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evoracer

New frag tank setup

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9 Comments
by
evoracer
, 04-22-2012 at 04:31 AM (6421 Views)
Since my shallow 60g is on eternal hold, I decided I needed to change things up somewhere. My current growout system is a very traditional setup- 40 breeder tank consisting of racks of eggcrate for the frags, draining into a very basic sump housing the skimmer and heater. Internal return pump and feed pump for the GAC/GFO reactor. A separate 10g tank holding top-off water to be added to the sump controlled by a level sensor. Nothing special. Not that I haven't had decent results with it, but I've always hated 3 things about it: 1: it's very difficult to keep clean, due to the eggcrate racks keeping you from easily reaching the bottom of the tank; 2: it's difficult to achieve good flow, also due to the racks; 3: (most importantly) it's ugly(!), once again, due to the frag rack setup.
So I am proposing a new way to approach a "frag tank": one that is as easy to maintain as any other reef tank, and is just as pleasing to the eye.
The new setup will also be a 40 breeder along with a sump. However, there will not be any frag racks, per se. A DSB, 5" deep in this case, and pre-drilled live rock will be my racks. Zoanthid and other soft corals will grow on the sandbed, and SPS and high-light coral will grow on the rock structure.
The sump is much better designed and built, with a skimmer-specific chamber to give the CAD Lights skimmer a stable water level, a large refugium area, a smaller final chamber so less evaporation is required to trip the top-off leading to more stable salinity, and a built-in reservoir for the top-off water.
Water flow will come courtesy of a new Reeflo Blowhole 1450 plumbed through a 1" SCWD. Plumbed into the return line is a diversion for my reactor and another for easy water changes. Dual 1" drains get the water back down to the sump.
So far the tank is drilled, plumbed, sand added and filled with water. Sorry, I didn't think to take pics of the build at all! After a half-hour the water is nearly clear already:


Quick sump pic:


Skimmer nogging up already:


Return plumbing with Reeflo Blowhole, diversions for water changes and reactor feed:


At this time total water volume is 45 gallons, but once the water clears tomorrow I'll start on the rockscape. Hoping to have it running and full of frags by the end of the week.

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Comments

  1. joeogio's Avatar
    looks like a neat build, how do you like your cad skimmer? also im a bit concerned with the copper or brass valve on the return line. and i also wonder if running 1450 gph through your sump is going to cause the filtration system to not perform efficiently. you probably only need to run about a 600gph pump as your return pump and you could re purpose that reeflo pump and make you a closed loop on your frag tank. thats just my .02 though.
  2. evoracer's Avatar
    Love the skimmer. Quiet and pulls in a day what my old Remora Pro pulled in a week. The valve you are seeing is plastic, just colored gold for some reason. I'm. It not worried about too much flow through the sump. First off the pump is on medium setting, so about 1100 gph. Then there's head pressure reduction. But I've never really subscribed to the concept of too much flow through a sump, to a point that is. The skimmer will still fill itself and do its thing internally, and the design of my sump has the skimmer in its own chamber with a constant level. Chaeto will do just fine in higher flow, I have found it prefers to tumble anyway. And aside from the reactor, which has a valve to control flow, there is no other filtration in my system.
  3. joeogio's Avatar
    cool sounds like you got it all planed out it should work good. and thanks for replying to my comment i was thinking about using a cad skimmer and cad led lights on a 125 tank i want to setup.
  4. evoracer's Avatar
    What I like about CAD is the build quality. The skimmer body is super thick acrylic, not wimpy like some of the cheap cones out there. So far the LED seems very well built as well. Also they are built in SoCal, right around the corner from where I have family.
  5. joeogio's Avatar
    cool have you used any cad leds? if so do you have any pics of them over your tank im interested in the 50w multichip pendants they have
  6. evoracer's Avatar
    I have a 50w multichip as a matter of fact! I did an initial write-up of it, but no pics in action yet. It is running over the temporary tank, I will have to take some shots of it in action. So far I really like it though.
  7. evoracer's Avatar
    I have a 50w multichip as a matter of fact! I did an initial write-up of it, but no pics in action yet. It is running over the temporary tank, I will have to take some shots of it in action. So far I really like it though.
  8. joeogio's Avatar
    cant wait to see some pics of the fixture over your tank
  9. evoracer's Avatar
    Tank has been cycling now for a few weeks, added a cleanup crew and a small Kole tang for algae prevention. Added a basic rockwork structure. All nitrogen cycle levels are at zero, except nitrate which is hovering around the low end of a Salifert test. Hope to start the transfer process today, going to move the zoanthids first, then after a few days add the SPS and move the light at the same time.