Soft Coral Prop Tank...

[RobG]

I have really begun to tire of seeing frags of xenia and colt coral rubber banded to shells & rock etc... in my show tank. I have an extra 40 gallon tank laying around, a 220W PC lighting setup, a HOT Magnum filter (Would remove the filter bag cartridge itself and use for circulation and maybe carbon), a heater and a couple of powerheads. I also have an extra bag of southdown sand around.

Now, since corals produce very little waste, I was thinking that with the aforementioned equipment, a 2-3" SD sand bed seeded from my main tank, and a couple of pieces of live rock, I have a system that can support a very-low bioload and shouldn't have any cycle to speak of.

Is that enough equipment for a soft coral grow-out tank?
Do you think I'll need additional biological filtration?
How long would you run the photoperiod for? I want as much growth as possible, of course...
Any other ideas, hints, pitfall etc?

Thanks

Rob

[kevinpo]

Rob,
I set up a 90 gal growout tank with just a egg crate shelf nothing else a few months ago. The only soft corals are Red Sea pumping Xenia and blue and green mushrooms the rest are sps frags (25). They seem to be doing just fine. I have a 175W Aqualine Bushke 10,000K bulb on for 12 hrs a day.

HTH,
Kevin

[kevinpo]

Here's a picture of it. I do have a sump with a skimmer and a overflow box with a filter pad.

[RobG]

Thanks for the info, Kevin. I was hoping to get away without having to purchase a sump/skimmer for the tank. With no fish, waste production should be very low. Do you think it will be a potential problem? I'm trying to go as bare-bones as possible.

Rob

[kevinpo]

I think you could. I just have a $5 rubbermaid container with a old Amiracle skimmer (read piece of junk). The return is a RIO 3100 To fill the tank I just took old water from my big tank when I did a water change. I let it run for a month and tossed in a couple of frags. After 2 weeks they looked like they were growing fine and the polyps were extending so I called it good. I never tested for anything but calcium & alkalinity (I'm bad). I have 1 additional (6 yrs old) powerhead in the tank to move the surface water MJ1000 I think the paint's gone on it

Kevin
PS: I did run some carbon for 10 days in the overflow a couple of weeks ago because the water looked a little yellow. It's crystal clear now.
PPS: There are tons of tiny snails, mysis shrimp, and bristle worms in there. Must have come from the water from the big tank as I didn't put them there? IMO there is a lot more stuff in your tank water than meets the eye (so to speak)

[RobG]

Sweet. I think I'll be able to make this work. And if I have trouble keeping params in check, I can always get a cheap, used backpak skimmer or something.

The final plan:

3" SD somewhat deep sand bed -- will seed from my main tank, but from your account of the critters in the water, that might not even be necessary

Eggcreate raised about 10" off the bottom of the tank like you have yours set up

1 old powerhead (It's like yours, I couldn't even tell you what brand)

HOT Magnum filter just used for extra circulation, surface agitation, and a place to put carbon if needed (No filter media)


Maybe I should even grown some macroalgae on the sand bed for nutrient removal. without any live rock in the tank, it should be pretty easy to keep under control.