A few questions concerning frag tank

Sagebeaman · Dec 28, 2017

Hello all, my name is sage and im new here! Ive had a 150 gallon reef tank for about 3 years now. And for the most part have had very good success but now im looking to start a frag tank for propergation and have a few questions concerning the topic, im sure you all can help me out! 1st off im leening toward the 50g low boy frag tank by Zoo Med. with that in mind im wondering exactly whats the best by to go about lighting, due to the fact its only a 10" tall tank im concerned the par will be too overwhelming for the coral. Is it as simple as raising the light from the tank in order to find a sweet spot?? Also any suggestions wouldn't hurt for a lighting system on atank like this?? . Or would it be a better idea to not go the frag tank route at all and get a deeper tank that way id be able to add egg carts at diffrent levels and play with the par inside the tank that way? Also if i went this route im assumeing it would easier to have multiple coral spices because of the par change and flow differences am i right?? I would love to hear what you guys think! Thank you!

DLHDesign · Dec 28, 2017

First; welcome to R2R!

Most frag tanks I've seen are "species" specific - SPS, LPS, softies, and so on. If you've got only one target PAR to hit, you can just cover the tank in that and you are good to go. If you want to have multiple species in a single tank, you would likely either need to solve that with depth (as you suggested) or else by using multiple light sources that can each be configured to the desired output. You may also have some variation with certain lights due to "hot spots" - giving you a good SPS center, but edges more suited to less light-intensive corals.

As to the lighting itself; most of the time I've seen frag tanks set up with configurable lighting. Whether LED's that can be tuned, or dimmable T5's. Lights that can be raised/lowered to achieve the desired level is also an option, of course, but for shallow tanks that generally results in lights raised up really high; causing a fair amount of "spill" that just means wasted electricity (thus; wasted money). In the long run, getting lights that can be mounted at the proper height for the tank will yield results that are more cost-effective (and if we're assuming equal PAR output, that usually becomes a secondary consideration, at least).

Sagebeaman · Dec 28, 2017

Thank you for the quick reply!! And that was another concern i had as far as light leeking out the higher i rise the light! So i need to eother figure out if i want to grow a certain type of coral in A low tank or go with a bit harder Approach amd play with depths and par!