Mr. Microscope's Roughneck Frag Tub

[Mr. Microscope]

Hello All,

So, I've been sans aquarium for a while since I moved from NYC to Evanston, IL. I used to run a 3 gallon pico at my office in my previous job, but decided to do a complete take down and sell off rather than worry about moving the tank across the country. I've been going nuts reading all of your threads and drooling over your beautiful tanks and new corals. I'm going to be getting a real tank soon, but to get me started I began this frag tank. Most of it has been thrown together from bits and pieces I had left over from my pico. The rest was purchased from local reefers and a couple items online.

The focus for this tank will be on high end zoas. I'll be growing out my favorites in anticipation of the real tank (25 or 37 gallon cube), and selling some. I'm also going to take the opportunity to experiment with a couple other corals that I don't have experience with. I'd like to try my hand at acans. Finally, my wife has taken an interest in helping me propagate the corals and maintaining the tank. So, I hope she can have fun with it as well.

FTS 2011.09.04

Here's a breakdown on what's going on here:

• Rubbermade Roughneck 16 gallon tub
• K2 (600gph)
• Rio 600 (200gph)
• 4x24inch T5 Current USA Nova Extreme
• LEDs from my old pico (4RB, 1CB, 2NW XR-E Crees)
• AC70 fuge modification with filter floss and chaeto
• About 20 lbs. live rock (BRS Pukani Rubble and Premium Aquatics Premium Rubble) curing for six months plus. It's sitting on some small egg crate tables that lifts if up approximately a half inch to allow flow.
• Egg Crate array for frags put together with zip ties
• BlackrockReef MR3.S frag rack (cause there's room for it)
• 100 Watt Aqueon Pro Heater
• Kent Reef Salt (gotta 200 gallon bucket!)
• BRS 5 stage RO/DI water filtration system water
• Kitchen Cart

Here's the cart I'm using for this thing. I picked it up on amazon a few years ago. We didn't need it after moving and it was just sitting around. So, my wife suggested I use it for the frag tank.

To make it simple, I just have the lights sitting on the top shelf. The spacing I have here gives me a lot of room work work in the tank. Plus, I'll be able to get lots of nice top down shots of all the pretty things that are going to grow in here.
In the left image you'll see the rack I made. I've since modified it slightly by cutting out a few squares on the right side to allow me to stick my hand though if necessary or put an additional K-Nano if I feel I want more flow.


As for flow, I understand I'm kinda overkilling it a bit. I've got about 15 gallons of water in this thing. Between the K2, the Rio600, and the AC70, I possibly have more than 60x turn over, but it really doesn't seem like that much in there. Honestly, the Rio seems more powerful than the K2. Also, I have the AC on a medium to low setting since I'm using it as a fuge. I have the K2 pointing directly into my rubble pile, and the Rio600 has it's nozzle positioned under the egg crate tables that I made to set the live rock on. So, there's tons of flow directly underneath all the rock. I don't have any coral in there yet. So, i guess I'll see if they're getting blown to bits once I get something in there. I can always take out a pump or replace it with a weaker one. On reserve are my K-Nano and my Pico Evo. Feel free to add any thoughts on flow for me.


So, for live rock, I got some fantastic stuff this weekend. It's really beautiful. A local reefer hooked me up with some BRS Pukani rubble, BRS shelf rock, and Premium Aquatics Premium rubble. He'd been curing/cooking them for about six months and they're pest and algae free. Honestly, this is some of the coolest rock I've seen and I think it would look great in a show tank, but I'm glad to have it in my tub. I'm not expecting to see much of a cycle, so I think I'll be contacting ReefCleaners in a few days to get a CUC. Probably about 10 dwarf ceriths, and 10 mixed hermits.

Also, on the list of livestock will be a pair of small clowns that I'll eventually move to my bigger tank when it's built (which will be my next thread). Though, I'd like to have one or two fish in there when I move the clowns out. The logic being that fish poo is good for corals and helps boost the nutrient level of the water. I'm open to suggestions on fish if anyone wants to chime in. I'd like to stay away from damsels though.