Hello.

So ive decided to start a frag tank for mostly zoas. Ill have a few acans in there but the main goal of this tank is to fill it up with high end polyps and grow them out. I have a few questions first though.

I see some growout tanks with black sides and only the front is clear. Does the black help the corals grow?

Ill be running a bare bottom with minimal live rock, can I use water from my main tank to help start the cycle?

Also, what lighting is best for growing frags? Im thinking T-5's

I pretty much am just trying to figure out the basics of a coral tank. It will be an AIO so im wondering if chaeto/chemipure/sponges will work well for filtration.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

I have used tank water from some of my other tanks to speed up the cycle process many times with great success. T5 lighting will work just fine for what you are going to be growing. As far as the black sides go I have never painted the sides of a tank black only the back mainly for looks and to hide any equipment that you may use that hangs on the back of the tank.

Other than that I would use a skimmer and keep up with regular water changes. You can run Carbon to help keep the chemical warfare down. I am sure other nanoreefers will chim in on what has worked for them. Good luck!

the tank im planning on getting is a 14g so im thinking 5gallons of water from my display tank should be good enough mixed in with another 8gallons of fresh saltwater and topped off with some RO.

But if im using water from my tank and cured liverock, will there even be a cycle?

You will have a small cycle all new tanks do. You will be able to add corals faster than if you started from the standard way that a tank would start to cycle.

if u use say 8 to 10 gallons of water from your display in the new tank and use the rest of mixed, there will really be no cycle because it will be as if you did as WC on it. as lights go i think halides are the best but for soft stuffs and lps t5s are fine

You are a d-bag...........

LMAO

Weird, all of the fields of SPS frags that I've grown at twice the speed and triple the color under t5's as metal halides must have been confused In my opinion t5's are by far the best lighting for a frag tank.

As far as black sides it may actually be counterproductive with them absorbing light rather than dispersing it. The filtration ideas sound good though, my only suggestion would be to keep a close eye on your salinity if you're growing high end palys. I once had like $1k of zoanthids crap out when an ATO issue caused my salinity to hit 1.029 for three days...