frag tank

cidermaster · 10/03/2009, 09:25 PM

Im gonna be taking a bunch of sps frags with my from KY to NH and do not have a tank set up in NH yet was wondering if I set up a 10 gallon tank with fresh saltwater do these frags have a chance? There arent gonna be any fish,lr,ls in the tank so there shouldnt be a cycle?correct?

bubbly · 10/03/2009, 10:39 PM

If you bring a couple of buckets of old tankwater and bring a bunch of live rock rubble to carry the bacteria etc. I think you will be fine.

I wouldn't put the frags in a tank of 100% fresh saltwater, though, they need a certain level of "dirty" water to survive (just not too dirty).

The symbiotic algae in the sps needs a certain amount of phosphate, etc to grow -- that's why you can't be too aggressive with a phosphate reactor. I saw my branching brown montipora turn into a tan branching montipora when I was doing vodka dosing to keep my tank clean. My sps wasn't growing at all until I went on vacation and didn't change the skimmer cup for about a month -- when I came back the pest algae (bubble caulerpa) had grown a lot but my sps started growing as well, and there was coralline all over the front tank glass.

I know another reefer who took down his tank because his sps wasn't growing at all either. He had pipes going downstairs to a truly massive skimmer and gfo reactor columns -- he couldn't understand it because all his parameters were perfect but I think the parameters were too perfect -- there was no nuisance algae in his tank at all. The other tank he had that the sps was growing just fine in did have nuisance algae in it (just some) but in the newer tank he put in a much bigger skimmer...

So I think if they went into perfectly new saltwater they would end up being "shocked" by it being too clean, but someone else may have a different point of view.

lordofthereef · 10/04/2009, 01:27 AM

How long do you plan on leaving them in this 10g? People do this at frag swaps all the time and the polyps open up and everything after a couple hours. Wouldn't leave them that way for a long time without some sort of filtration though.

cidermaster · 10/04/2009, 08:54 AM

Thanks for your responses...I planned on leaving them in for maybe 2 weeks to a month before I get my 210 set up..

10/03/2009, 09:25 PM	#1
cidermaster Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Tilton,NH and Lexington,KY Posts: 137	frag tank Im gonna be taking a bunch of sps frags with my from KY to NH and do not have a tank set up in NH yet was wondering if I set up a 10 gallon tank with fresh saltwater do these frags have a chance? There arent gonna be any fish,lr,ls in the tank so there shouldnt be a cycle?correct?

10/03/2009, 10:39 PM	#2
bubbly Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 331	If you bring a couple of buckets of old tankwater and bring a bunch of live rock rubble to carry the bacteria etc. I think you will be fine. I wouldn't put the frags in a tank of 100% fresh saltwater, though, they need a certain level of "dirty" water to survive (just not too dirty). The symbiotic algae in the sps needs a certain amount of phosphate, etc to grow -- that's why you can't be too aggressive with a phosphate reactor. I saw my branching brown montipora turn into a tan branching montipora when I was doing vodka dosing to keep my tank clean. My sps wasn't growing at all until I went on vacation and didn't change the skimmer cup for about a month -- when I came back the pest algae (bubble caulerpa) had grown a lot but my sps started growing as well, and there was coralline all over the front tank glass. I know another reefer who took down his tank because his sps wasn't growing at all either. He had pipes going downstairs to a truly massive skimmer and gfo reactor columns -- he couldn't understand it because all his parameters were perfect but I think the parameters were too perfect -- there was no nuisance algae in his tank at all. The other tank he had that the sps was growing just fine in did have nuisance algae in it (just some) but in the newer tank he put in a much bigger skimmer... So I think if they went into perfectly new saltwater they would end up being "shocked" by it being too clean, but someone else may have a different point of view.

10/04/2009, 01:27 AM	#3
lordofthereef One reef to rule them all Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Leominster, MA Posts: 5,299	How long do you plan on leaving them in this 10g? People do this at frag swaps all the time and the polyps open up and everything after a couple hours. Wouldn't leave them that way for a long time without some sort of filtration though.

10/04/2009, 08:54 AM	#4
cidermaster Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Tilton,NH and Lexington,KY Posts: 137	Thanks for your responses...I planned on leaving them in for maybe 2 weeks to a month before I get my 210 set up..