65 gallon frag tank diary

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dennis210

Guest
Okay let's try this. I have a 210 g reef that has gotten to be an obsession with me. Trying to frag off pieces here and there has gotten to be a chore. Move one piece and another shifts or falls. So I have planned to reset the main display tank and hence my main reason for wanting to start a frag tank.
Looking around the site I have found many examples of frag tanks, yet I have chosen to try and copy the display tank as far as filtration and lighting.
The first group of pic's are of the main tank as of June 12 this year.


 
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dennis210

Guest
In order to get what I wanted - room for another tank - my spouse got the idea I should "finish" the laundry room. So this was the laundry room on June 12 -


 
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dennis210

Guest
So after framing in the heating/ac ductwork I got to cut sheetrock out in the garage and then pack it downstairs and hang it. After hanging, came the tape and texture, priming, painting, and oh yeah the CLEAN UP. Wives really appreciate when you do this!!!!!! The transformed laundry/frag tank room now looks like this as of June 22 (10 days - but I had alot going on)



 
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dennis210

Guest
I was out of it for awhile in hospital, but my goal of completing the room prior to surgery was obtained. So while I was home recuperating (sp) I was able to talk my fellow reefing buddies to bring my new reconditioned old oceanic tank and stand home. The old grey color of tank and stand were sanded, primed, and painted matte black evenings during the finishing of laundry room.
Many thanks to Randy, Tim, & Matt. So as of July 5 when they hauled it home it looked like this -

 
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dennis210

Guest
On July 11 & 12 I performed a 60 gallon water change on the main tank (210)
by pumping water into sump while siphoning water out of display to frag tank.
It was actually comical as my main mixing tubs were in garage, door to house was propped open and a maxijet 1200 pumped water from garage downstairs and into sump (30' waterchange/vacuum python), while at the same time I had a 20' section of hose clipped to main tank siphoning into new frag tank.
The wife said I was running back and forth alot! But I knew if a leak or spill occured it would have been trouble for me. At any rate the 300 watt MH was hung, 100 lbs of sand and 45 lbs of live rock, sump set up with heater, cannister filter, skimmer, and refugium area all running smoothly. Then the microbubble started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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dennis210

Guest
From July 12 thru the 19 I fought with the problem and realized I had a temperature problem as well. Temp would get to 87/88 every day and only drop to 82 overnight.
So on the 19 I shut the system down and tore apart the plumbing from sump to tank. Redid every joint and applied teflon plumbmers paste to every

[hr]
joint. Reassembled system and turned on. More microbubbles. 5hit!!!!!!! what to do? I shut down system again and went upstairs for some lunch and a drink. When I came back downstairs I notices drips coming from ball/union valve. Hmmmm I thought no way. After going to hardware store and buying another valve I replaced it and thank the Lord no more microbubbles. Would have never guessed a fualty part!
And finally on July 22 I installed a Chiller. Temp now runs steadily betrween 80 and 81 thoughout the day night cycles. More pics to follow.
 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
It can be so frustrating trying to find those small leaks. Glad that you found it and were able to get it fixed without too much trouble. Build looks good so far.
 
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dennis210

Guest
July 24 found the gravel and rock covered in brownish diatoms. So off to the LFS where 12 nassarius, 12 cerith, 12 marginatta, and 6 dwarf blue hermits were added. Two days later and diatom bloom was over as CUC were able to get at it before it got bad. On the 26th I finally recorded zero amonia, zero nitrites, and trace nitrates. So I went to fragging and 76 frags later the frag tank looks like a frag tank. Many many more shrooms and acro's to go but just getting ahead on the zoa's was a relief. Next weekend I hope to get started on resetting the main tank with the pvc stairs as an underwork for entire rockwork. Will make future fragging less of a nightmare. Some pic's of frag tank and sump to follow. (also old wet/dry sumps can be razored apart and re-engineered)

 
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dennis210

Guest
Yeah but never quite in focus! John (natclanwy) gave me some of his chaeto so I didn't have to crawl under my tank to harvest any! Back to Casper in the AM. Hey the sun is still out why are you inside? Oh forgot the wife is out of town, no one to crack the whip huh!
 
kevin34

kevin34

Active Member
sweet setup!
I bet you could put a small fan or blower setup to blow across the top of the tank since you have the pendant style light fixture. That would probably eliminate the need of the chiller.
 
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dennis210

Guest
Thanks Flricordea & Kevin34. I have had such great luck with the 210 that I wanted to stick with the DSB and LR a frag tank. I also intend on keeping 3 or 4 fish (sixline wrasse, firefish, and bangaii cardinals) in the system. I think fish waste and some uneaten food in the system aid in leaving organics for the corals. As far as the fan accross the top goes, the laundry room is small
like 10 x 12 and the 1/2 HP Artica chiller heats the room up. so the frag tank just tends to soak up that heat. The 1/10 HP chiller was rated for 55 gallons. The ank and sump have 58 total gallons of water and push the upper end rating of the chiller. It will hold 80 - 81, but when I set it to 79 it just runs nonstop and won't register anything but 80. At any rate I will soon have plenty of frags of zoa's, mushrooms, ricordea, and acro's to trade or sell.
 
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dennis210

Guest
7/31 added 12 astrea snails to the mix. will test this weekend after reset of 210.
 
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cmaxwell39

Guest
Tank looks great. You seem to have thought of everything. I really like the racks system that you have built. It looks like it would be very easy to get to everything with the empty space in the middle of the tank between the two racks.
I like the idea of keeping a couple of fish in the tank as well. Frag tanks that are simply grow out tanks with no other life in them just seem so sterile to me.
 
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dennis210

Guest
Yeah the open middle section was actually an open sand area planned for lower light levels and mushroom containers. The "wrist" area was a pleasant surprise when I started stocking!
 
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