Another frag tank build

[Walter White]

I might be jumping the gun a tad but technically I have started assembling my frag tank and official fish room expansion.

Like everything else I do this will move at a snails pace. Even though my 200g is ready for water and the live rock has been ordered for it I will be letting it cycle for a good long time while I work to finish the cabinets around the tank. So in the mean time the plan is to get my frag going to start growing out some sps while I wait.

The tank:
Fluid Designers 2'x4'x10"

Lights:
1 20" coralvue mogul reflector with 400w Radium
2 Kessil 150s on goose necks for viewing under deep blue.

Sump:
40g breeder with diy glass baffles

Return pump:
Eheim 320gph

Flow:
I got options I have two smaller tunzes or 2 MP40s I can use. The MPs would probably over kill but I like to dial them back anyway.

Skimmer:
Vertex Alpha 130

Controller:
Actually haven't decided if I will run a controller but I did ask for an Apex for Christmas so we will see.
Really though I don't think I need one and may just run the heater on a Ranco.

ATO:
I will most likely get another Spectrapure UPLCII but don't have it yet. I do have a 30g ATO reservoir on hand already. I have not yet decided if I will use it or sell it to get something that stands upright.

 

[zombie]

Controller:
Actually haven't decided if I will run a controller but I did ask for an Apex for Christmas so we will see.
Really though I don't think I need one and may just run the heater on a Ranco.

You could always run a long aquabus cable to your display apex and buy a pm1 and EB8. That would save some dough and might coax the wifey into getting it for you for xmas.

 

[Walter White]

Unfortunately I have a Reef Keeper for my 60 and a Profilux for my 200. But this is a good idea I could do the same with the profilux.

 

[Andrew_bram]

No such thing as to much flow. Brahahaha.

 

[Haddonisreef]

This looks nicer then most people's display! Very cool and clean looking to say the least I have some frags for Ya when it's up and running.

 

[FishTV]

Nice setup, wouldn't expect any less from one of your builds!!

 

[Walter White]

This looks nicer then most people's display! Very cool and clean looking to say the least I have some frags for Ya when it's up and running.

Nice setup, wouldn't expect any less from one of your builds!!

thanks!

 

[amonchak]

What type of rack do you use on the hood of your other builds for the lights and are you using a similar setup for this build?

 

[Walter White]

My 60 dosnt have a rack really it's more or two rails that are screwed to the top of the hod and the lights just slide and hang by the screw heads. The 200 has a customer rack I built on a hoist system pulley system.

the frag tank won't be anything fancy. I'll probably just make a simple rack out of 1" angle iron with eyelets at each corner so the reflector hangs nice and even from some cable or something.

 

[Walter White]

A little update on the frag tank. I got my lighting installed and ready to go. I just need to finish building the sump and i'll be in business. For now im going to run a 400w radium with a coralvue reflector on one side and a Kessil A350w on the other side. We will see how that works out. For now I figure it gives me lots of lighting intensities to play with.

I can slide the halide from one end to the other if I want so I may end up getting a second kessil for the other side and running the halide in the middle. At that point the kessils would only be for viewing under different degrees of blue but probably not use to grow. The Reflector is 20" so the spread is pretty good. Id have nice high intensity in the middle for sps and lower intensity at the ends for whatever.

 

[ialtalal]

Sweeeet

 

[SynDen]

400w and a kessil! Thats quite a bit of light, but you might add more :crazycrazy:

 

[Walter White]

It is allot of light but no more than Cris runs over his. I won't be running the kessil at the same time as the halide. They will just be there if I want to crank up the actinic light for viewing.

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

I'd love to see how much area that Kessil covers. May do a couple over mine for the same reason.

 

[Walter White]

I'd love to see how much area that Kessil covers. May do a couple over mine for the same reason.

Hopefully this helps. Two would have no problem covering the whole thing.
Honestly I think a setup like this would be perfect for the new controllable 160s they just came out with. They are smaller and cheaper.

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

Thanks! I'll need to look at the 160's not looking for par, just a bit of pop in the evening.

 

[Walter White]

Time to get this thing going.

Been thinking of how I want to design the sump. I came up with some to scale sketchups. I kind of have this idea of a live rock rubble filter. I know allot people use live rock rubble in their frag tank sumps but I was thinking of elevating the rock off the bottom of the sump by 3" or so to prevent any detritus build up. I think it should work pretty well with some egg crate and PVC pipe for support.

I just need to get the glass baffles cut and I can finish this thing and get it fired up.

 

[Walter White]

Sump is almost done.

I had some extra 1/4" glass on hand from an previous sump I dismantled but the heights where wrong so I decided to try my hand at cutting glass. Its actually surprisingly easy.

After cleaning the class in a muriatic acid bath and scrapping the old silicone with a razor then steel wool and acetone I was ready to cut. I used a $12
"deluxe" kit from Home Depot which really just comes with a slightly higher quality cutter that is easier to grip and some cutting oil. They economy cutter was $5.My understanding is that cutting oil isn't required to score the glass but supposedly keeps the scoring edge sharp.

The trick seems to be getting a nice straight score and using a firm straight edge like a table to line up the score. I used a small rubber mallet to give to excess piece a quick pop.

I actually found that scoring both sides breaks a tad cleaner even though the instructions recommend against this but you really have to make sure the score lines match up perfectly on both sides.

I used 220 wet sandpaper to smooth put any sharp edges.

 

[Walter White]

The baffles are are siliconed in. So far turning out just like my design except I decided to lower the baffle heights all by 1"'

 

[Balz3352]

Nice. Gonna try to remember this post starting a small frag tank soon