soup_er_man Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 Hi all, wanted some opinions. I'm thinking about setting up some grow out tanks for multiple frags. Nothing fancy, no substrate, no live rock, just egg crate shelves with corals sitting on them with plenty of light and flow. Here is my main question...will this need to be cycled? There won't be any food waste because there will be no fish or inverts and I plan on doing frequent water changes. Okay....let's hear those opinions!!!! Soup Link to comment
Korbin Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 I think you should still have at least a small amount of liverock. There WILL be nutrients in the water, and you WILL have algae and probably snails. That means you will need some sort of biological filtration. If you don't provide liverock, you might end up with nitrates that have nowhere to go. That's not good for growing coral. Link to comment
melbourne Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 I cycled my grow-out tank. I also use a skimmer on it as well as a refugium. If you use halides or alot of PC's you will get algae growth so the refugium controls that. And some softies and other corals will pollute the water so the skimmer helps. I keep a little LR and a 1-2" sand bed in my prop tank. -Mike Link to comment
fade2black Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 I suggest adding a refugium as well. You'll need a source of plankton to feed the corals and a refugium is the best way. Link to comment
soup_er_man Posted July 14, 2004 Author Share Posted July 14, 2004 I' ve never used a refugium before. I've always supplemented with bio/phyto plankton. How hard is it to set up and what goes in it? Soup Link to comment
fade2black Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 Very easy to setup. Just some sand, rock rubble and some macro algae in a small tank or HOB refugium that flows into the main tank. You can seed it with some pods from someone else to kick start it if you want. I always put in some snails that readily attempt to breed in my tank as when the eggs hatch, there is lots of free floating larvae in the water column. Link to comment
EtOH_is_good Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 i also agree with having lr for biological filtration. the water needs to be just as clean as your main tank. Link to comment
soup_er_man Posted July 14, 2004 Author Share Posted July 14, 2004 Well after hearing the great ideas and opinions from everyone, here is my initial drawing of the setup I'd like to achieve. What do you think? Soup Link to comment
jtsam Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 wow, thats one long short tank! will all the open water cause for lots of evaporation? Link to comment
soup_er_man Posted July 14, 2004 Author Share Posted July 14, 2004 It might be a factor but I'll top off daily and do weekly water changes. I've been to a couple of wholesalers and this is how they have their tanks set up (just on a much larger scale!) Soup Link to comment
Smokin-Reefer Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 soup, i think that looks great! long shallow tanks, especially for prop. are an awesome idea, and I plan to do something similar when time, money and space constraints are eleviated. good luck and keep us posted on your progess! Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.