Frag tank
- Thread starter Cobystolz
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ReeferReefer
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Sounds good. Is it your first frag tank?
Reefs and Geeks
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Is there any specific help you're looking for? Generally, the more difficult coral to keep require more stability, and often more dosing and monitoring to keep alkalinity and calcium at correct levels, and lighting bright enough for them.
Cobystolz
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No not anything specific, just wondering if I’m missing anything. Can I do water changes instead of dosing? I have a light on it that grew birdsnest fine. Anything in it would be coming from my tank that is on black boxes also. Do I absolutely need a filter of some sort? Right now I don’t have anything other than a homemade skimmer
Reefs and Geeks
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I would say bare minimum equipment needed would be a heater, a powerhead, light, and some form of biofiltration for the nitrogen cycle. You don't necessarily need a filter, like a HOB, or filter socks or anything like that. What you really are trying to accomplish with a filter is to keep the water quality up by facilitating bacteria for processing fish waste and turning it into nitrate and nitrogen gas. That will keep the water safe for fish and coral. This can be done with nothing but a heater for temp control, a powerhead for water movment, and a light to support coral health. How you chose to manage the bacteria that process fish waste is totally up to you. Live rock is a great option, bio media like seachem matrix, brightwell export blocks, or marine pure blocks are all great options as well, and in general take up less space than live rock would in order to process the same amount of waste.
A protein skimmer is optional, but does remove a portion of the waste before is is converted into nitrate, so this will lessen the amount of waste that the bacteria needs to process. It also is great for providing gas exchange. Forms of mechanical filtration, such as filter floss or filter socks are also optional. They would remove free floating particulates to help keep the water clear, and also will help export some waste from the system so the biomedia doesn't have to work as hard as well.
Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium are consumed by hard corals, either SPS or LPS coral. Depending on how many you have, and how much water your system has, you may be able to maintain those levels with just water changes. Water changes are also good for exporting excess nutrients as well as replenishing those that are consumed. Many salt mixes, like Instant Ocean Reef Crystals have elevated alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium and this will add some extra back to your tank during a water change to maintain those parameters in a low demand system.
If you find you need to do water changes too frequently to maintain those levels, than you may want to consider dosing. This can be done with three methods. Kalkwasser, 2-part dosing, or a calcium reactor. Kalkwasser is an easy first method to try and very cheap to implement if needed.
The other issue for such a small tank is stability. Even things like evaporation will cause steep swings in a small system. Because of this, I'm planning on using a very large sump for my current frag tank build. I'd suggest as big of a sump as you can reasonably do to increase the water volume to add stability to all of the water parameters. It can be done without a big sump, but will require much closer monitoring, or automation.
A protein skimmer is optional, but does remove a portion of the waste before is is converted into nitrate, so this will lessen the amount of waste that the bacteria needs to process. It also is great for providing gas exchange. Forms of mechanical filtration, such as filter floss or filter socks are also optional. They would remove free floating particulates to help keep the water clear, and also will help export some waste from the system so the biomedia doesn't have to work as hard as well.
Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium are consumed by hard corals, either SPS or LPS coral. Depending on how many you have, and how much water your system has, you may be able to maintain those levels with just water changes. Water changes are also good for exporting excess nutrients as well as replenishing those that are consumed. Many salt mixes, like Instant Ocean Reef Crystals have elevated alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium and this will add some extra back to your tank during a water change to maintain those parameters in a low demand system.
If you find you need to do water changes too frequently to maintain those levels, than you may want to consider dosing. This can be done with three methods. Kalkwasser, 2-part dosing, or a calcium reactor. Kalkwasser is an easy first method to try and very cheap to implement if needed.
The other issue for such a small tank is stability. Even things like evaporation will cause steep swings in a small system. Because of this, I'm planning on using a very large sump for my current frag tank build. I'd suggest as big of a sump as you can reasonably do to increase the water volume to add stability to all of the water parameters. It can be done without a big sump, but will require much closer monitoring, or automation.
Cobystolz
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So what do you think about this, sand on the bottom for nitrates with a sand sifting conch and maybe some sort of small fish, a heater, the powerhead, the black box led and regular monthly water changes. I have the reef crystals salt and I use regular instant ocean in my 75 gallon and everything has been fine and I haven’t dosed. I also have a bucket that I use as a gravity fed ato so it keeps it stable. I can’t use a sump. Do you think that setup would be effective?
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