DIY Frag Tank

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alyxandria

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
May 5, 2014
Messages
697
Built this yesterday pretty much by myself as my boyfriend has been sick with pneumonia. Pretty proud of it, just wanted to show it off!!

It's 48x24x12 :)

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It looks great. Did you figure out where you want to put it? Will it be beside the DT, or lower than it? You were asking about how to plumb it in...
 
Thanks :) I was actually thinking now about just plumbing it into its own sump.

I was thinking a 20 long sump with space for a skimmer and refugium. I'd have to get the skimmer later on as I don't want to skimp on it and I don't think I have the budget just yet. College problems lol!

I was wondering if I should make an overflow, order an overflow, or use the 700 GPH overflow I have.

I'm also not sure about which lighting i should use. I want to stick to around $200-300 for lighting on the whole tank.. If possible. I'd obviously like the most growth possible though. Was thinking T5 metal halide?
 
You don't want that. Energy thirsty, you have to change the bulbs (50+ bucks x 2) every 9 months, will make the tank hot as hell....
IME, plumb it to your main tank and use the same type and intensity lighting.
It will increase the water volume of the DT, plus you won't have to re-acclimate anything from one system to the other.

If this is just a frag tank, just drill a hole about 4" down on the rear pane and use a 90 with strainer on it. A 1" bulkhead is fine. What overflow do you have currently?
 
I was going to go with the LEDs initially but was told they wouldn't grow well enough. I find in my 29G my stuff is growing really well under them though.

If I were to plumb it to the main tank would it have to be lower than that tank? Would i plumb each to the sump separately or in a loop sort of system?

I have a 75G and I was going to get a 40G long sump. It's a slow build but we are doing it as we can afford it.

The overflow I have I ordered off of eBay a while ago but I don't really like the shape of it, it's kind of bulky. So I could just do a bulkhead and strainer where I want the water level to be?

I was thinking of doing three layers of egg crate racks. One low, medium, and high for different corals.
 
That's ridiculous. The right LEDs are the most efficient and powerful lighting you can put over a tank to date. They leave ancient metal halides in the dust. Whoever told you that was clearly misinformed.
Your frag tank would only have to be above the common sump. The position of it to that of the DT is not important, unless you are draining the dt into it, and then it into the sump, which I would not recommend.

Something like this is what I would do-
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Though you have a few options for what to put inside the tank-
reefs.comOFB3.jpg
 
I too am tired of hearing that my LEDs don't grow corals. Got rid of the MH years ago and never looked back. I remember when flat screens came out and there were those that claimed only a CRT could make good pictures. Seen many of those old glass boxes recently? MH will eventually go the same way. Hot, inefficient, expensive to run and the bulbs can explode. What's not to like?


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice
 
Yeah I am going to go with the 165W LEDS off ebay. I really like them so hopefully they'll be good for coral growth.

So my next step is:

I want to keep the water level around 11" so I can have different levels of egg crate racks in my tank.

I was planning on having three racks. One at 1", the next at 4", and the last at 7". Does this sound good or should I adjust this? If anyone has better suggestions please do tell :)

So I'll do a 1" bulkhead with a strainer at 11" (approx) and for a return I'll do a 3/4" bulkhead with locline probably. Does that sound good? Then would a 500 or 700 GPH return pump suffice?
 
THEN the next step would be the sump itself:

I've decided to plumb this separately for now. We are planning on moving in a few years and maybe we will attempt to plumb it together then but right now we don't have the right space.

I'm going to go with a 20 long for the sump so I'll have to do my baffles as well. I was going to do the skimmer section, refugium, and then the return pump section. Is there any place that I should put the bubble trap specifically or is either before or after the fuge okay?

What kind of cheap lighting (I can upgrade later) would be good for a fuge with live rock and chaeto?

Do you think I could spray paint the fuge baffles black with that kryton(?) (can't remember name) paint?
 
After the refugium put the bubble trap.
One of these with a curly-q energy saver bulb is perfect for algae-
k2-_cdb06ee3-d324-41b5-9bb7-311019a53937.v1.jpg
 
as i read this.... i imagine that photo of you in the yellow shirt in the tank...:lol:


Lol! I remember that. Too funny.

So about the pump.. I'm looking at buying an 800 GPH one - is this ok? Should I put a valve on it to control the flow in case it's too much?

Thanks guys :)
 
After the refugium put the bubble trap.
One of these with a curly-q energy saver bulb is perfect for algae-
k2-_cdb06ee3-d324-41b5-9bb7-311019a53937.v1.jpg


Where did you get this from? What's it called if I were to search for it?

Edit: nvm found it :)
 
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