I would like to get a 20G long tank and set it up as a frag tang. Short of lighting, what would i need in the way of pumps. Would a powerhead or two be sufficient? Would I need a skimmer? I know I would need a heater.
In addition, what if I sectioned it in half and made one side a frag tank and one a seperat QT?
cant answer....well pretty much any questions lol but i can tell you that that fish store i was telling you about here. the owner has a 20long that he has been trying to get me to buy for awhile. its drilled too. he bought it for home use but the guy that drilled it drilled it in the wrong place for his stand. i could probably get it really really cheap and then you could hook it into your sump and not worry about skimming
i will find out tomorrow for you. i think there is two and they are 3/4. the tank also comes with the bulkhead. i will try and get messurements on where the holes are and everything for ya..
yeah, we need some links cause i dont have any! i was just asking blubber about this last night! theres related info, but nothing step by step showing a path!
in reality it doesn;t take much, your limited by your imagination.
garf.net have some great idea's . esspecially for animals that spread across a colony!
from what i know u have to setup the frag tank with the conditions of the species in question, sps and softies have different requirement in both water chemisty & water currents! but im searching on the subject as well!
if i find anything of use i will post, but those with frag tanks already could u pipe up with your experiences
Well, as you know I am still a rookie at this SW stuff, so I think I will be looking for a softie tank. That way I can keep the $$ down as bit on the lighting side. My hope is to set some frags and sell and trade them to offset equipment for my main tank. Oh yeah, and to drive my wife crazy!
Actually I won't tie the tank to the main at all. Wesley had a good idea to do that with the frag tank, but I don't have the room, so it will be on the Unfinished side of the basement.
Well just wondering now, but what is the purpose of a frag tank? Is it for post fragged corals waiting for them to reattach? Is it a grow out tank? An overflow tank cause the coral gods blessed you with too many corals to put in the main tank?
Well, my purpose is just extra space for corals to attach and grow. Most of the time I have seen them with no sand, just a little rock for bio filtration, a glass bottom and some egg crate to get the corals up off the glass for circultaion.
thanks for the link! they talk of the standard get go systems, but once again, no one really goes into to much depth! im wondering if its because simplisity is the key!
its as simple as overflows on on side, returns on the other, couple power heads, a cultivating rack for culture trays or frag cup/pegs with the usual lighting needs! the thing is to really negate your micro bubble production with these tanks!
personally my views are shifting towards aquaculture! we are serious need of a group of people promoting awareness, supply, & workbench programs for us reefers! someones got to step up to the plate & bring the professionals of our hobby to one spot!
i noted a link for future reference from last years conference, but when i lost opera browser the links were trashed along with it! this is all ive been able to recover! if u guys know where this info is please share the wealth!
Rocky Herman's Coral Farming on a Hobbyist Budget
Greenhouse applications
Types of greenhouse, sizes, windloads, rainloads, snowloads, extreme weather, photo-exposure, shading, space requirements, humidity & airflow, well systems & water purification methods, tank layouts, sunbeam tubes & skylights and home/garage applications. Maintenance and upgrade options.
Geothermal applications
Controlling an ideal reef climate using the earth as a heat/cooling sink, practical applications to the personal aquarium as well as on a semi-commercial level. Temperature climate of tank versus greenhouse ambient air temperatures, and automating it. BTU's of energy from the earthen soil in your areas. Evaporative cooling and humidity. Plumbing, headloss, and flow dynamics.
Propagation procedures & equipment
Utilizing horizontal growth versus vertical, necessary tools, growout tanks, frag tanks, frag trays, frag plugs, inducing self- propagation, coral suspension and utilizing directional growth, tanks, raceways, surges, calcium reactors, skimmers, and building your own equipment versus buying. Multiple systems, stair stepping-gravity feeding. Sandbeds and finding their place in your systems. Culturing liverock utilizing an environmental-freindly approach. Species tanks and sub-species tanks and how you can minimize your workload. Adaption process's from wild to captive and s acrificing coloration for growth. Coral toxins and safety handling procedures. Quarantine, UV sterilization and common pest.
the purpose of a frag tank is mainly a grow out place for corals that you frag or that spread on there own. not as important for softies, but definitely can help if your main tank is small
if you are to set one up, its usually best to tie it into your existing system.
you can set it up separately but in this case you will a system with all the fixins, filtration, powerheads, heater, skimmer, lights, etc. it has to be a full reef system.
one problem that comes with a separate frag tank, is that the newly fragged coral, that has been cut up and severely stressed, now has to be acclimated to a new system. this "can" cause issues. since you are dealing with softies its probably not a big issue though. with others it can be "too" stressful
if you can plumb it into your sump, that would be my recommendation
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i think its safe to assume there are risks initally with attaching a frag tank to the main! if the argument is the "new" tank conditions after cutting can contribute to undue stress>then doesn't that effectivly rule the QT out and even though the frags are generally small the nasties they could have brought with them from the host tank could potentially infest yours!
so with this line of thinnking would it not be best to have the system linked but shut off from the main system till u have treated/inspected/quarintined before opening the flood gates>?
or the expensive approach of setting up the independant set-ups if your serious about cultivation!
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and even though the