Remote Frag Tank using Display Water

[ShadowR55]

I am planning on installing a remote frag tank in my office using RO tubing and two peristaltic pumps to run off of the main display tank. I already have an auto water change setup with the DOS in the main display along with a refugium and calcium reactor. I don’t want to setup a whole other tank with fuge and dosing. My plan is to have a 50 gallon frag tank and circulate 5 gallons of water every hour or 30 minutes. Maybe keep a yellow tang and another cleaner fish in the frag tank along with a small auto feeder. I do have an Apex and plan on having float switches to control the water recirculation.

Please let me know your thoughts if this will work or if I will run into problems.

 

[biophilia]

Seems like a totally reasonable plan especially with the Apex fail-safes in place. 5 gallons every hour will change 52% of the water over a 7 hour period (picked that as an arbitrary number with the assumption your lights in the frag tank might be at full strength for about that time). So once the frag tank becomes heavily stocked you might have slight alk fluctuations and need to up it to 5 gal per 30 minutes, but no biggie.

Not exactly the same setup, but similar principle: my 3.7 gallon NPS pico tank has a peristaltic pump head which pulls 250mL water out of it into a waste container and replaces it with 250mL of a saltwater/plankton food mix each day and it has been working great for months even without any sort of backup float-valve plumbed in.

 

[ShadowR55]

Turns out the peristaltic pump won’t be fast enough for my needs. Does anyone know what other kind of pump I could use to do the transfers? I’ll be transferring the water through RO tubing.

 

[ca1ore]

That’s a challenge. Something like the avast diaphragm pump might work, though it really only for occasional rather than frequent duty.

 

[DarthSimon]

So I have done something similar. Can you run a small pump from your sump into frag tank, and then just drain tank back with gravity?

 

[ShadowR55]

So I have done something similar. Can you run a small pump from your sump into frag tank, and then just drain tank back with gravity?

The lines are running up in the attic over to my office about 100 feet of tubing, I don’t know if that will work.

 

[biophilia]

Maybe look into a Rola-Chem peristaltic pump. There is a 32gpd model and a 77gpd model with a 18' pumping height. They're a bit pricey at $250 or $350 respectively, but may meet your needs. Some public aquariums use them for dosing large tanks.

 

[ShadowR55]

That’s a challenge. Something like the avast diaphragm pump might work, though it really only for occasional rather than frequent duty.

The avast pump can’t be used in saltwater. I was thinking the Neptune PMUP but I read that they have a lot of failures in saltwater.

 

[ShadowR55]

Maybe look into a Rola-Chem peristaltic pump. There is a 32gpd model and a 77gpd model with a 18' pumping height. They're a bit pricey at $250 or $350 respectively, but may meet your needs. Some public aquariums use them for dosing large tanks.

I might just try a couple of PMUP’s since they are around $40