What Do You Use for Hides in Frag Tanks?

nickkohrn · Sep 4, 2019

Since my wife and I will be purchasing our first home within the next two years, I decided to turn my Waterbox 100.3 into a grow-out tank so that I don't have to worry about breaking colonies during a move. As a bonus, this will give me the ability to identify growth patterns and colors so that I can better place them when I am ready to set up a new system.

With that said, I currently have my frags growing on 3"x3" tiles, which will give them plenty of space to spread out for a while. I have the left side dedicated to SPS frags, and the right side dedicated to LPS frags. However, I would like to change it so that the SPS frags are above the LPS frags, on some sort of riser (like PVC & egg crate). I have four dens in the tank that allow my blenny, damsel, and tang to have some shelter. However, they take up a decent amount of space, and my tang (tomini) will outgrow them. The image below shows the dens.

Noticing that my tang loves to hide within the dens, it prompted me to think about how bare some frag tanks are that house tangs and other fish. Wouldn't it stress the fish to only have corals and frag racks to hide within?

Since my tank is not the ideal dimensions for a frag tank, I am trying to find a better solution than what I currently have. The reason this works for the moment is that I have four Radion XR15s above, keeping the two on the left, over the SPS frags, at high intensities, the third one over the dens a bit lower, and the right one over the LPS frags much lower. The dens also break up the flow from my three MP40s, keeping the flow quite intense for the SPS frags and much less intense for the LPS frags. The tang keeps algae at bay, and the damsel and blenny help keep the bio-load up, which has allowed me to cease dosing sodium nitrates since they were undetectable. Before deciding to turn this into a frag tank, I added a fairy wrasse and a filefish to my quarantine system. I would like to keep them since I purchased them for a reef tank; they can go into my future upgrade, and they will help keep my nitrates higher.

I'd love to know what you use for hides in your frag tank(s) to keep your fish feeling secure.

Eagle_Steve · Sep 4, 2019

nickkohrn said:
Since my wife and I will be purchasing our first home within the next two years, I decided to turn my Waterbox 100.3 into a grow-out tank so that I don't have to worry about breaking colonies during a move. As a bonus, this will give me the ability to identify growth patterns and colors so that I can better place them when I am ready to set up a new system.

With that said, I currently have my frags growing on 3"x3" tiles, which will give them plenty of space to spread out for a while. I have the left side dedicated to SPS frags, and the right side dedicated to LPS frags. However, I would like to change it so that the SPS frags are above the LPS frags, on some sort of riser (like PVC & egg crate). I have four dens in the tank that allow my blenny, damsel, and tang to have some shelter. However, they take up a decent amount of space, and my tang (tomini) will outgrow them. The image below shows the dens.

Noticing that my tang loves to hide within the dens, it prompted me to think about how bare some frag tanks are that house tangs and other fish. Wouldn't it stress the fish to only have corals and frag racks to hide within?

Since my tank is not the ideal dimensions for a frag tank, I am trying to find a better solution than what I currently have. The reason this works for the moment is that I have four Radion XR15s above, keeping the two on the left, over the SPS frags, at high intensities, the third one over the dens a bit lower, and the right one over the LPS frags much lower. The dens also break up the flow from my three MP40s, keeping the flow quite intense for the SPS frags and much less intense for the LPS frags. The tang keeps algae at bay, and the damsel and blenny help keep the bio-load up, which has allowed me to cease dosing sodium nitrates since they were undetectable. Before deciding to turn this into a frag tank, I added a fairy wrasse and a filefish to my quarantine system. I would like to keep them since I purchased them for a reef tank; they can go into my future upgrade, and they will help keep my nitrates higher.

I'd love to know what you use for hides in your frag tank(s) to keep your fish feeling secure.

I have racks set on 3" and 4" pvc elbows to raise up the eggcrate that either the tiles or plugs sit on. I only have wrasses and blennies in my frag tanks, but the wrasses love the tubes at night. For the sand burying wrasses I have, I took 2 end caps, put them on the elbos, cut half of the end cap out (like a half moon), sanded the edges and then filled with sand. They have a hidey hole during the day and a bed at night.

danschoenherr · Sep 17, 2019

I took large pvc "crosses" and cut them in half, down the center on a band saw. My egg crate rests on these. They are open on each end and top for flow, and fish can use them for cover.