Well by now I have become a hopeless reefing addict. I can't get enough of it!

I fired up a frag tank with an old 10g I used as a sump for my 50g breeder. It also houses small colonies that were getting knocked over or moved by the cuc in the display tank. Once I am happy with a final resting place, they will be epoxied in place.

The setup is a basic 10g AGA with a modded ac70 containing floss, chemipure elite, lrr, and chaeto. There is also a HOB skimmer, koralia nano, and small heater. Lighting is 4x24 t5ho with stock 10k and actinic. There's about 12lbs of LRR on a bare bottom also. CUC righ now consists of 10 blue hermits, 10 nerite snails, 10 ceriths, 5 astreas.

I made the first frag rack with eggcrate and pvc sprayed with krylon fusion. It's nearly full already so I will have to make a second rig for the space between the first and the HOB equipment.

FTS

Baby frogspawns, lots of zoa's

Different angle on the zoa's

Zombie eyes?

Two pocillipora frags the LFS threw me for free

Actinic zoa's - happy samhain?

More actinic zoa's - lunar eclipse?


As always, feedback and comments appreciated. More updates soon.

cool tank.

Awesome zoas!

Yeah, those are probably my favorite and they grow pretty fast too. Two polyps became six in about 5 weeks. Once the colonies are larger I will be willing to trade for other varieties

nice iv been thinking of doing something similar with a old 10g

Tri color acro I think. Nice sized frag I thought when I found it for $19 at a big chain LFS that never has anything good in the saltwater tanks. Wish I could capture the true colors well. The flesh goes from iridescent green on the central body to deep purple on the tips. Polyps are purple, green, and yellow.

im new to reefing and may i ask why you have a piece of live rock in that shot glass?

When we visit our local reef shops, my girlfriend's favorite choices are always the random mushrooms that have come loose and drifted to the bottoms of the display tanks. They are usually only $5 and she feels like she is saving the "homeless" mushrooms hehe.

The easiest way I have found to get them to attach is to put them in a shot glass or small dessert bowl with a piece of rock. The container protects them from currents and allows them to attach to the live rock without disturbance.

FTS 5/28/09



I removed the frag rack as I wasn't happy with the size and placement. I want to be able to mag-float the glass on 3 sides without bumping anything and maintain minimum detritus deadspots.

My solution was to build a fully enclosed live rock box out of crate and sit the rack on top. Now, I can clean the glass without hitting anything. I also added a micro-jet pump with some tubing. The live rock box stands 1/2" off the bottom glass and with the tubing directing flow underneath the whole rig, there are no dead spots and heavy detritus can be easily vacuumed.

Also got a huge zoa rock last night and went frag happy with it before I plopped it into my display so updated frag pics soon.

Acro frag growth
5/13/09 - 5/30/09


Zoa buds - Lunar Eclipse, AOI, others...

Electric blue zoo~


Somewhere along the way I read some corals will reproduce sexually and the young experience a mobile stage similar to a jellyfish. I have been seeing these in my frag tank and think they may be young pocillipora polyps?

Nope, just a hydroid jelly. Nice frags

New piece from a LFS. Labelled "Sunsets" but looks more like "Lord of the Rings" on Zoaid.com. Sorry for the mediocre actinic shot, I'll try for a better one with the 10k's today.

Any input?

Well, now that the 50g is moved and in place, I can get back to the frag tank.

I picked up some nice zoas for frag stock as well as a pink birdsnest, ultra-pink birdsnest, and a sick superman monti for $10 that I'm going to try to revive. Sorry for the crapy actinic shots, I'm hardly ever home during the daylight cycle but I will get better pics when I can.

FTS 6/16/09

New zoas. The frags right of center and above center have some really nice metallic colors.

New zoas.

Older frags growing in. The blue and orange pieces up front have each popped out several new polyps.

More older frags growing in.


I love zoas so much and I can't get enough of them. I've dubbed my tank "Zoas Ark" and my goal is to get as many different color morphs as I possibly can hehe.

Did some serious upgrading to the system this weekend to make more room for frags.

I built a sump to be plumbed in line with a u-tube continuous siphon. The sump includes chemipure elite, DSB, rock, miracle mud + caulerpa. Here is the diagram and build plan.




After a big mess, a lot of foul language, some last minute mods, a lot of foggy water, and frags out of water for 30 minutes, everything works. After 3 days, I still have not lost any corals due to the tumult. Nitrates (nitrite and ammonia also) remain at 0. I will test calcium soon to see if the mud is adding anything.

The extra space allowed me to add some serious frag racks. As of this morning, I had 124 pieces in the 10g with room for a lot more.

New FTS

youve got lots of nice frags! =]

The new racks are sweet!

I've been planning a frag tank for a few weeks now and was thinking of something pretty similar to your live rock box.

Nice frags!

are you j sust using aiphon to return water into the sump? what kind of return pump are you using>?

nice tank zoas are my favorite to0

Love it... Now I want to set up a frag tank!!!

The siphon fram the tank is just a u-tube, same as with a normal overflow. The difference is that both the tank and sump are 10g, so as the return pump drains down the sump, the u-tube siphons the water directly from the display.

I just upgraded from a micro-jet to a maxi-jet 1200. The water rips through the sump now at 30x turnover.

Those red ones are beutiful.
Nice

I agree the solid red is nice

Really nice set up. I was thinking of doing a local tank an extra 10g, but frags are too nice.

Thanks all~

Here's an updated FTS


Starting to clip SPS from the display as it grows in. I'm going for a trimmed bonsai look instead of round bushy colonies.

Zoanthids on the bottom are growing out nicely and I've been able to sell a couple dozen pieces.

Plopped a couple mangroves in the sump chamber with the miracle mud also. Still debating about getting a small fish. Nutrients test 0 across the board and with all the filtration, I don't want to starve out any corals.

any for sale by any chance?

wow, your serious about your frags there. way to go!

Get a "king of the tank" damsel!
Very nice setup. I'd love to do something like that as i get more involved.

Great setup!

could you also post a picture of a side of your frag 10g, please.. i'd like to see if the egg crate at different levels come out further in the tank.. also a top down shot would explain the concept.. thanks a lot and really good job

Thanks for the comments all. I actually upgraded the frag tank to a 30g breeder last week. This system now only houses SPS and is bare bottom. I swapped my ap12 over to a zoa frag system so I could back off on their lighting and water cleanliness a bit.

Here's the 30g frag system

and ap12 zoa system top down

Wow. Will you ship frags, or just local for now?

Haven't shipped yet, I'd have to research the best methods. There's a big enough local hobby demand to keep my frags moving.