Kessil

Budget frag tank setup?

IOnceWasLegend

Frag Swap Coordinator
BOD
My wife and I had our offer accepted, and - barring anything going wrong - we'll be moving into our new home next month!

Of course one of the first things I did was identify where I'd want to put a frag tank in the garage. Not too worried about making it look too pretty, but just want to start thinking about building one out so I'll be able to propagate enough for our future 50-60 gallon tank.

Thanks!
 
I have a 1/2” glass 24x24x12 roughly 25 gallon frag tank I’m about to move my coral out of in the next few days/week, it can be setup aio or with a sump. I was gonna sell it Soon if you’re interested. The glass is pretty scratched and there is a chip in one spot. But it holds frags
 
I have a free aio 40g acrylic tank, not pretty but it does what you need. And it’s not shallow either


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
How big do you want? There's something called a "low boy" which is 48" x 24" x 12" would make a really nice frag tank, fairly cheap, but a bit hard to find in this area. Another solution since you don't care about pretty find some junky acrylic tank someone is getting rid of and take a circular saw to the side to chop it down to whatever height you feel happy with.
 
How big do you want? There's something called a "low boy" which is 48" x 24" x 12" would make a really nice frag tank, fairly cheap, but a bit hard to find in this area. Another solution since you don't care about pretty find some junky acrylic tank someone is getting rid of and take a circular saw to the side to chop it down to whatever height you feel happy with.
AC has them
 
And keep in mind any tools or other things that can easily rust with the increased humidity!
and rust it does... you should see the amount of rusted USB and other connectors in my office as well... even though I have all the windows and screen doors open like 24x7.

Surprisingly, the servers and networking equipment are still working... hah.
 
How big do you want? There's something called a "low boy" which is 48" x 24" x 12" would make a really nice frag tank, fairly cheap, but a bit hard to find in this area. Another solution since you don't care about pretty find some junky acrylic tank someone is getting rid of and take a circular saw to the side to chop it down to whatever height you feel happy with.
Yep aquatic collection has these for 200-300 if i recall, thats where I got mine. great frag tank can really pack a lot into it

IMG_8463.JPG


I dont know what corals you plan on keeping, but this tank is extremely low budget. Since I just have zoas, I have a heater, powerhead, the tank, and lights. No skimmer or filtration. Sometimes causes algae problems though lol. I love this tank because even though its just a 60 it has the 4 by 2 foot print so your able to keep a lot of frags
 
Yeah that's what I was thinking when I said "it's fairly cheap". Granted I get it, shipping isn't a free thing, and if it is a specialty tank that they're bringing in that's going to add to some cost, so I can understand the $200 part but $300 though.. yikes. I think at that point I'd get a few of Aqueon 20 gallon breeders when they go $1/gallon at petco and just drill and attach connect, or if you could find the 30 gallon breeder one of those would be pretty nice 36x18x12(ish) high, maybe won't hold as many frags as Kremis... but not many hold as many frags as him :D
 
Anyone have had success with all in one tanks for a frag tank?
There are some really nice all in one now days..
I use an IM 25 lagoon and it works for what I want. It is a little tough to fit ato sensors though, and if any kind of expansion is needed (reactors, fuge, dosing) it gets a little ugly and cramped. But being able to plop it down pretty much anywhere is nice.
 
Yep aquatic collection has these for 200-300 if i recall, thats where I got mine. great frag tank can really pack a lot into it

View attachment 17772

I dont know what corals you plan on keeping, but this tank is extremely low budget. Since I just have zoas, I have a heater, powerhead, the tank, and lights. No skimmer or filtration. Sometimes causes algae problems though lol. I love this tank because even though its just a 60 it has the 4 by 2 foot print so your able to keep a lot of frags

Is that a lowboy with center brace?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I have a 1/2” glass 24x24x12 roughly 25 gallon frag tank I’m about to move my coral out of in the next few days/week, it can be setup aio or with a sump. I was gonna sell it Soon if you’re interested. The glass is pretty scratched and there is a chip in one spot. But it holds frags

If you have it in a month or two, I might be; we're still waiting on closing (so, very likely but not 100% we'll be buying this new place) so I won't be in a position to get anything until next month at the earliest.

I have a free aio 40g acrylic tank, not pretty but it does what you need. And it’s not shallow either


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I may take you up on that if it's still available when I have room for it; don't wait up on my account, though. Thanks for the offer!
If you're planning it for the garage, keep in mind a chiller might be a necessity, depending on where your new house is.

Yeah, that was something I'd anticipated. It'll be downstairs in a garage, I have no idea how hot it gets down there, but ideally I'd get something big enough to where I could use a small chiller for temp control.

