[Lowej82]

The fragmenting of corals has become so widespread that many hobbyists now have a separate tank to house and grow coral fragments. This type of tank allows the luxury of being able to grow out even the smallest fragments without having to worry about them disappearing by falling into the live rock or having a predator wipe out a small fragment with one bite because the fragments are out in the open and hence more conspicuous and not overwhelmed by full-grown colonies. A special frag tank allows for even the smallest fragments to be nurtured and cared for more easily due to their being able to be seen and noticed. This is important as the single biggest reason for a fragment to fail to reach an adequate size is it falling off of the mounting and being lost. For this reason, most frag tanks should be bare-bottomed as it allows for fallen fragments to be more easily seen. It is also easier to catalog and keep track of the fragments in these tanks if digital pictures are taken whenever new fragments are added or removed. By taking pictures and comparing the picture with what is present it is easy to determine if something has happened to a fragment. A by-product of taking pictures on a regular basis is that it also allows for growth of the fragments to be more readily assessed. In this regard it can be determined if the growth of the corals is constant and if it is not to start looking at wheat factors have retarded growth or accelerated it. It also allows for the growth rates of different corals to be compared. This is important if one is looking to "farm" corals for sale in that it is usually desirable to try and farm faster growing species over slower one.

A fragment tank does not need to be anything special, nor even particularly large. It can be a tank that is separate from the main display tank that runs on its own, or usually it is simply a small secondary tank that is attached to the main tank. In fact many hobbyists are now using their sumps or parts of their sumps as frag tanks. By having the frag tank attached to main tank it allows the coral fragments to be in the same water conditions that the show colonies are. As a result their water has optimal nutrients as well as the proper temperature, calcium and alkalinity. The only two factors that usually need to be added to maximize the growth of the fragments are lighting and water movement. Both of these are rather easy to maximize with small powerheads and small lighting fixtures. Using small units to supply these needs is possible owing to the small size of the tank housing the fragments.
As mentioned above, some hobbyists are now using their sumps to grow out coral fragments. Some have even taken this one step further and have set up larger and larger sumps attached to their main display tank in order to grow out large numbers of coral fragments. These additional sumps need not be anything special all they really need to do is be able to hold water. Large plastic troughs or plastic basins are perfect for this job and are easily drilled, which also allows for their plumbing to be rather simple as well. These additional sumps actually help the overall health of the display tank in that they can dramatically increase the overall volume of the tank while only minimally increasing the biological load.