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Marcoss 
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 Topic: New Build 48G Frag Tank
Posted: March 09 2015 at 11:51am |
Okay, I am starting a new tank before I even finish my other newest one. I am starting a frag tank soon and get 7 boxes from BRS today! I should have this bad boy up and running by the weekend.
I plan on keeping it pretty simple and with a ton of LPS type corals; the stuff with simpler lighting and easier water requirements.
What I have so far: 48G Frank Tank - Thanks Nick! Custom Sump- Thanks Mitch!
Sicce 4.0 Return (should be enough flow with the MP10) MP10 BRS Reactors 2x (GFO/Carbon) Tunze ATO Vertex 130 Skimmer Kessil AW360 Other Crap
I am still debating if I will keep this as a true frag tank or add a small sand bed. I plan on keeping all my rock in the sump. I want to grow things out in this to add to my display tank. I am starting to think my display tank is too small.
I am truly addicted to this hobby. I am one of those people that bounce from hobby to hobby, but this one is takes it by far. I am on this forum several hours per week, my wife would say daily, and I am on Reef Central that much more.
Anyway, I will be back in about one week with images of the tank set up.
Marcos
Edited by Marcoss - March 30 2015 at 1:59pm
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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Marcoss
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Posted: March 09 2015 at 6:01pm |
Oh it's here! This is at my work so I see UPS several times a day. I was getting discouraged after he kept coming by with nothing... But right before end of day he shows up with this!  He's like Santa but better. Marcos
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: March 10 2015 at 9:28am |
Your comment, " true frag tank or add a small sand bed." caused me to think. In my mind there are two fairly distinct ways to do this. One way is to buy coral, chop it up and sell it. The other way is to grow coral for sale. IME, a sand bed works great for growing coral because it provides live food, expanded biofiltration, etc.
Have fun. Aloha, Mark  |
Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks:www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Marcoss
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Posted: March 10 2015 at 9:33am |
 Mark Peterson wrote:
Your comment, " true frag tank or add a small sand bed." caused me to think. In my mind there are two fairly distinct ways to do this. One way is to buy coral, chop it up and sell it. The other way is to grow coral for sale. IME, a sand bed works great for growing coral because it provides live food, expanded biofiltration, etc.
Have fun. Aloha, Mark |
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the message. I had not thought about selling items, but in theory I probably could way down the line...
That said, I should elaborate more on what I am doing. I want to grow out frags in this tank and take them home. I have this tank at my work since I have run out of space at home and have an unfinished/freezing basement that I hate going into.
I love the sand look better, but the height on the tank is only 12". I was afraid that if I added the flow I wanted, that sand would blow around. I had that problem at home for a couple of months until things just settled down.
At most, I would have about 20 lb. of sand in the sandbed. Do you think that small amount can make a huge difference? I just would rather avoid sandstorms if I can.
But with sand, it looks pretty damn cool.
But at the same time, I can keep detritus way down if I have a ton of flow that sand could not handle.
Marcos
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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Bryce
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Posted: March 10 2015 at 10:22am |
Mark Peterson wrote:
Your comment, " true frag tank or add a small sand bed." caused me to think. In my mind there are two fairly distinct ways to do this. One way is to buy coral, chop it up and sell it. The other way is to grow coral for sale. IME, a sand bed works great for growing coral because it provides live food, expanded biofiltration, etc.
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Dang Mark, hit the nail on the head, cant tell you how many "Frag tanks" I have seen that are really coral grow out tanks that are overrun with algae or have nutrient issues due to lack of you name it (lack of sand, skimmer, snails, macro, sump, rock, bacteria, reactors, etc.) I admit seeing the crystal clean frag tanks set up for a few hours at a club meeting or the Mountain west feast gave me the impression, oh I can set up a "Frag tank" and it is going to looks all clean, streamlined, minimal, sorta the "Plastic Surgery Barbie Doll" of frag tanks in which you really only notice the amazing corals with no distractions a "dirty"/more functional tank has but I think its pretty hard to get that look if in fact the tank is more truly a coral grow out tank with the frags being in the tank for months on end. I know now those frag tanks are almost 100% not where the corals were grown or probably even housed after fragging - my own ignorance. And the frag tanks in stores are usually hooked to a huge system with proper filtration/set up. Based on the equipment I see it looks like Marcos is on the right track to have a great tank no matter what he calls it, as I see everything a normal tank can/ should have other than rock or sand but he could always have the rock and sand in the sump.
Edited by Bryce - March 10 2015 at 10:25am
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65g Reef
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backwards32
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Posted: March 10 2015 at 10:59pm |
OK here is the sump I have been putting together. It is 32 x 20 x 12 that is a total volume of 32 gallons if it was totally full. Here are a few of the tank build pics ( ignore my ugly work table)   So he wanted three chambers. the first is 10 inches wide for the skimmer. the middle is approximately 17 inches for live rock. and the third chamber is 4.5 inches for the return pump.   This is going to be a great sump, nice and clean. I love the rimless look. Water test and final pics happening tomorrow.
Edited by backwards32 - March 10 2015 at 11:00pm
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Reefer4Ever
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Posted: March 11 2015 at 5:57am |
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Mitch, my young padawan you have come so far so fast the force is strong with you. Very nice looking sump. I will be getting with you for a second sump build soon. Still loving our first one.
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90 gal reef w/refugium
24 gal softie tank
11 gal nano anemone tank
5 gal fresh water
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Mike Savage
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Posted: March 11 2015 at 8:26am |
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That is looking good.
