Reef Ready Tang Tanks

[Suelovesfish]

I am not sure how many people have experienced this, but i bet it is a lot......?
I have a few reef ready tanks w/ internal overflows which goes to W/D. Here's the problem. Somehow, Tang fry end up in the sump of W/D? how they make it thru the pre-filter, drip plate and bioballs is hard for me to understand? Good news is many if not most which make it down to sump water survive if not thrive there? some probably don't make it? I would like to keep em in the tank where they belong. These are newly spit fry, they are the only ones small enough to get through the low slots on the internal overflow box?

Do you know a pain in the arse it is to break down a W/D to get fry out of W/D sump? Especially, the huge PM W/D is hard to move when it has no water in it?

Any one experience this or have any ideas to eliminate this from happening? All I could think of was to relocate some small power heads to the bottom side of tank so that the water will help in keeping the fry from the series of slots located on the bottom of the exterior overflow plastic box? I guess i could silicone some mesh or something, but looking for other people's experience before I take on this task.

[armthehomeless]

I've had this problem with my RR tank as well. Depending on what type of fry different things will work. For mouthbrooders, placing a fine mesh around the overflow will work well. Fry from egglayers tend to be too small for this though. I tried using pantyhose as a barrier . . . but it got clogged too quickly. My solution for egglayers: move them into a non-RR tank with a sponge prefilter over the intake.

Hope this helps.

[Suelovesfish]

Thanks for info. My Tangs are mouthbrooders. How do you secure the mesh to the overflow? Silicone?

[armthehomeless]

I used twisty ties so that I could remove it easily. . . but silicone sounds like a prettier solution.