Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post

brad · 07/23/2017, 08:34 AM

I was reading a few similar threads, but all a decade old.

I've been in the hobby 17 years. I have made and spent lots of money on coral. Right now I have a 48"x48"x30" display. I make about $300 a frag swap on fresh cut $5-$20 frags, mostly to free up space in my display. I've never had a dedicated frag tank, at least not one that ran successfully any length of time.

I am temped to add a frag tank, possibly a large one. This gets any coral taking up too much space or recovering out of my display. It gives me the chance to keep both very small fish and fish that eat small fish. It lets me bring nicer grown out frags to swaps.

But if I do this, I expect it to at least pay for itself. I don't expect to break even on the hobby as a whole, but to recover the additional flow, lighting, heating, salt, coral plugs, etc.

How large should I go? Before you say to start small, the work is the same for a 12 gallon vs a 120 gallon. And if I start with 12 and upgrade to 120, I have to redo all the plumbing and probably lighting.

07/23/2017, 08:34 AM	#1
brad Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Hudson, OH Posts: 1,347	Is a frag tank worth it? I was reading a few similar threads, but all a decade old. I've been in the hobby 17 years. I have made and spent lots of money on coral. Right now I have a 48"x48"x30" display. I make about $300 a frag swap on fresh cut $5-$20 frags, mostly to free up space in my display. I've never had a dedicated frag tank, at least not one that ran successfully any length of time. I am temped to add a frag tank, possibly a large one. This gets any coral taking up too much space or recovering out of my display. It gives me the chance to keep both very small fish and fish that eat small fish. It lets me bring nicer grown out frags to swaps. But if I do this, I expect it to at least pay for itself. I don't expect to break even on the hobby as a whole, but to recover the additional flow, lighting, heating, salt, coral plugs, etc. How large should I go? Before you say to start small, the work is the same for a 12 gallon vs a 120 gallon. And if I start with 12 and upgrade to 120, I have to redo all the plumbing and probably lighting.