Setting up a frag tank

[adesimone1]

We bought a 4'x4'x12" propagation tank, 100 gallon rubber made tub, an MRC commercial 818 calcium reactor with a 2nd chamber, ph controller 2 co2 tanks. 40 gallon refugium 2 400 watt dual MH lights luminarc reflectors. We need to pick up a in sump skimmer. We also got 150 lbs of live sand and 100lbs of liverock. We are looking for suggestions on the proper way to set it up. We thought that we would put the skimmer and liverock in the 100 gallon rubbermaid tub everything is already drilled run a seperate pump to feed the refugium and gravity flow back to the sump and the calcium reactor would also feed into the tub. Should we run a UV we do run a 40 watt on our 180. This system will be in our basement. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[DaveK]

It looks like you have most of the components, and a good idea of what you are doing. Generally I think you plan is fine. I would make the following changes.

I would use an external skimmer, and I'd use a large one. Water quality is everything, and I don't think you are going to get a big enough skimmer into a sump. The main tank is about 115 gal, plus a 100 gal tub, plus a 40 gal refugium. That's a total of about 250 gal of water to process.

I'm not a big fan of UV, so I wouldn't use it. IMO it would kill a lot of items the corals might like to eat.

You might want more lighting. Usually you can figure a single MG bulb is good for about a 2 foot by 2 foot square, and you have four of those in your propagation tank. However, try what you already have fist, since you can always add more later.

You also might want some sort of automatic water change system. Many people the propagate corals use very large water changes, changing a lot more than the 10% or so a week done in a typical reef. If you did 25% a week water changes you'll be changing about 55 gallons of water at a time.

 

[adesimone1]

It looks like you have most of the components, and a good idea of what you are doing. Generally I think you plan is fine. I would make the following changes.

I would use an external skimmer, and I'd use a large one. Water quality is everything, and I don't think you are going to get a big enough skimmer into a sump. The main tank is about 115 gal, plus a 100 gal tub, plus a 40 gal refugium. That's a total of about 250 gal of water to process.

I'm not a big fan of UV, so I wouldn't use it. IMO it would kill a lot of items the corals might like to eat.

You might want more lighting. Usually you can figure a single MG bulb is good for about a 2 foot by 2 foot square, and you have four of those in your propagation tank. However, try what you already have fist, since you can always add more later.

You also might want some sort of automatic water change system. Many people the propagate corals use very large water changes, changing a lot more than the 10% or so a week done in a typical reef. If you did 25% a week water changes you'll be changing about 55 gallons of water at a time.

We also have T5's we could add to the system and what would you suggest for a water changing system

 

[Phyl]

We have ours plumbed into our house waste lines. We throw a couple of ball valves and it pumps the waste water right into the sewer system. Throw those back, hit a switch and it refills the sump.

 

[Brian]

I've seen some monster in sump skimmers, I can't remember off hand what Billyr98's skimmer is, but it's massive. Hopefully he'll chime in here.

FWIW I use an MRC (MR2) skimmer, I'm totally happy with it.

 

[MikeNapoli]

Would a large skimmer be that necessary? There isn't much bioload if it's juse going to be Coral Frags, right? I would actually throw a couple of small fish in the tank to add to the bioload.

 

[DaveK]

I would agree that you don't need as large a skimmer as you would for a reef system, where you were going to stock it with a lot of fish.

However, if you look at typical in sump skimmers, such as an Aqua Medic Turboflotor, an AquaC Urchin, or similar sized skimmer, I think you'd agree that a skimmer that size is not going to process 250 gal of water very well.

 

[adesimone1]

We run a asm g3 in our main system. I plan on ust putting in a couple fish to help with any clean up needed mainly coral

 

[adesimone1]

It looks like you have most of the components, and a good idea of what you are doing. Generally I think you plan is fine. I would make the following changes.

I would use an external skimmer, and I'd use a large one. Water quality is everything, and I don't think you are going to get a big enough skimmer into a sump. The main tank is about 115 gal, plus a 100 gal tub, plus a 40 gal refugium. That's a total of about 250 gal of water to process.

I'm not a big fan of UV, so I wouldn't use it. IMO it would kill a lot of items the corals might like to eat.

You might want more lighting. Usually you can figure a single MG bulb is good for about a 2 foot by 2 foot square, and you have four of those in your propagation tank. However, try what you already have fist, since you can always add more later.

You also might want some sort of automatic water change system. Many people the propagate corals use very large water changes, changing a lot more than the 10% or so a week done in a typical reef. If you did 25% a week water changes you'll be changing about 55 gallons of water at a time.

The reflectors are huge I'm not sure if I could get 2 more of them over top