Frag tank design

[B-Willz]

I have been doing a lot of reading on frag tanks and it seems that some like the raceway style, that is the long long skinny tanks that force the water one direction creating a lot of flow. I am going to build a new frag tank and was wondering if any of you have experience with raceways and what the pros and cons are. The water will come in on the front right and drain from the back right, moving the water through the channels with strong current. Any thoughts?

View attachment 2284

 

[Mantid]

I guess it depends on how big the tank is. If its too small, those baffles could take up a lot of real estate.

 

[B-Willz]

Sorry, guess I should have stated that, it will be 48" wide x 24" depth x 8-10" tall.

 

[Mantid]

If it was my tank, I would remove one of the baffles to free up a little space.

 

[Cake_Boss]

Can you tell us about the baffles, thickness, spacing. I'm interested in how this turns out

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[B-Willz]

I could do that, and open it up. Now one thing I am not sure about is that it would cause unidirectional flow rather then multi directional. Can this be an issue? Would there really be any benifit to this design?

 

[Mantid]

Only thing I can think of as a benefit, would be no dead spots and less powerheads around a tank.

 

[B-Willz]

Can you tell us about the baffles, thickness, spacing. I'm interested in how this turns out

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In the pic at the top they would be spaced 6" apart, and with Chads thought they would be 8" apart. My first thought would be to have it 1/4" thick. The idea is that it would increase the water flow around the corals by channeling the water through the narrow rows. The baffles would be the hight of the tank so no water is going over them just around them. I am having an issue with convincing myself that there would be a benifit to the design. I guess I could try it and if it has no benifit I could just remove them.

 

[Cake_Boss]

To increase flow, wouldn't you have to have a narrowing someplace? If that's what the channels are for, then I don't see why you couldn't just get a big pump and match the drain. For example, with a 1200GPH return pump you'd need a 1200GPH drain.

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[B-Willz]

The theory is that, by running the 1000gph down a channel you would create a faster flowing motion through out the entire tank rather than swirling water around an open tank. And this is where my personal dilema comes in, I would end up creating more of a river rather than a swirling madness of water. So maybe its better on a large scale system by not having so many pumps. Since we are trying to recreate the swirling madness, I guess I should keep it simple.

 

[Cake_Boss]

I think that's a great idea, worth a shot anyways.

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[B-Willz]

This is why I have problems making these decisions, I always talk my self out of them. I am going to make the whole thing out of glass because I traded some work with a glass guy. Since it won't cost me anything else to have the baffles made, I should just go ahead and try it. I will monitor the corals to see if there is any benefit or problems with them. If there are any issues I can just pull them out. I will also keep you all posted with progresion pics for this experiment.

 

[Mantid]

Im interested in seeing how this turns out. When you get it going, give us the pros and cons of it all.

 

[B-Willz]

You got it, I will take lots of pics and videos. I will set corals in certain locations just for progression monitoring and let you guys help make the decision if its good, bad or what ever.

 

[Mantid]

Are you going to put sand in it?

 

[B-Willz]

Thats another debate I have been having in my head, damn I have a headache. I think with this design I would stay barebottom just because of the flow, it would probably blow to much around.

 

[Cake_Boss]

Barebottom or crushed coral. I think it would work great. Less pumps to plug in. Could you also make a small wall to reduce flow and put less flow demanding frags?

 

[Mantid]

When I set up my frag tank, I regretted not doing sand. I started ending up with fungia, tongue corals, tube nems, snails, etc that all required a sand bed. It was much harder putting it in after I had it full of frags. I think the sand will be fine. If you have that much flow that your sand wont stay down, then you probably will have way too much flow for a lot of your frags.

I was thinking about it, and your design will be great for feeding your corals as well. plus you could make a sectioned off small area for chaeto which all water would flow through either at the beginning or end of your tank.

 

[B-Willz]

I have a full bucket of clean crushed coral that I could easily put in there and test it out. I do like the idea of a wall to slow things down, maybe a peice slightly angled that would cause turbulance behind it causing the water to slow down, like an air foil.

Chad, this thing will be plumbed to a 90g sump with cheato and LR, is it beneficial to have cheato in the frag tank as well.?

The feeding thing is kind of the basis behind the design, it should be able to cary a consistent supply of nutrients across all corals through the entire tank.

Another question, the tank will be 48" x 24" x 8ish". What thickness of glass do think is best?

 

[SAZAMA]

I can't wait to see this I'm in the same dilemma, and I would love to see how it works