Plumbing in frag tank...?

[ahayes13]

okay well i am considering adding a frag tank to my setup.
i have a 12 gallon aquapod that i will use for the frag tank. obviously its not drilled .. but supposed it could be if needed.

i am not the best with plumbing so looking for the best way to plumb this into my current setup.

(here are a couple drawings, sorry not the best i did them in paint)

CURRENT


WITH HOW THE FRAG TANK WOULD BE LOCATED


so what would be the best way to plumb the frag tank (biocube) into the system. ?

 

[oceanparadise1]

Ever thought of running it seperate? Probably not bc its smaller but i run my frag tank seperate(its a 55) just in case of a crash on either systems you dont lose both, but i suck with plumbing to some one help amanda!!! Or she will ban us all

 

[ahayes13]

yeah i thought about it but would like to keep it same water quality as my dt. i just hate having frags in the display.

anybody have any thoughts ???

 

[bluebeltreefer]

i can put in some input as i recently did this. i plumbed in a small 10g frag tank to my 180g display with 75g sump. it was pretty simple, and i tried to be as simple about it as possible. i will try to explain how i did it, if you are unclear, let me know, and i can try better.

10g tank was drilled for a small overflow box and 1/2" return. i drilled two holes. i put a small pump in my sump and used that to pump water to the frag tank. then for overflow, i had it drain into my sump.

so in simple terms, i had 2 return pumps in my sump. 1 for 180g and 1 for frag tank. in the drain area of sump, i had two hoses, the drain from the 180g and the drain from the frag tank.

to me, the benefits of running everything in 1 system, is that you dont have to buy more equipment. you can rely on your main system skimmer, chiller, ATO and dosing pumps (calcium reactor if you are using that) to take care of the frag tanks needs. also, when you clip frags and transfer to your frag tank, the water parameters are same so you dont have to worry about the corals needing any adjustment. also, more total water volume, the better. and you dont have to add any live rock or filtration to the frag tank. it can be very simple with no equipment in it besides power head (s).

but on the flip side, if something major bad was to happen to your tank, your frag system would also be affected.

i do have some pics, and if you are interested i can post up.

 

[ahayes13]

okay sounds great. thats what i was sort of thinking of doing. i guess i will have to have the biocube drilled, but guess thats no biggie. what size pump would you use for the 12gal bio ? i will have about maybe 3-4 feet of pressure loss.
yeah i would love to see the pics...

 

[bluebeltreefer]

ill get some pics up tonight sometime after i come home from practice. as far as a pump goes, i just used what i had laying around. i think it was a mag 5. i put a ball valve in line so i could control the amount of water flowing through the frag tank. im not sure what the gph was, but i just adjusted to what the overflow box could handle.

ive since taken down the frag tank because i wanted to set up a nano. its a 10g bio cube style that i used and modified. i can also attach pics of that when i come. its basically the same idea as yours. so if you can imaging frag racks in there, then you could call it a frag tank.

 

[bamachamp92]

Is there any way you can tee off from the mag 12 and run to it so you dont have another pump in there? you wont need that much going to the frag tank and it would save you a lot of heat and energy if you could combine pumps.

 

[bluebeltreefer]

hhmm, i guess you could t off of the mag12. i think alot of it will depend on how much turn over will be in the main tank after t-ing off. for me the mag12 is at full throttle and its perfect turn over. maybe if i had more juice to spare in the pump it would.

in ahayes case, it could be an option. :bigsmile:

 

[bamachamp92]

It was just a thought, I like having one pump run everything so you dont have to check a bunch of pumps to make sure all are working you know if your main display is running the pump is working. Also using one pump you can buy one pump and put it up for a backup in case something happens, If you use two or three pumps to run a system then you need two or three backups.

 

[EliteReefs]

why dont you just come over and take my old 45 custom frag tank. its ready to with a 20 long sump and all. all ya need is racks, lighting and a quick stand and you will be off and running. heck i even have an the pump that was running on it i can get ya real cheap.

take the whole lot for 30 bucks. i can even send ya home with a frag or two to get ya started

 

[bluebeltreefer]

now thats a deal that cannot be passed up.

 

[ahayes13]

wow. what a generous offer ! your killin me....
problem is i really didnt want to run another seperate system. also i didnt want to need to buy another chiller, reactors etc. just something so i didnt have lil frags in my display. thought having one plumbed in would just be easier.

why dont you just come over and take my old 45 custom frag tank. its ready to with a 20 long sump and all. all ya need is racks, lighting and a quick stand and you will be off and running. heck i even have an the pump that was running on it i can get ya real cheap.

take the whole lot for 30 bucks. i can even send ya home with a frag or two to get ya started

 

[ahayes13]

yeah we talked a bit about t' ing it off. however, it already has a lot of pressure loss. it goes from the pump through the chiller and hard piped up the back of the tank for return. so there isnt much pressure once it gets up for return anyway. i guess i could do this but only if i bought a larger pump.

hhmm, i guess you could t off of the mag12. i think alot of it will depend on how much turn over will be in the main tank after t-ing off. for me the mag12 is at full throttle and its perfect turn over. maybe if i had more juice to spare in the pump it would.

in ahayes case, it could be an option. :bigsmile: