work and what skimmer could I use? Not a whole lot of bio-load.

reefpeeper · Sep 13, 2009

will work fine. my frag tank is a 20L with a 175 halide, hang on back filter and no skimmer. i have had no problems with this set-up, then again i really only frag zoas/palys.

ZoaFan08 · Sep 13, 2009

Why not use a sump? I build a sump for my frag tank out of an extra tank. With such a low voume of water it's going to be easy for your paramters to stay constant. With my 20g frag tank and 10g sump my salinity would bounce between 1.021 and 11.026 because it depended on how wet my skimmer skimmed. I recently upgraded my sump to a 40g and my salinity i staying way more stable. Remember you don't always setup a sump for filtration but to raise your water volume.

BlazinNano · Sep 14, 2009

Yeah but I am basically doing this for free. I dont have the money to buy a return pump. My fiance actually just last her job a week ago so I can't spend any money. I have a 10 gallon. I also even have an overflow box. No return pump.

Pizzapro83 · Sep 14, 2009

you could get a used pump for cheap if you look around. i have a extra overflow box you can have

ZoaFan08 · Sep 14, 2009

IMO you shouldn't be trying to setup a frag tank if you can't afford the equipment to get it running. You said you would get a skimmer but a sump will go a lot further than a cheapo skimmer.

lkjr409 · Sep 14, 2009

Frag tank

I have a 20 L frag tank running for 4 months nowâ€¦and so far have not seen the need for a skimmer....live rock (not much) all softies growing, make shift refugium from old skilter filter with chaeto in it on reverse daylight, six line wrasse, tiny yellow gobyâ€¦â€¦.water has been stableâ€¦.have only changed water (15%) 4 times in this periodâ€¦..nitrates = 0 all the time, everything else stable too (pH, alk, pH). Zoas have double colony size in about 2.5 months...mushrooms are increasing in numbers too.

I'll keep checking nitrates and add a skimmer if needed later....I think the low bio load (2 small fish) keeps the waste load down....so you may be in the same boat...starting another 20 long below....will put this frag rack in that I made this weekend from a lighting eggcrate...will most likely go bare bottom on this one.