Deep vs shallow frag tanks

[Palmer]

Hi Everyone,

I am interested in everyone's thoughts on deep verses shallow frag tanks. I know the type of coral should dictate design and placement but for instance I have noticed for SPS some using shallow and some deep tanks. Some coral propagation companies I have seen with deep water (i.e. > 20") tanks to raise SPS where intuitively I would have thought shallow more efficient.

Deeper means the need for greater light penetration or light intensity but also more water in the system as a "problem buffer."

Has anyone here had experience with both? Any thoughts on which is a better model for coral growth? What is your rationale?

thanks

[windcoast reefs]

I've always seen shallow frag tanks, I honestly have never seen a really successful deep frag tank. I have no experience with frag tanks myself so I really can't comment on the pros and cons.

[monocus]

i have a 12" 50 gal frag tank for sps and a 26" 50 gal frag tank for softies both with their own sumps and multi layered racks

[whatcaneyedo]

Deeper generally just means more wasted space for the same volume. To compensate for the depth of my 50gal I grew frags for a little while in suspension. It was sort of a fun and unique thing to do for a while but it meant more maintenance because the fishing line would get quite slimy. It was also quite difficult to do anything in the tank with my hands as I kept bumping the hanging rods.

I now use a slightly shallower 140gal stock trough which cost about the same as a new 50gal glass tank but doesn't require nearly the same amount of cleaning and obviously provides a much larger square footage.

[Palmer]

I am guessing the pic above was your deeper tank. I have seen pics of that tank in the past.

Perhaps this subject is a no brainer (shallower is better) but I was interested in it after I saw a you tube video of "tidal gardens" greenhouse and how they raise their corals.

I would imagine in aquaculture some of the rationale for set up would also be risk mitigation. A shallow tank seems obvious to me for light penetration. The thing I was wondering about was if you have a variety of coral with different requirements can too little depth become a risk with lighting as either bulbs age and you replenish them or even if you switch between different types of lighting?