Talk me out of it…….

biecacka

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I am getting ready to pick up a frag tank for my system. It is 48/24/12 and I will plumb it into my current tank (48/48/24 cube).
I am considering, using my daily water change setup to supply the frag tank, so it would be an “open system” essentially. 1 gallon a day is my water change and instead of running it into my sump pump in the basement, I would use it for my frag tank. The overflow from this would be then directed into the sump pump in the basement. I know I would need a heater in my frag tank doing it this way. plus I would have to worry about evaporation, if the tank evaporated more than the gallon a day then it would never overflow into the sump pump. That would be he biggest obstacle, I think. Am I missing anything else or has anyone done this before and had luck with it?
I feel like it’s not the best way to do it, but could I be overthinking it?

thanks
corey
 

NkSde

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do it jewish GIF
 

ReefEco

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You could certainly do it this way, but there is no advantage that I could see (other than not needing another return pump to circulate from the common sump.) and plenty of disadvantages. It would mean managing an entire second tank's water chemistry and stability separately - whole other set of water tests and parameters to watch. One gallon per day is not enough volume to rely on the display water parameters as your frag tank's baseline, and not enough to influence the frag tank water volume at all - i.e. the one gallon would not replenish ALK/CAL at all if you have any amount of hard corals in your frag tank. Plumbing them together would mean the frag tank could take advantage of the larger volume of water's stability, and less hassle over all. As you rightly point out, salinity in your frag tank would be at the whim of shifting evaporation rates, and not stable at all. DON'T DO IT! : ) Seriously, this is the least likely way to promote stability and ease of maintenance in your frag tank. Just create another loop with a new return pump from your sump, or you could have your display drain into your frag tank (or tee off your display drain), then frag tank into your sump, if you wanted to avoid buying a second return pump. Either way, you'll have to do some more plumbing : ) One advantage of just having a second return pump feed the frag tank from the common sump, is that you can turn off return into either display or frag tank when working on them, and allows you to isolate them if needed...
 
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biecacka

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@ReefEco, kind of my thoughts as well. Although I am not overly concerned with the water chemistry aspect (it has crossed my mind though) I just think the water in the frag tank would never really cycle out. I’ll likely just use a feed pump to pump it and drain it back into the existing sump. It’s probably easiest and really would only require a simple feed pump.
I was intrigued in the idea as I know someone who runs theirs like that. When they get new frags, the clip them off the plug but leave the encrusting on the plugs. All plugs go in the frag tank as do all new fish for 2 weeks of observation. The encrusting frag eventually grows into a back up frag of the display tank. Really pretty simple and smart idea. But his system is much larger and he adds multiple gallons per day via water change so it’s worked well for him.
My stand is built, now I need to go pick up the frag tank this weekend. Got a few pieces to put in there. Oregon tort, Goldmeister, Pengs red metallic milli, UC turquoise tort, and BC rainbow melon -teni.



corey
 

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FishTruck

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Do it and tell me what happens!! I have been thinking about that kind of setup for a long time. So simple!
 

ReefEco

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@biecacka The logic is sound, in terms of isolating the frag tank from the display in that way, if you are kind of using it as a QT setup. But, the single gallon addition each day is not really enough to do anything meaningful. Just feeding it with a single pump like your display and having it cycle back into your main sump is easiest. Of course if you set it up this way, any fish diseases or pest on frag plugs will get back into your main system.

Incidentally, if you are looking for adding frag space to your frag tank, you can check out the CoralWall system in my sig
:beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:
 

IKD

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I am getting ready to pick up a frag tank for my system. It is 48/24/12 and I will plumb it into my current tank (48/48/24 cube).
I am considering, using my daily water change setup to supply the frag tank, so it would be an “open system” essentially. 1 gallon a day is my water change and instead of running it into my sump pump in the basement, I would use it for my frag tank. The overflow from this would be then directed into the sump pump in the basement. I know I would need a heater in my frag tank doing it this way. plus I would have to worry about evaporation, if the tank evaporated more than the gallon a day then it would never overflow into the sump pump. That would be he biggest obstacle, I think. Am I missing anything else or has anyone done this before and had luck with it?
I feel like it’s not the best way to do it, but could I be overthinking it?

thanks
corey
How does the overflow from the frag tank automatically go to the sump pump?