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Marcoss
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Posted: March 11 2015 at 2:33pm |
Bryce wrote:
Mark Peterson wrote:
Your comment, " true frag tank or add a small sand bed." caused ....
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Dang Mark, hit the nail on the head, cant tell you how many "Frag tanks" I ...
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Hi Bryce,
Great points and observations. I am really building out a normal tank that will only have corals/frags of corals in it. I will have about 30-35 lb. of rocks in the sump as well as a shallow sand bed. I decided that I wanted a sandbed, because at the end of the day, I will be looking at this tank for hours a week and want it to be pretty but also serve a purpose.
I am a bit nervous to keep it at work though. We warehouse different types of decor, some of which include nautical themed stuff...A coworker of mine came into the office and asked if she could put a fake resin piece of coral in the tank. Even though I explained it could leach toxins, she still insisted it was okay if she rinsed it. Needless to say, this tank may sit behind a locked door.
Marcos
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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Marcoss
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Posted: March 11 2015 at 2:37pm |
backwards32 wrote:
OK here is the sump I have been putting together. It is 32 x 20 x 12 that is a total volume of 32 gallons if it was totally full. Here are a few of the tank build pics ( ignore my ugly work table)... |
Dang Mitch, that thing is nice looking! Looks too nice to almost be a sump. :) Thanks again for doing this! I hope it passes all of the testing so I can get my tank ready.
Marcos
PS. I just realized that you are the person I bought gel fish food from at the latest reef meeting. My pajama cardinals go AS for that food! I was the guy that bought from you that was confused about gel food and didn't know what to get (lots of questions guy). Thank you for that too.
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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backwards32
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Posted: March 13 2015 at 10:01am |
Ok so the Sump is finished. It turned out really nice. I only charged him $130 for the build. I try to keep it cheap for my fellow fish friends. Here are a few pics.   Did a water test and it holds water like a champ. not that I would think anything less  I am excited to see this all set up soon
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Marcoss
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Posted: March 13 2015 at 7:59pm |
As you saw, Mitch put together an awesome sump. I added some water today and started day one of my "cycle". I was able to add about 28 lb. of live rock to the sump and about 3 lb. of live rock in the tank. The reason for a 3 lb. rock is I simply wanted a rock for a mini max to anchor to/a clown to hide behind without having too many rocks.
Below are a couple of pictures of the sump underneath the frag tank. I am going to keep the sump exposed and hide all of the wires within a cabinet.
I added some salt water and have begun the cycle.
I'll add the skimmer in the coming days. I only added the heater and return today as I got slammed on another project.
By the way, the Sicce 4.0 pushes water like a banshee. I had a hard time getting the overflow not to makes a massive amount of suction sound. I am glad I added a gate valve to control this. I honestly do not think I will even need the MP10 due to the power of the return.
Marcos
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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Marcoss
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Posted: March 28 2015 at 10:44pm |
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Okay. So I ended up needing the MP10.
I have done a lot since I have been on here but the tank is too messy to photograph. I need to spend some time and tidy up the wires, etc.
I have a bonded pair of clown fish that I got from A Reef Oasis. I'm not big on names but they are gorgeous and several years old. They also eat like hogs. They devour what it takes my other fish minutes to eat in just seconds.
I have a couple of cheap tester frags in the tank and 40 lb. of live sand.
Images to come.
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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Marcoss
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Posted: March 30 2015 at 2:06pm |
After some thought; I've decided to bring corals in myself and sell them out of this tank. This tank is located at my work, hence, I will have a very small side business of selling corals. The corals will be limited though and more along the lines of show pieces, in other words, I will not be doing frags. I plan on brining in larger pieces and letting them adjust here for a couple of weeks before they are sold.
I have had a couple of reefing friends ask for pieces, which is what motivated me to do this, and the fact that we already sell online. I don't want to obviously do this full time (public) as we are an online retailer but would be open to having those interested in larger pieces contact me.
I will post in the appropriate area when it comes down to it. Just thought I would share the update on this as things are changing on this tank.
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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Hogie
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Posted: March 30 2015 at 2:08pm |
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What's your online site?
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Marcoss
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Posted: March 30 2015 at 2:12pm |
Hogie wrote:
What's your online site? |
Hey Hogie
Sorry I was not clear. I have a business that is separate that is online. We sell home decor and stuff. Lots of wall pieces. We work mostly with brick and mortars that carry our stuff.
The fish thing is new; I figured since we have a shipping department, and a few of us know about corals, that we could introduce that. I'll shoot you the domain via PM since its not live yet. This is mostly going to be an online thing since our shipping department can handle it and the volumes would be low. The coral world is highly competitive, hence, this is just a test. This will allow us to sell dry goods, which is really what I want to do. I would rather have our team pick and pull dry goods versus livestock.
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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relethg
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Posted: April 28 2015 at 10:15am |
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How is this coming along?
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210 G Filled 18 Mar 15
120 G Filled 11 Jun 16
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Marcoss
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Posted: April 28 2015 at 10:18am |
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Great, thank you!
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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LaRue
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Posted: April 28 2015 at 1:54pm |
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Any new pics?
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Marcoss
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Posted: April 28 2015 at 2:38pm |
Here is an image from a few days ago. Debating removing/moving the sand to the sump. I really want to ramp up the flow, however, the sand does not permit a super high flow.
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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