Small softy frag tank

[Gdbyrd]

Like your help and opinions for this one. I'm having a really hard time finding soft corals here that I'm willing to spend a ton of money on(50 bucks for 4 mushrooms!)..so I'm thinking about taking my time and building a little tank dedicated to it so I can frag some for myself and not take up any room in my main tank.

I'm looking at keeping this tank as small as possible. I am going to order some lights from aquatraders, so looking for advice there...But I'm thinking PC's might do the trick.

Basically, if you were wanting to build a frag tank that had a small footprint and wanted cheap skate it, what would you do?

I don't want a big production. I just want a place to frag some shrooms and xenia for myself and some friends that are entering the hobby in the next couple months.

 

[SeaBee]

How about a small reef tank? Low and shallow will give you more surface area for what you are trying to do.

 

[yote]

+1 Sea.

 

[Bifferwine]

PCs will be fine for softy frags.

 

[Rcpilot]

I ran a 10g frag tank with PC lights and a HOB refugium for about a year. I had about $150 invested in the whole setup. Works perfect for mushrooms, zoas and LPS corals.

 

[Gdbyrd]

I ran a 10g frag tank with PC lights and a HOB refugium for about a year. I had about $150 invested in the whole setup. Works perfect for mushrooms, zoas and LPS corals.

Can you give me more info on your setup? That's exactly what I'm wanting to setup. I do want it to look good though, it'll be in a room with some traffic..but around 10g is about right.

I want to use CC as my substrate so I have tons of places for my little chunks of stuff to attach too. If I can find something else that's really course I'll go with that...But I think CC is all I have locally. I'm thinking about getting a bunch of shells from the beach and breaking them up with a hammer and using that as my substrate.

I'd like to have a single firefish in there, or goby.

Did you have LR in yours? I want as much floorspace as is possible. Did you do eggcrate platforms too?

I have a little HOB filter already for water movement..that should be enough right?

What lights did you have over yours RC? Brand wise. I wanted to buy an Aquatraders PC, but they are out of stock on their 20" and have been for a month :*(

 

[Gdbyrd]

Would a Biocube make a good frag tank? They have 14g for sale locally for 170$.

 

[Rcpilot]

I used this HOB refugium with a MJ1200 pump
http://shop.aquatraders.com/Hang-On-Refugium-with-Protein-Skimmer-14in-p/43016.htm
Put about 10lbs of sand in the bottom and some lemon-sized live rock rubble with a hunk of cheato and a cheap clamp-on light. 15w or 25w is more than enough light.

Paint the back of the tank black!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ......... so the refugium light doesn't bleed into the tank at night.
Wish I had done that.

I used a PC light similar to this, but mine has (6) 13w bulbs
Catalina Aquarium 12" 13W 2 BULBS COMPACT LIGHTHOUSE HOOD

My fixture is about 16" long and has 6 of those 13w bulbs.
(2) actinic
(2) 460nm
(2) 10k

It's a lot of light for a 10g tank. Call Jim at Catalina and talk to him about what you want. If I could do it again, I'd use 24w PC bulbs. 3 of them would put out more light than 6 of the 13w bulbs. Bigger bulbs put out more light.

I would avoid sea shells that you collect on the beach. They are loaded with toxins. Just use fine sand. It's better for filtration. 1" is deep enough.

I use Mag Racks, available from BlackRock Reef:
Blackrock Reef - Products
I like black because they provide some shade to corals underneath.

I use OceansWonders plugs:
Propagation Supplies

I had live rock in my tank but if I was to do it again I'd have gone bare bottom or maybe just 1" of sand and no live rock in the tank. You can fill that little fuge up with probably 12lbs of rock rubble if you want.

You might need a small powerhead in the tank - but make sure it's a small one - the MJ1200 on the fuge is pretty good flow already.