Quarantine/Frag tank tank with no skimmer

I am planning to setup a permanent QT with no skimmer or filtration. I will just do heavy water changes. My main system will have about 300g of water. I plan to change 10% of the water per month. Instead of draining the water straight from main system i will use dosing pumps to transfer water from main to QT and from QT to drain at the rate of 1g per day.

I want to use it as frag tank and QT for fish and coral. So when i buy coral and fish i can keep them in this secondary system for a while before introduction to main tank.

I am trying to size the QT. What size do you think would run ok with 1g per day water changes? (10g, 20g, 30g, 40g)? Remember no skimmer, carbon etc... I want it to be no maintenance.

Also I was planning to just use a couple pumps to move water. Do you think an airstone or anything else would be necessary?

 

The perfect frag slash QT would be a 40 gal breeder IMO. It may be somewhat deep to keep some sps on the bottom depending on your lightings but a nice roomy tank. Since you are not running a skimmer the increased water volumn will work in your favor.

Sounds like an interesting set up. Pictures in the future if you get around to it.

 

40 breeders work great. They are big enough that you can still house angels and tangs in there for a short time if you need to.

I understand what you are wanting to do with the 40 breeder. Its sounds interesting but you might want to consider doing this. Drill the 40b for a 1 inch drain in one of the corners. Let the 40b drain dump into the sump. Add a small pump like a mag 5 or something better for a return. Simply unplug the pump when new fish arrive.

You can also put your return on a manifold and just control the flow going to the 40b with a ball valve instead of a separate pump. Then you can still go down to 1 gallon per day if you want to but also up to the max that the drain can handle.

 

Just happend to come across this thread on another forum. Excellent example of a 40 gal breeder frag tank.

DBarsotti's Tank On A Hill - Reef Central Online Community