My frag tank and coral QT plans...

My DT is looking really good and am going to be adding some corals soon(possible around the holidays). So I am making plans for a nice frag tank. My plan is to use an extra 55g stand I have and put a plywood top on it. I will put a 20g long at one end and leave the other end flat with a cutting board of some sort on top(this will be a place for fragging). I will have a good 18" for this. The frag tank will have two shelves made of light difuser. The tank will be filtered by to HOB BioWheels and be powered by a 20"T5 fixture. Questions:

1) Should I up my lighting? I mainly want to keep SPS for now.

2) Should I run a skimmer?

3) Is there a need for a sand bed and a CUC?

Thanks.

 

sounds pretty awesome!

the cuc yes, sand no... since it will be mostly sps you will have a lot of flow and you dont want the sand being blown everywhere. Just stick in a few pieces of live rock.

I would run a skimmer to pull out any extra phytoplankton from your dosing that your corals dont eat.

your lighting will probably be good, how many bulbs and watts are in the fixture

 

Thanks for the replie.

I run a 48" 4 bulb Nova extreme on my 55g, so I will prob. go with another for my frag/QT. I am looking at their 4X24 Watt, 24 inch fixture.

For skimmer, I have become a fan of Bubble Magus and will most likely be using their in tank BMQQ with maxi jet.
Bubble-Magus BMQQ Skimmer w/ Maxijet 1200 - Protein Skimmers - Nuocean

Any other tips or advise would be appreciated, thanks.

 

yea those lights will be good. but check with some people on here into your light bulb options (i believe uti bulbs?). You can get some amazing bulbs to make your frag tank look extraordinarily awesome

 

Cool! I will ask around.

 

Just found a Coral 65 super HOB for $40 from a local reefer! This looks like it will be my skimmer. Question:

If I add water from my DT plus some new R/O, and a few peices of LR, will I see much of a cycle? I don't think I will, but thought I would to ask anyways.

 

You shouldn't see any cycle at all if you are adding rock directly from your DT.

Sounds like you have some awesome plans. I really like the fragging room built in next to the tank. When I was fragging a lot I didn't think that far ahead and spent a lot of time kneeling on the floor cutting frags.

 

Thanks mike. Yeah I hope everything works out. This will be sort of a winter project, so I have plenty of time to plan things out.

 

I picked up some plywood and I got a nice cutting board today. I will start cutting the plywood to cover the top tonight and apply some black paint to finish it off. I will then measure and cut the cutting board to fit. I was also able to find a rubber cutting board topper at Home Depot to cover the wood and make it a non-slip surface. Then all that is left is to start working on the 20g long, starting with buying a new tank(the one I already had fell off the back of my truck last weekendand cracked pretty good, don't ask long story).

I will have pics tonight and will move the thread to the DIY section.

 

Quick question:

When I make my frag racks in the 20g I want two levels one higher and one lower. How low should I keep my racks from the top of the tank, or in this case the lighting? My T5 fixture on my DT is right about 3" off the water and I would assume that to be the same on my frag tank.

Thanks.