Frag tank.. when to move corals over.

[Amybolton2]

First time setting up a dedicated frag tank,
No sand, maybe a small fish, just frag racks in there, bio media
My question is at what point is the tank safe to add corals?
With not adding sand and rocks or a bunch of fish it wouldn’t really go through a cycle right?

 

[TX_REEF]

if you use bio media or rock from a cycled system, there should be no new cycle to worry about. When I set up my frag tank, I took mature rock from my display and put it in the frag tank sump.

 

[Amybolton2]

That’s what I was hoping! I was initially going to not put a fish in, but I wasn’t sure if it was beneficial to have one in there haha

 

[TX_REEF]

That’s what I was hoping! I was initially going to not put a fish in, but I wasn’t sure if it was beneficial to have one in there haha

I have a few fish in my frag tank, they can be "useful" for pest control (sixline wrasse, damsel) but mostly a source of bio-available nutrients for the coral. I have some trochus snails as well for algae control. check out my build thread if you're interested, mostly DIY.

 

[BigMonkeyBrain]

First time setting up a dedicated frag tank,
No sand, maybe a small fish, just frag racks in there, bio media
My question is at what point is the tank safe to add corals?
With not adding sand and rocks or a bunch of fish it wouldn’t really go through a cycle right?

If you plan on feeding the corals the tank will cycle.

 

[nano reef]

if you use bio media or rock from a cycled system, there should be no new cycle to worry about. When I set up my frag tank, I took mature rock from my display and put it in the frag tank sump.

Took my tank almost 6 weeks to cycle using dr tims first and had amonia and nitites right away! I then used turbo start no change until I added mb7 now its finally cycled yay!

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

With frags, if plugs have already been in another tank and corals have skeletons or rock attached, you can add right away. They will carry the bacteria needed. Just go slow if adding fish or inverts for bacteria to spread over surface areas.