How big do you want? There's something called a "low boy" which is 48" x 24" x 12" would make a really nice frag tank, fairly cheap, but a bit hard to find in this area. Another solution since you don't care about pretty find some junky acrylic tank someone is getting rid of and take a circular saw to the side to chop it down to whatever height you feel happy with.

I'm not 100% sure, but I was thinking about a 30-40 gallon low boy-ish tank. Would definitely want more horizontal than vertical footprint, so that's something I was considering; I (admittedly) hadn't thought about just hacking down an acrylic tank to size. Thanks for that suggestion!

and rust it does... you should see the amount of rusted USB and other connectors in my office as well... even though I have all the windows and screen doors open like 24x7.

Surprisingly, the servers and networking equipment are still working... hah.

Fortunately, the garage is pretty large, and I'd be keeping any tools and such well away from it (~15' at least) in closed cabinets. But I will definitely keep an eye out for this.
Yep aquatic collection has these for 200-300 if i recall, thats where I got mine. great frag tank can really pack a lot into it

View attachment 17772

I dont know what corals you plan on keeping, but this tank is extremely low budget. Since I just have zoas, I have a heater, powerhead, the tank, and lights. No skimmer or filtration. Sometimes causes algae problems though lol. I love this tank because even though its just a 60 it has the 4 by 2 foot print so your able to keep a lot of frags

The footprint's perfect for what I'm going for. I know some people have done the hydroponics style setup with these tanks/the rubbermaid tubs, but there's definitely an appeal to the glass setup (and it's nice to know if I want to just start off with zoas I can delay skimmer/filtration). Do you run any CUC in there?

Yeah that's what I was thinking when I said "it's fairly cheap". Granted I get it, shipping isn't a free thing, and if it is a specialty tank that they're bringing in that's going to add to some cost, so I can understand the $200 part but $300 though.. yikes. I think at that point I'd get a few of Aqueon 20 gallon breeders when they go $1/gallon at petco and just drill and attach connect, or if you could find the 30 gallon breeder one of those would be pretty nice 36x18x12(ish) high, maybe won't hold as many frags as Kremis... but not many hold as many frags as him :D

This is another great option; thanks!

I use an IM 25 lagoon and it works for what I want. It is a little tough to fit ato sensors though, and if any kind of expansion is needed (reactors, fuge, dosing) it gets a little ugly and cramped. But being able to plop it down pretty much anywhere is nice.

Yeah; that's the issue I've run into with my IM Nuvo Fusion 20. Great tank, love it, but any type of expansion is a PITA.
 
Is that a lowboy with center brace?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
idk if its for sure a low boy or not but it has the same footprint. came w the rim and brace

@IOnceWasLegend I picked up some urchins today for CUC, had a tang before but I bandsawed too many zoa colonies at once and caused a mini tank crash w the palytoxin, killed the tang and some of my rhodactus. Thats the one other down side to running no filtration is that unless you run carbon aggressively stuff like that can affect the tank a lot more vs a tank that has a sump, filter socks, reactors, skimmer, chaeto etc
 
idk if its for sure a low boy or not but it has the same footprint. came w the rim and brace

@IOnceWasLegend I picked up some urchins today for CUC, had a tang before but I bandsawed too many zoa colonies at once and caused a mini tank crash w the palytoxin, killed the tang and some of my rhodactus. Thats the one other down side to running no filtration is that unless you run carbon aggressively stuff like that can affect the tank a lot more vs a tank that has a sump, filter socks, reactors, skimmer, chaeto etc


Appreciate the heads up. I think carbon's going to be a given for me since I'm very careful with palytoxin (buddy of mine who got me into this was hospitalized with palytoxin poisoning). And you can keep a tang in a tank that size??

Bay Bridge aquarium used to carry low boys as well. If I remember correctly they were sub-$150.

Appreciate it! I'll ask around here when I'm actively looking/deciding, but that'll be next on my list if I go that route.
 
Other think you can consider is a 25G long. Petco's $1/gal sales puts you at $25+tax.

Tie that into your DT or add another 25G L for sump. With particions for sump, return, and heater... you'd get a quick and dirty frag setup for under $100. not counting lights

I ran a setup like this for my initial nem propagation tank... cheap and effective
 
So someone asked me a question, and when answering this popped up.


Basically same style of tank I'm using for my lagoon, but much smaller, long flat sides that you can drill to put in a bulkhead if you need. 52" x 31" x 12" would make a pretty nice frag grow out tank, and take it from me due to those rounded ends real easy to get a gyre flow going around the whole thing without much of a pump needed.
 
Back
Top