Tank Journal Archive

[hurlza]

So its been a year and what a year it has been. Tank is still going strong, need to work on keeping NO2 and PO4 in check as i now cant notice when i have problems as i have gotten rid of all the cyano.

So basically my corals are looking alright atm, ive lost a few zoas :( and they also dont seem to want to grow at all. My nems split which is good that i have 2 but my tank is tiny so having 2 it kinda begins to sting everything around it. I have some more zoas that im looking after for a friend as his tank went downhill bad, so i managed to score a stack of eagle eyes and some red people eaters along with some brown palys that he told me were expensive zoas (couldnt tell at the time cause everything was closed). I also lost some gsp, it failed to attach and then died but im looking at getting some more as i have an old zoa rock i can put it on.

I also got a tiny wavemaker which is giving the tank some nice flow (more than what was before anyways), so hopefully this will fix some coral growth issues.

So yeah all going well and im keen for another year. Looking at an upgrade soon too to a tiny 12 gallon 3ft bookshelf tank and try run a small mixed with sps.

Cheers and happy reefing everyone and enjoy the video and photos.

 

[IJG3145]

As a very rough guide, the cleaner the tank, the worse that zoas and gonis do. Not so in every case with zoas but often enough.

EG. Someone gave me some awful brown palys from their SPS dominated tank. After a year in my tank they are toxic green, beautiful. I don't have sps so the water can carry more nutrient without damaging things.

One of the members at RTAW (Picasso - I think), often states that he cannot keep zoas alive in his main display tank but he can in other tanks. The main display is a truly show quality SPS dominated tank and is always crystal clear.

 

[IJG3145]

Is the clown carrying damage to the pelvic fin/s?

 

[hurlza]

Is the clown carrying damage to the pelvic fin/s?

No i dont think so, it swims fine

 

[hurlza]

As a very rough guide, the cleaner the tank, the worse that zoas and gonis do. Not so in every case with zoas but often enough.

EG. Someone gave me some awful brown palys from their SPS dominated tank. After a year in my tank they are toxic green, beautiful. I don't have sps so the water can carry more nutrient without damaging things.

One of the members at RTAW (Picasso - I think), often states that he cannot keep zoas alive in his main display tank but he can in other tanks. The main display is a truly show quality SPS dominated tank and is always crystal clear.

Water is quite dirty, i think it is the poor lights and flow that is killing them unfortunately

 

[IJG3145]

Water is quite dirty, i think it is the poor lights and flow that is killing them unfortunately

Most zoas don't like high flow I've found. Now for this next bit, keep in mind that I've only ever used T5's with a dabble in MH from time to time. I just fitted LED lights last week so my experience under that light is zero.

Typically when you see these tanks full of magnificent zoas, they are all on the bottom, they are also nearly always under blue light, likely to be leds. Under T5 I adopt the general principal that the lighter the colour of the zoa, the higher they like to be. My pink zoas and the salmon ones all do best half way up the tank. Any lower and they start 'reaching' and they lose colour.

Other than the lighter colours, I start them all on the bottom in strong light and adjust upward if needed. But they do need to sit for up to a month without being moved, for them to be happiest. The other thing I found by accident is that they are not happy when there is any yellow tinge to the water. Mind you I've stopped getting drunk and peeing in the tank now.

 

[raelene]

Most zoas don't like high flow I've found. Now for this next bit, keep in mind that I've only ever used T5's with a dabble in MH from time to time. I just fitted LED lights last week so my experience under that light is zero.

Typically when you see these tanks full of magnificent zoas, they are all on the bottom, they are also nearly always under blue light, likely to be leds. Under T5 I adopt the general principal that the lighter the colour of the zoa, the higher they like to be. My pink zoas and the salmon ones all do best half way up the tank. Any lower and they start 'reaching' and they lose colour.

Other than the lighter colours, I start them all on the bottom in strong light and adjust upward if needed. But they do need to sit for up to a month without being moved, for them to be happiest. The other thing I found by accident is that they are not happy when there is any yellow tinge to the water. Mind you I've stopped getting drunk and peeing in the tank now.

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Am a newbie and just got a tiny ZOA so was glad when I stumbled across this post I just put on bottom of tank, so that should be fine?

 

[IJG3145]

Without seeing it I'm guessing but yes, start it on the bottom where it gets good light. As long as it's not directly in front of a power-head it should be fine. The most important thing is that unless you see some reason that it must be moved (disease, etc) just leave it alone for a few weeks to settle.

If from a shop, it's likely that in the last four weeks its gone from its natural environment to a collection bag, then into a boat's holding bins, into quarantine tanks, then into holding tanks, then packed into a foam box and put on a plane, then into the shop's tanks where you saw it. The shop then put it into a plastic bag from where, it went into your tank.

This I believe is often overlooked. Many people get a coral home then keep moving it trying to find that perfect spot. I used to do the same until I did a trip on a pearling boat and although not the same thing, it made me really think about collection methods. Since then I put my coral where I think it will get what it needs and unless I have to, I don't touch it for a month. Survival rates improved a lot after that. :)

@raelene , always feel free to jump in on a thread like this but also don't overlook the 'new to reefing' area where you can post every question that comes to mind. It is a really under used resource.