help with frag tank

[shades251]

i am going to set up a frag tank but need some info.

plan is 10 gal tank no fish what-so-ever how much LR with i need? with no fish just LR LS RO and coral how often will i neeed to do water changes?

as for lights, as long as i have watts per gallon does it have to be MH to grow SPS? like if i have 86 watts of PC will that do?

my real plan is 10 gal tank 5 or 6 pounds LR 10 or so pounds LS, RO all the time, no fish, no filter and like a 3 or 400 gph power head, with cheap high watt lights what do you think?

 

[ccCapt]

A frag tank is just a small reef tank. You can't take any short cuts if you want success. If you don't have fish, you need to feed the corals so you have a need for filtration (live rock) and regular water changes.
Forget the watts per gallon thing. If you want to grow SPS, not just keep them alive, you need to provide them with high PAR lighting like T5HO or MH. A small, stand alone frag tank is harder to maintain than a full blown reef just because you have less room for error.

 

[Rcpilot]

I kept a 10g frag tank for about a year. I had 78w of Power Compact lights and I was growing an SPS frag without any problems. But it was really too much light for zoas, mushrooms and LPS frags. Had to shade all of them.

As long as you ONLY want to grow SPS, then you should dump a lot of light on it. Power Compact will work fine. The tanks are very shallow, so light penetration is not really a big deal. Obviously, T5 or MH would work too.

As for filtration, fish and water changes.............
I'd keep one small fish in the tank. NOT a baby tang or a baby angel. Just keep a little damsel in there or maybe a small goby. Fish need to eat. They don't always eat all the food you put into the tank. They poop. That uneaten food and fish poop provides nutrients for your corals. Your corals can't live in just salt water. Sure, they will absorb trace elements out of the water, but they need some kind of food too.

I ran a HOB refugium on my little 10g. It had a built in skimmer. I bought it at Aqua Traders. Fill the bottom up with about 5" of aragonite sand or mineral mud. Put a bunch of rock rubble in there. Put a hunk of cheato in there. Slap a cheap 10w --- 20w clamp-on light on top.

I used to have rocks and sand in my tank. If I were to do it again, I'd leave the 10g tank bare bottom and fill it with racks for coral plugs. The live rock, sand and cheato in the HOB refugium is more than enough for a tank this size with a single little fish.

Water changes:
2g or 3g a week
EVERY week

Water changes help your corals grow. Yes, they need nutrients from some kind of organic waste (fish poop and uneaten food) - but they also need trace elements. The trace elements are in the salt water. They get used up and depleted by the corals.

Don't get the idea you'll have great success by building a 10g frag tank and changing water once a month to save time or money. You won't. Frequent water changes are essential to good coral growth IMO.

Good luck!! :Cheers: