Starting a desktop frag tank

[cracey]

Hey guys! i'm starting up a desktop frag tank. I Just bought a 6 gallon acrylic shallow tank and i'm looking to get some tips on the other equipment. unfortunately its to far for me to plumb it directly into my Display tank. So like i said, looking for tips on lights. Was maybe thinking a reef breeder nano? or one of the 24w PAR38 LED 20k Full Spectrum G2 Dimmable Reef Light, from coral compulsions. As far as filters i'm completely open, only thing is i have to run it off the back because the tank is not RR or plumbed. I plan on maybe having one clown in it? But not to sure, so the bio load wouldn't be to big. Like i said, any tips would be great! Tanks going to be a up and running thing, not just everytime i get frags in or anything.

[Roshan8768]

I would say no fish if you are using it as a frag tank. It's hard to keep such small tank's stable when there's a fish involved and even then it'll probably hamper coral growth. If you have to have a fish a neon goby or clown goby would both be better bets than a clownfish

[cracey]

yeah im not gonna do any fish for sure. i picked up a really nice led light fixture. just need some help on filtration! any help is great! thanks in advance!

[Roshan8768]

If you have room, I would say do a sump with a 10 or 15 gallon and fill it with some live rock so you have enough filtration. If not, a AC70 HOB should do the job if you take out the sponge and just run your choice of chemical media and some filter floss

[cracey]

okay! sweet, so would i need a skimmer in the sump? since i wont really have that big of a bio load? and should i drill the tank being how small it is? or just use a hob overflow? also if i was to run the hob ac70 route, would it be better to go with 2 ac40s? to add more movement?

[Roshan8768]

okay! sweet, so would i need a skimmer in the sump? since i wont really have that big of a bio load? and should i drill the tank being how small it is? or just use a hob overflow? also if i was to run the hob ac70 route, would it be better to go with 2 ac40s? to add more movement?

What did you end up going with?

I would either drill the tank with a sump down below or keep it simple with just the AC70. That will be plenty of movement if you add a small in tank power head as well. Definitely don't need a skimmer, if you have the clownfish a 25% waterchange every week will do the trick. Otherwise, you can probably just do a 50% one every month