RuuToo
Active Member
So, after getting bitten yet again by incoming pests (and devastating 4 years of montipora growth), I've decided to start to really stop messing about with incoming frags and do a proper dedicated long-term quarantine tank just for corals. There's a couple of issues here:
a) I have no space (like, almost none)
b) I am incredibly lazy, and hate doing maintenance
So what do I want?
A small setup that requires as close to zero maintenance as possible, and can house/grow out a couple of dozen frags at a time. Ideally I want to put a heater, a light and flow into a small tank and be able to do absolutely nothing for 2-3 months, even for demanding SPS.
The one trick that I have up my sleeve is that my main tank is also an ultra low maintenance beast, and I have a couple of gallons of super awesome trident-maintained excessively monitored saltwater that currently goes down the drain every day. It's high in calcium and alk, low in phosphates and nitrates and has just a *hint* of montipora eating nudibranch.
I've been wondering if I can take this liquid gold, and re-purpose it into a small but mighty frag tank/long term coral prison. With a small enough tank, and a large enough volume of water passing through it I'm hoping that I can eliminate the need for pretty much anything in there beyond heat, light and flow - no dosing, no testing, no skimmer, no top off.
I have also wondered if it might also be possibly to heavily feed such a tank (with roids/chili) to keep a large (or larger than normal) amount of food in suspension without fouling the water over time (40-50% automated daily water changes are fun), and maybe even keep a small clam as a biological filter.
This also, I hope, has the added benefit of pre-acclimating everything to the main tank's water chemistry so when it is time to move to the main display they have essentially been living in the same water for months.
Something like this:
Anyway - more to come, since this is happening as we speak, but I would appreciate comments, thoughts, general feedback and abuse.
Dave
a) I have no space (like, almost none)
b) I am incredibly lazy, and hate doing maintenance
So what do I want?
A small setup that requires as close to zero maintenance as possible, and can house/grow out a couple of dozen frags at a time. Ideally I want to put a heater, a light and flow into a small tank and be able to do absolutely nothing for 2-3 months, even for demanding SPS.
The one trick that I have up my sleeve is that my main tank is also an ultra low maintenance beast, and I have a couple of gallons of super awesome trident-maintained excessively monitored saltwater that currently goes down the drain every day. It's high in calcium and alk, low in phosphates and nitrates and has just a *hint* of montipora eating nudibranch.
I've been wondering if I can take this liquid gold, and re-purpose it into a small but mighty frag tank/long term coral prison. With a small enough tank, and a large enough volume of water passing through it I'm hoping that I can eliminate the need for pretty much anything in there beyond heat, light and flow - no dosing, no testing, no skimmer, no top off.
I have also wondered if it might also be possibly to heavily feed such a tank (with roids/chili) to keep a large (or larger than normal) amount of food in suspension without fouling the water over time (40-50% automated daily water changes are fun), and maybe even keep a small clam as a biological filter.
This also, I hope, has the added benefit of pre-acclimating everything to the main tank's water chemistry so when it is time to move to the main display they have essentially been living in the same water for months.
Something like this:
Anyway - more to come, since this is happening as we speak, but I would appreciate comments, thoughts, general feedback and abuse.
Dave
