Duncan's 20 long Frag Tank. (for real this time)

[Solarfall]

So I know I started a build thread for a pony tank awhile back and that never really happened.... but I now have all the makings of my frag tank except stuff to fill my fuge and..... water. I'm waiting for my RO tote to fill up now though.

Pics:

There's the tank with me holding my Current 150w MH pendant over it.

The place where it will be. Also waiting for a friend to come over to help me move that extra 55 that's sitting there.

That's my hang-on skimmer/refugium thing.


Also have a bunch of eggcrate left over that I'll be making a rack with as soon as I find my stupid dremel.

Equipment:
20 long tank measuring 30"x12"x12"
150w MH pendant with 14k coralife bulb
2 cheapo 350 GPH powerheads
150 watt heater. Yeah, kind of overkill but it's what I had.
Skimmer/Refugium combo. I plan on stuffing the fuge with a layer of sand, then rubble rock, then some pod-infested caulerpa from my Display's fuge.

Now, 2 questions. Should I put any sand on the bottom of the tank itself or leave it bare? And would it be unwise to put any fish in there? Well, 3 questions... If I don't put any fish in, do I really need to cycle a frag tank?

I'll have pics either tonight or tomorrow with the tank filled and running. Just gotta get enough water made and move that 55.

 

[dcantucson]

I would leave it bare and put maybe 2 small Damsels in it.

 

[Solarfall]

What I really wanted to do as far as fish was get a mated pair of clowns and hope that they might lay eggs at some point and maybe, just maybe get into clown breeding. I figure it would be really easy to collect the fry in a tank that wasn't completely filled with rock.
Then I thought of the potential for them to just beat the hell out of my frags in an attempt to host, which made me sad.

 

[dcantucson]

True and also feeding the babies (if you left them in there) would probably pollute the water quality for your corals. Sad but it might work?

 

[Solarfall]

Don't you get a seperate tank for the fry? That's how it was in FW, anyway. Since all the pumps and stuff would inevitably kill all your precious guppy babies.

edit: sorry, didn't see the (if you left them in there) part

 

[Bifferwine]

You have to raise the fry in a separate tank. The water literally has to be cloudy with food for them or they'll starve to death, so you need to do daily water changes because the water quality gets so poor. I think you'd have a hard time keeping anything else alive because like you said, you can't have any pumps or powerheads in the fry tank.

 

[dcantucson]

Those little frys are demanding little shits aren't they!?

 

[Solarfall]

yeah...definetly not gonna have any filled tank pics til tomorrow morning. The water pressure in my house is ass so getting a decent amount of RO water takes forever. I did get the old 55 moved and the light hung though!

 

[Solarfall]

I have it nearly full and most of the equipment running. And I found my Dremel! I'll have it probably running with everything tomorrow.

 

[Bifferwine]

It looks so clean! Can't wait to see it filled up.

 

[Solarfall]

Ran into a bit of a speed bump.

The ceiling in that room is painted with textured paint so this morning I woke up to a ton of tiny paint chips at the bottom of the tank. I'm going to need to figure out a long term solution for that.

 

[Hiker4twenty]

Can you build a simple canopy for the tank? It doesn't have look pretty since it's not your DT, but it needs to be functional.

 

[Solarfall]

I'm using a pendant though.

 

[Hiker4twenty]

what if you thumbtack a white sheet to your ceiling that is over your tank then it will catch all the dibris falling?

 

[Solarfall]

Yeah I was thinking something like that too.

I could also paint over the texture paint in the same color of regular paint. My room has the same thing and when I painted it a different color it kind of sealed over the texture paint and stopped it from crumbling away all the time.

 

[Ulta]

I support your idea to put only a pair of clowns in there! give em a little flower pot or something and they will lay their eggs there :) it also takes care of trying to get the fry in the new tank, the night the eggs are going to hatch simply pull out the pot and put it in the new tank.

That's how most breeders breed clowns nothing in the tanks but a pot or 1/2 pot.

 

[Solarfall]

I staple-gunned some plastic drop cloth stuff on the ceiling above the tank. Like the stuff you put on the floor when you're painting. Worked pretty well I think. I also got my frag rack built, now I just have to figure out how to weigh the stupid thing down.

I had to put a towel there to keep that fuge thing up. I couldn't figure out how to get it to stay up and it didn't come with directions.... because it's from aquatraders... FINE I'LL ADMIT IT I BOUGHT A FEW THINGS FROM THEM!!

Frag rack. I'm actually pretty happy with it.


On a side note the skimmer barely even works, so I'm just going to pack that part with rubble rock instead.

 

[PRC]

Ran into a bit of a speed bump.

The ceiling in that room is painted with textured paint so this morning I woke up to a ton of tiny paint chips at the bottom of the tank.QUOTE]

I think before I put a frag tank together. I'd be trying to figure out what is making my paint fall off the walls. :D Nice tank.

 

[reeffreak]

You did an awesome job on the frag rack,congrats!

 

[Solarfall]

I think before I put a frag tank together. I'd be trying to figure out what is making my paint fall off the walls. :D Nice tank.

Yeah yeah.... Textured paint is a huge pain in the ass. If you don't mix it absolutely perfectly It ends up a huge mess.

Also, my mom is 100% insane and does weird stuff like that all the time. But I'm not really worried about what that room looks like. It's basically like a storage room anyway. Thanks though :)

I'll be getting some rubble rock and sand and stuff this weekend. I just realized I'm going to need to cycle this tank regardless of anything because I'll be feeding corals like crazy in it.