Starting a Frag tank. Send Help.

[MSB123]

So- 50 gallon lowboy frag tank. I have the tank, and all equipment. Im going overboard- full apex, trident controlled dosing, weekly water changes, way too much flow. The works.
Issues:
I haven't set a tank up from scratch in forever. I want to cycle this baby as quickly as possible so I can start fragging! I will start with Red Sea coral pro salt and rodi. BB tank with frag racks. No fish. Marinepure in sump, skimmer, and socks. Also like 30lbs of dry rock.
Questions:
Should I get any critters to help with cleaning? Which ones?
I want to use fritz turbo start, I will use 5x the recommended dosage (which is safe). If so, do I need an ammonia source? What should I use?
Thanks for input. I feel like an idiot, but hey, that's why this forum is here- to help!

 

[MSB123]

Bump

 

[MSB123]

Anyone?

 

[living_tribunal]

So- 50 gallon lowboy frag tank. I have the tank, and all equipment. Im going overboard- full apex, trident controlled dosing, weekly water changes, way too much flow. The works.
Issues:
I haven't set a tank up from scratch in forever. I want to cycle this baby as quickly as possible so I can start fragging! I will start with Red Sea coral pro salt and rodi. BB tank with frag racks. No fish. Marinepure in sump, skimmer, and socks. Also like 30lbs of dry rock.
Questions:
Should I get any critters to help with cleaning? Which ones?
I want to use fritz turbo start, I will use 5x the recommended dosage (which is safe). If so, do I need an ammonia source? What should I use?
Thanks for input. I feel like an idiot, but hey, that's why this forum is here- to help!

I started a 10 gallon frag tank a few months ago and am a serious noob. There are a few unique challenges with fishless frag tanks I've noticed. I'll try to connect these points to some of your questions.

Stability is kind of pretty hard to achieve in a fishless frag system. Since you don't have a constant ammonia source, maintaining nutrients is difficult. The best thing to do is hone in on a nice feeding routine to keep the phosphate and nitrate levels in your target range. I've found that target feeding mysis once a week helps, you could swap this with oyster feast. Roids doesn't help much with phosphate in my case. Also, a once a day amino feeding really works wonders in a fishless frag tank. I'd take it easy on skimming at first until you find the equilibrium of phosphate import/export. This is especially true since you're using dry rock which has a tendency to bind a ton of phosphate in the beginning. Be prepared to dose phosphorous and potentially nitrogen.

1.) You should get critters for sure, one thing I've noticed is that snails only work best in a frag tank. There are really only smooth surfaces in the system and you don't want hermits killing the snails wrecking up the stability.

2.) Try and keep the rock under your frag rack or to one side so it makes cleaning easy. Frag racks are a pain to clean when the tank is going through the cycling process.

3.) Try to achieve varying heights in your rack if you plan on having both sps and lps in there. Also, getting the flow right for mixed reef frag tanks is like painting the sistine chapel.... as helen keller.

4.) I would use ammonia chloride to initially kick off the cycle after dosing fritz. This works very well to keep things clean but you'll need to add in a food source eventually. I've found that I don't get diatoms until I add in a real food source. The initial ammonia chloride decreases the diatoms significantly. I always opt for mysis since it's what I feed my fish and brain corals.

My $0.02 as a noob

 

[Hausser]

I have used microbacter 7 for cycling tanks in the past, I have cycled for about a month then added fish and corals. I would not over dose to speed it up, INMO it will not make it cycle any faster. If your in a hurry just plumb it into your main system. How fast are you wanting to add coral to your frag tank? If your not plumbing into your main system I would add fish to your tank, fish poop is good coral food. Some fish will eat bugs and or algae.

 

[MSB123]

I have used microbacter 7 for cycling tanks in the past, I have cycled for about a month then added fish and corals. I would not over dose to speed it up, INMO it will not make it cycle any faster. If your in a hurry just plumb it into your main system. How fast are you wanting to add coral to your frag tank?

ASAP. I have a friend who is leaving town and offered me like 5k in frags for free, as long as I take them before the 1st.
I will use his cycled media. I might add some clownfish to help with ammonia

 

[living_tribunal]

ASAP. I have a friend who is leaving town and offered me like 5k in frags for free, as long as I take them before the 1st.
I will use his cycled media. I might add some clownfish to help with ammonia

If you're in a rush then definitely use ammonia chloride. It will make the process much faster, with fritz it will only take max 7 days. You're not in a need to support a large bioload such as one required for a fish so I wouldn't sweat it much.

 

[Hausser]

ASAP. I have a friend who is leaving town and offered me like 5k in frags for free, as long as I take them before the 1st.
I will use his cycled media. I might add some clownfish to help with ammonia

Is your friend taking his system down? If so take his rock and add to your sump, take his water and do a water change on your tank and save old water to add to your frag tank. If you could do that then you should not have a issue.

 

[MSB123]

Is your friend taking his system down? If so take his rock and add to your sump, take his water and do a water change on your tank and save old water to add to your frag tank. If you could do that then you should not have a issue.

Yeah. Makes sense

 

[rhdoug]

I just added some water and a couple of small rocks, dead coral skeletons, etc from my display tank and added corals a week or so later and no problems.

 

[BamboozleBean]

I used about a pound of live rock from my LFS, and Seachem stability.
I had my tank fully cycled in about 2 weeks when I added 3 hermit crabs.
At almost 4 weeks I have a zoanthid frag and Ricordea mushroom which seem to both be doing well.
It’s a 10 gallon with instant ocean reef crystals.