Frag tanks, why so bare?

buddythelion · Oct 5, 2012

So I messaged a fellow sponsor last night/earlier today about how they keep their zoas. To my surprise, he mentioned live sand and live rock, which to me means that they're kept in a regular aquarium.

And that got me thinking: Why are frag tanks so bare? Isn't a frag tank supposed to be just a tank dedicated solely to frag grow outs rather than being in a display? But if so, why are so many of them just bare and empty, with only eggcrate and the live rock in the sump? This seems typical of the frag tank set up, but after doing a set up like this for some months I can't say that it's very stable, as I have my ups and downs (fluctuations) with my frags. They'll be happy and growing mad crazy (which when they do, I get really happy) and then out of no where start getting upset for reasons I don't understand.

So, what about a frag tank with live sand and rocks, just like a regular tank? And have all that underneath the frag rack? Would be maintained just like a regular tank, and sounds much more stable and biologically sound, just like a regular reef tank. Maintained just like a regular reef, such as water flow to get rid of detritus, etc.

I'm just confused as to why frag tanks are treated differently than regular tanks is all, so any inputs and experiences? All types of frag tanks are welcomed, I just put this thread in the zoa forum because my frag tank is solely for zoas, lol!

mainereefer · Oct 5, 2012

I have always thought frag tanks were bare so more flow could be but in and around them so they heal faster ,get more food....

I used sand and macro algaes in my frag tank to promote growth of critters, pods...... I had a wrasse or some other fish in the tank with them so it was almost a must have

M&M · Oct 5, 2012

Most frag tank I know of are plummed in to main display, in essence they are part of display, so all biological filtration is taking care already . Keeping it bare helps with removing of detritus and allow for more flow. If I had a frag tank that was a separate system I would put few pieces of LR but no sand.

.Marshall · Oct 5, 2012

My belief in why frag tanks are bare is because of the combination of a very shallow tank and good flow. But in order to have a stable standalone frag system you need live rock/live sand etc. in the sump. I will be using 30-40 lbs of live rock and 10-20 lbs of sand in the sump.

SPSkeeper · Oct 5, 2012

M&M said:
Most frag tank I know of are plummed in to main display, in essence they are part of display, so all biological filtration is taking care already . Keeping it bare helps with removing of detritus and allow for more flow. If I had a frag tank that was a separate system I would put few pieces of LR but no sand.

Nailed it on the head, for the large majority of frag tanks anyways. I would never do a frag tank bare unless plumed into a display. All of the frag tanks I have had have actually kinda been my main displays without fish. Filtration, live rock, live sand, everything a normal tank needs. The term frag tank can be very vague actually. If your making frags out of your display to sell/trade for other stuff, whatever it may be, couldn't that be considered a frag tank? Tomato tomoto, potato pototo, doesn't really matter what you call it or how you say it. It's just a label or another name no matter which way you look at it(That's kind of the catch 22 you will find). To get a little bit deeper we can actually consider it as a type of paradigm shift. Looking at it from other angles or different perspectives. What works for one person does not always work for someone else. It's kind of funny, they say SPS's need the absolute most pristine water but mine can be very dirty at times with DOC's and have not had much trouble. They say you can't keep SPS's in new tanks but I've had full blown SPS's thriving two months after the cycle when coralline algae is not present except on the live rock. Don't take this the wrong way as I am NOT recommending this is any way but it works for me so why change it

buddythelion · Mar 4, 2013

Redoing the frag tank, so I thought it would be good to bring this back up. Everyone's brought on very good and interesting points! For flow, what I've seen done at my LFS is that eggcrate is glued onto the bottom of the frag tank, and then larger sand added. This way, the grates/squares from the eggcrates keeps the sand in place and allowing more flow. But I do see a problem of debri build up in the sand. I do want to add fish to this frag tank, but being so bare I do see problems (I've had fish jump out since it was so bare).