Frag tank advice

[Mgoesma]

So I have been thinking about building a frag tank for some time now. I would love one of the rimless ones but that's not in the budget. So I was thinking a 20 gallon long. I would then drill it and have a 10 gallon sump. I was going to try to find a 30 inch T5HO. I'm thinking 2 or 4 bulb. In the sump I was going to put about 20 lb of live rock, maybe a nano skimmer, return pump, and a auto top off. In the display I'm thinking lifted egg crate, wave maker power head. Let me know if anyone has a 30 in t5 for sale or anything else on my list.

[Jim28fl]

I suggest 40 breeder at a minimum. The key is shallow wide/ long and then it really comes down to lighting it. you need to be able to reach into get frags but not so shallow that the circulation pumps wave makers blow right into or on to frags disturbing them.

the deeper it is the harder and more costly all this is to achieve.

I have a 2' x4' by 10 inch deep and i only wish it was about 14" deep instead. remember you loose 1" for the egg crate on the bottom which is where i add +2" legs for circulation under the frags and egg crate like a gyer for example. other wise detritus builds up and CUC members can't get access.

I run a gyer 150 under the egg crate on the long direction and four 750 gallon an hour tunze wave pumps in various modes across the top of the frags. lots of flow. and i have x2 250 watt 14 K bulbs and two radio r30's running at about 40 % 18" above the water. i also use a tied in system for filtration which is part of my main system. and i have a piece of filter foam over the top area of the gayer for large particle filtration which i change every few days. i do have to remove the egg crate and replace with clean egg crate every few weeks. which means i have it in three sections on short legs to make that into part of a rotation schedule. i would say its very successful over all minus i wish it was 2" deeper.

par is 120-200 in all areas.