Frag Tank?

[Plasticreefer]

I am interested in starting an long 20 gallon Sump that i will use for coral fragging. what equipment do i need? how much does it cost? i need lots of help so please come to my rescue

[christensonjes]

I have seen some people use rubble rock on bottom, then putting eggcrate halfway up to get the corals closer to light light. just use a heater, and either a small skimmer or frequent water changes. (like every 5 to 7 days maybe. A strong light will be the likely the most expensive. You could get away with just a metal halide pendant. I dont think it would be necassary to use actnics. And lastly, 1 or 2 small pumps, depending on if it is going to an sps frag tank

I am not an expert on this and I am sure others will join in but that should get your motor turning

[Rob]

actually its more complicated that that.
a frag tank is not really different from a display tank, and has all the same needs.
it has to be properly filtered and lit.

frag tanks are easy o setup and dont require many things if you are connecting it to your existing system, however if its a stand alone tank, then its needs everything, filtration, current, lighting, heat, same additives, etc.
obviously you dont need to fill the needs of fish etc, so that excluded, if the coral needs X in your display tank, its going to need the same X in the frag tank

more importantly, you need to keep it as close as possible to the main tank, same lighting, temp, PH, salinity, Ca, etc. or you will be putting the coral through a lot of stress when transferring and having to re-acclimate to a whole new system.

[christensonjes]

I still think that is all you will need for equipment Rob. That should be enough to keep the water quality up. And yes I agree, it definetly is another tank so it will have all of the demands that your display tank has.

Your corals wont be in any more stress than if you bought them from a lfs or another reefer, so just use the same acclimation techniques as you do now

[Rob]

accept that you will likely be acclimating them right after fragging them, 2 very stressful situations..

can it be done? absolutely, do i recommend it, not really.. but if you choose to do os, at least let the frags or cuttings recover in the display before transferring to the frag tank, this should reduce the stress and increase the survival rate of the frags

[Plasticreefer]

thats great thanks i was also wondering weather i should use a return powerhead or a built in overflow