Frag tank challenges and options

[Andrew D]

Hi everyone. Curious who has experience with maintaining a separate frag tank or system, and how they've set it up. I bought a custom 48*24*12 inch tank (about 70 gallons), and for the last three months have had lots of challenges and issues with it as a standalone system. I set up a dedicated protein skimmer and also bought one of those laser top-off systems to maintain salinity, but I'm struggling with nutrient control (don't want to use too much live rock as it takes away from the frag space), algae and pest control (contemplating a wrasse and a bristletooth tang), temperature swings (I don't like using heaters, have never had to on my main display due to the large volume) and of course water parameters (frag tank will house sps which requires dosing and/or a fairly frequent water change regimen.

I've had to take the system down because of some renos that are planned, but I'm curious how others have handled a stand-alone tank and wondering if instead I should be looking to plumb it into my main system.

Thanks in advance. Andrew

 

[Cliff]

Honestly I have a hard enough time keeping my parameters stable in my display lol. that’s why I plumbed my frag tank right into my main system. And even still some corals don’t do as well in the frag tank maybe because I have different lighting there?

 

[Luke_L]

Niagarafirecorals might chime in.. .

 

[Limey]

Andrew on two separate occasions i have set up a separate frag tank system, on both occasions it went sideways fast, the continuous top up of the tank the parameters changing quickly and constantly ended up on both occasions within two weeks frags that were fine in the system frag tank now getting covered in hair algae, bleaching and just no doing well at all.

Gave up and went back to a system fed frag tank so much easier and stable water parameters

 

[Luigi]

I can't say much, never had a frag tank

 

[Niagarafirecorals]

My system is all plumbed as 1 lighting is exactly the same as well. This way cutting and moving frags and/or pieces back and forth doesn't add any additional stress. Also maintaining your DT takes care of your frag system as well. I take great care in what and how things go in and out of my system therefor I don't really see a need for keeping them separate.

 

[Andrew D]

Thanks everyone. When I set it up again I'll probably plumb it into the main display. The location isn't ideal though, so I'll unfortunately have my frag tank return to my sump through a pipe that spans across the floor at about knee height. A bit of a hazard, but I'll try to place it as far back in the fish room as I can. The alternative I think will frustrate me too much.

 

[coachV]

This was a really eye opening topic..... I was getting ready to set up the frag tank on it's own because it's a little big to go beside de sump.... I'm completely reconsidering it now.

 

[Andrew D]

Yeah, if you have the space then plumbing it together makes a lot of sense. I thought I'd try it stand alone but honestly don't have the patience or fortitude to keep it up and to use a frag system properly you need to have confidence that it will not only maintain but also grow your frags and colour your frags. I have a lot of fish in my display so ironically I was hoping to maintain lower nutrients in my frag but that's not worth the seesawing of other parameters.