The perfect frag tank?

Any of you guys have dedicated Frag Tanks? Need some opinions here.

A) A reefer I know, has a frag tank with sugar fine sand at the bottom. It
measures 36" X 24" X 18". The frags are supposed to be stuck into the
sand.

1. Sugar fine sand as a frag rack, 18" down? Has anyone ever heard of
this method? No eggcrate at all?


B) The tank has a 19" X 19" X 19" custom sump. The tank water drains
into a 3" diameter sock filter thats about 16" long & into the first
chamber which takes up 2/3's of the sump. He has fuge "mud" in there
and a large 20# chunk of LR. The rest of the sump has 2 baffles that
end in a chamber for the return pump. He has some nice chaeto within
the baffles & a very nice LED plant light too. Thats it.

1) Anyone ever heard of just a biological filter (ie: LR, sand, mud chaeto)?
2) This guys reason for not using a skimmer, "....it's a frag tank....you
know, a frag tank...."
3) Need your opinion on this.
4) What would you do differently.

*This all threw me for a "loop" when I saw the tank. This is a beautiful 1/2" thick custom built acrylic tank, custom stand & sump. The tank is spotless with a nice 4X T5 fixture. He has a nice display tank full of fish & corals.



The skimmer is not being used at all.

 

That looks awesome. Is he selling it? : If I had a sump I'd go with a small one. Some people don't run skimmers on their show tanks, some do.

 

Have you seen any of the guys frags? for me that would be key to forming an opinion on his set up and method

If you have no fish, you will have a really low bioload and IMO the skimmer is not going to be employed much anyway

the sand idea, I like that, its going to be dead easy to locate any size of shape plugs, live rock pieces etc
but one thing that I would want is a bare bottom tank especially if going skimmerless as then you can ensure any detritus is cleaned using the syphon through filter sock method

but as stated earliers, if this guy has beautiful, colourfull prospering frags - then that would be enough of a recomendation for me

Steve

 

Id run a skimmer on every tank with fish or coral

 

Hey Stevie, no coral....just cycling away. His display though was super nice. So, I'm a little confused.

 

He's already sold it (to me!! ha! ha!) & this isn't a show tank Seano, its a functioning frag tank! Now snap out of it!!! ;D

 

dsssd

 

hahaha!

Show tanks = fish = more waste = skimmer

 

To me, it doesn't sound like a great frag tank. IMO, a really good frag tank is very low, about 12-15" tall. This not only allows for high PAR values at the bottom from just about any light source, but allows easy access to the frags. You will most likely have your hands in this tank often as well, gluing, dipping, cutting etc. The low profile makes this much easier and cleaner. I would also go bare bottom. No need for substrate, what's the point? I would use a rack that is stepped, so that higher light corals are higher up and lower light corals at the bottom. This will also give you the ability to create a shaded place for very low light corals, or corals that may be bleached by the lighting over the tank. A skimmer would not be necessary if there are no fish and I would have no fish or inverts. Again, why would you? It's a frag tank, not a display tank. This will ensure that the fish don't pick at the corals, knock them over etc. I would have a sump with carbon, maybe a refugium but that's about it, or better yet, plumb it into your display tank.

Overall, IMO, his frag tank setup doesn't sound like it's the best, but of course as Steve said, if his frags are doing great with good color and growth, why not use his method. But it wouldnt' be the method I would start off with.

 

Anyone else?