Also, if this is a house sump pump, is it ok to have regular salt water going in there and not corrode anything?
 
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biecacka

biecacka

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I would plumb it down to the sump pump. Yes it is the house sump pump. I keep an eye on it for corrosion. It’s 1 gallon a day broken up over 24 hours, so it’s very little at a time and it gets diluted quickly in the water that is already there. Plus the sump pump runs a few times a day which should help reduce the buildup of saltwater around the pump.

@ReefEco, I will check out your coral wall. I’m not sure what I’ll use, debating between tiles or plugs or whatever else might work. I do like the idea of the pests not getting back to my tank, but I can always just put frags on new plugs or get fresh cuts to help. Next is deciding on the lights for it. And possibly removing duplicates from the main tank. I think BC Shag Priority and Tyree Pinky The Bear are the same coral. Or at least in my tank they look very similar! Haha


corey
 

Rtaylor

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@ReefEco, kind of my thoughts as well. Although I am not overly concerned with the water chemistry aspect (it has crossed my mind though) I just think the water in the frag tank would never really cycle out. I’ll likely just use a feed pump to pump it and drain it back into the existing sump. It’s probably easiest and really would only require a simple feed pump.
I was intrigued in the idea as I know someone who runs theirs like that. When they get new frags, the clip them off the plug but leave the encrusting on the plugs. All plugs go in the frag tank as do all new fish for 2 weeks of observation. The encrusting frag eventually grows into a back up frag of the display tank. Really pretty simple and smart idea. But his system is much larger and he adds multiple gallons per day via water change so it’s worked well for him.
My stand is built, now I need to go pick up the frag tank this weekend. Got a few pieces to put in there. Oregon tort, Goldmeister, Pengs red metallic milli, UC turquoise tort, and BC rainbow melon -teni.



corey
You don’t want to use a pump to drain to the sump tank. You should use an overflow and let gravity drain the water. Otherwise, you have a nightmare of trying to get the flow rates of the drain and return to align. That’s a flood asking to happen.

I assume you have an actual sump, meaning a tank that contains your filter media and any skimmers, heaters, reactors, etc.? And your house sump pump is only used for the auto water change of 1 gallon per day?
 

Reefing102

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I didn’t read everyone’s posts but I’m going with you can do it but I don’t see a benefit. The water change water from the display will be depleted of anything valuable to the frag tank. Now plumbed together I can see a benefit but otherwise I guess I just don’t see an overall benefit to do it the way described in the tank.
 
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biecacka

biecacka

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You don’t want to use a pump to drain to the sump tank. You should use an overflow and let gravity drain the water. Otherwise, you have a nightmare of trying to get the flow rates of the drain and return to align. That’s a flood asking to happen.

I assume you have an actual sump, meaning a tank that contains your filter media and any skimmers, heaters, reactors, etc.? And your house sump pump is only used for the auto water change of 1 gallon per day?
Yes. It will be gravity fed back to my sump(100 gallon stock tank). The house sump pump only takes one gallon a day. That is correct.


corey
 

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biecacka

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I didn’t read everyone’s posts but I’m going with you can do it but I don’t see a benefit. The water change water from the display will be depleted of anything valuable to the frag tank. Now plumbed together I can see a benefit but otherwise I guess I just don’t see an overall benefit to do it the way described in the tan
The benefit is an open system. I can use it as a semi quarantine/observation tank for new fish and encrusted frag plugs can be placed in it to grow after snipping the main piece off. Then wouldn’t have to worry about pests On plugs etc.
however, I have decided against it for the simple reason that 1 gallon a day would not be enough to cycle water in that tank due to evaporation.

corey
 

ReefEco

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I think that is a good choice. Looking at the pic, that frag tank is too close to your sump to be very effective at QT anyway...
 

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