Refugium / Frag Tank Possible?

[Brianw1970]

Hello Everyone,
I have an in wall 140 gallon reef with sump under the display tank and a remote 90 gallon DSB with macro algae. I would like add eggcrate to use a portion of the fuge as a frag tank. Are there any potential problem with this? Thanks in advance.

 

[VAreef]

Holy cow you have a 90 tank just for the sand bed besides the fuge? I can't see any problems with a frag section in the fuge except maybe for lighting. If you got the lights to do it go for it. Why not just add a shelf to the 90 gallon for frags to grow or does it not have any lighting?

 

[Brianw1970]

VA-I got the 90 gal system off Craigs List for a steel so I couldn't resist. I set it up as a fuge with DSB and I use some cheap 150 watt energy saver bulbs and a reflector from Lowes to grow the macro algae. What I can do is add some shelves to one half of the tank and use my extra 24in T5HO lights and keep the macro half with the current light setup on the other half. Would you do anything different?

 

[VAreef]

Besides maybe a divider to keep the macro from getting to the frags nope nothing differant at all.

 

[Reefrookie]

You can give it a try but I think the 24" light will wash out in the tank and not be enough for certain coral growth. Maybe if you set the frag shelve high up under the T5 it may work

 

[JAG107]

Get those T5 bulbs as close to the rack as possible; otherwise, get yourself a single 150w halide pendant on craigslist or your local reef club for cheap, that would work great!

 

[DJ404]

Very nice tank you got there!

 

[VAreef]

Most frag shelfs are right below the water line so I would think a small T5 light would be plenty to grow some stuff there.

 

[Brianw1970]

Thanks for the input guys. I will add an eggcrate divider to discourage the macro from crossing the border to frag land. My LFS has a frag tank with T5's and the shelf is right below the water line so I will take your advice Jag and do it that way too. Will I have to add a powerhead to increase the flow for the frags?

 

[VAreef]

Depends on what your fraging. If its just some softies or shrooms na. If your going full out sps then yeah. Most SPS need lots of flow and a powerhead would help them out alot.

 

[Sunshine]

wow, nice tank. You ever worry about someone taking that tank out with a runaway pool ball ?

 

[coolhandgoose]

haha, never thought of that!!

 

[reeffreak]

wow, nice tank. You ever worry about someone taking that tank out with a runaway pool ball ?

Knock on wood!

Awesome looking in wall system.