Frag Tank

[Ziggy953]

Well I got the go-ahead for the frag tank. I have a 55g that has been sitting for a long time collecting dust. Since my corals are growing fast enough that I need to do some fraging I thought I would turn the 55 in to a frag tank. I'm working on it now. In stead of using an overflow box I decided to drill the back of the tank and put a bulkhead in. One less thing to worry about. If you have never drilled a tank take it takes time! I went slow and used lots of water to keep the bit and glass cool. I'm going to plumb it into my current system increasing my system volume to about 175g.

I'm going to use T5 lighting for the frag tank and several Korilas for water movement. This will be a bare bottom tank with egg-crate shelfs for coral frags. I'm going to use a Mag5 to supply the tank with water from my sump which will return to the sump and back through the rest of the system. I've been taking pics, I will post them later.

 

[Innovator]

Do be aware that any sloughing from any coral could affect the main system. Keep that filtration and chemical filtration up!

 

[chase33]

Can't wait to see the pics. Did you ever upgrade you tank ziggy?

 

[Ziggy953]

I have not upgraded the tank yet. I don't think I'm going to anytime soon. The next tank I get will be the big one and it will be built into the house my wife and I are going to build. I have tons of plans drawn up for that tank but it is a few years off yet.

I have to pick up a couple pieces of plumbing to finish hooking the frag tank up. I probably wont get to that until this weekend.

 

[Ziggy953]

The 55g frag tank is up and running. I have it tied into my main system. As I said above I drilled the tank instead of using an overflow. That has worked out very well. I'm using a spare MAG5 as a return pump and I have 3 Koralia 1s in the tank for water movement. I haven't bought the T5s yet so I'm using a PC fixture that I had laying around. Unfortunately only half of the tank has light as one of the ballast has blown. So I took the fixture apart and built a custom temporary light holder. While I was out and about today I stopped in at my favorite LFS (Blue Ribbon Koi) and picked up an awesome little clown fish. I got a No-Bar clown (ORA) this little guy has a single white spot on his left gill. I have tried to get a pic of him but he is a fast little sucker so that will come later. We are in the middle of a nasty little wintery mix situation here so I'm not going to try and upload a lot of pics of the new system. I'll do that later in the week.

Anyway Just a quick update. I'll get some pics up in a few days.

 

[chase33]

Sounds good Ziggy. Can't wait to see the pics

 

[Ziggy953]

While I was working on the frag tank I also did a little modification to my Main systems lighting. The PC Fixture I had had 4 LED moon lights in it. I didn't want those to go to waste so I installed them in the canopy for my 72g tank. Pretty cool effect at night. I had forgotten how they look on the tank. I'll get a couple pics of that up too. My interenet connection is still crappy right now. Hughes net is messing around and not fixing the problem so I'm running on about dial up speeds. PAIN!!!!

 

[ccCapt]

hehehe

 

[Ziggy953]

I know. This weekend I will be able to get the pics up, then it wont be such a useless thread.

 

[ellisz]

My frag tank is 6ft long and I have a MH pendent on one side that covers a 2x2 area and a 2x96 PC DIY fixture for the other 4x2 section.

On the chemical warfare issue, I have a little rubbermaid box that the frag tank drains into that I keep a bag of carbon and some sponge in. The water drain from it into the sump via holes I drilled.

Congrats on the frag tank. I started with a 10gal, then I had a 20L, then a 33L and now I have a 72x24x13 frag tank.

 

[Ziggy953]

Here are a few pics of the frag tank. I have some more to add but I haven't gotten them on the computer yet. Right now I only have half of the tank under light and also only one piece of eggcrate in the tank. I've been trying to find eggcrate but Home Depot and Lowes didn't have any the last two times I went in. I'm going out this afternoon to BRK and will stop by a different lowes to see if they have any. I plan on doing a stair-step setup in the tank. Right now I have a few corals in there and some LR that I had in my sump. I also have some Cheato from my fuge in there.

Drilling the hole.

Putting a couple things in the tank.





I'll post more pics when I get the eggcrate in the tank.

 

[Ziggy953]

Well I have the eggcrate "steps" in on one side of the frag tank and I have the frags on there now. I don't have everything arranged the way I want it yet but I haven't had time to do so yet. I'm still waiting on the new T5 ballasts to show up and the bulbs. Right now I still have only half of the tank lit which is fine because only half of the tank has coral in it. I was at BRK (locals will know where I mean) and picked up a trio of Firefish for the frag tank. Just thought they would add a little pop and they were only $9.95 so what the heck.

 

[Ziggy953]

 

[roka64]

Very nice, when are you going to set up shop?

 

[Ziggy953]

Some of the stuff in there I could start selling now I guess. There are a few of the rocks with zoas on them that I'm going to let grow for a while before selling them. I have a ton of SPS frags to get on disks too. Also I'm going to start selling some of my cheato its going nuts. I figure by the first of Feb I will have things up and running. I will have some listed here and some on ebay. If things go well enough I may start a small site online dedicated to it. We will see.

 

[lando]

Hey Ziggy...the frag tank looks great! So do the frags you have growing in there. Have you thought about adding some chuncks of LR under the egg create for added biological filtration? I would love to see how this is plumbed to the main. Great work so far...Keep it up!

 

[lando]

BTW...how are you fragging your zoas and attaching them to plugs?

 

[Ziggy953]

I have a ton of LR in my system as a whole and when I do PWCs I remove water fromt the system out of the 55 so I suck any nasty stuff off the bottom of the tank. I have about 40lbs of LR in there right now on the non-lighted side of the tank just because I have no where else for it to go.

The Zoas:

What I have been doing is chipping the rock away under the colony taking a few polyps at a time. I like doing it this way because the polyps are attached to a bit of rock and it makes for an easier surface to glue them down to the plugs. A few of the frags in the tank I just set the plugs next to the colony and after a week or so they grew onto the plug. I have 28 different types of zoas in my tank so what you see in the frag tank is only a small slice of what I have. For some reason even the "slow" growers grow like weeds in my tank.

As for the plumbing its really simple I drilled the hole in the tank put a bulk head in and plumbed it into my return tank. I have a Mag5 as the return pump and it pulls water from the return tank (main system return) and puts it into the frag tank. My tanks are side by side.

 

[lando]

Thanks for the info. I have a ton of zoanthids I would like to frag. When the weather in MN gets a bit more tolerable and predictable I would like to try my hand at shipping some to see how they do.

 

[Ziggy953]

They ship very well. I just got a couple in a few minutes ago. as long as they don't get too cold they will be fine!