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1st saltwater set up with interest in Zoas (1 Viewer)

Leicester56

Leicester56

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Hi,
this is my first journey into the saltwater world. Just set up a 40 gallon breeder with 45lbs. Live cured rock and a 20 gallon long DIY sump (contains reef octopus 110 skimmer and soon to be used Refugium) chambers. It has only been up and running for about 5 days. I was originally shooting for a FOWLR tank but am considering adding Zoas colonies after well cycled and some fish are in. I have a hard time finding info regarding lighting options for this size tank if Zoas are the only non-fish/invert inhabitants of the tank. I currently have a 36 inch T5HO ballast with one 10,000k and one actinic bulb with a total of 76 watts. Due to the width of the tank and the narrow ballast there is quite a bit of variance in light intensity in the very front and very back of the tank. Thoughts? Any other info regarding general Zoa care welcome. Cheers!
 
It looks like you are well on your way. I love zoas and have several frags in my 120. I would probably consider going with at least a 4 bulb t5. I had a 6 bulb t5 tec light on my 40b and had great zoa growth. On my 120 I have 2 of the cheap Ebay full spectrum dimmable LED lights and my zoas are growing like crazy. I have found that zoas can be hit or miss. I have had zoa frags grow into small colonies then almost over night they close up and melt away for no apparent reason well all the rest of the zoas look fat and happy. Feel free to PM me if you want to come check out my system sometime. Good luck and welcome to the club.
 
I would look into some led strip lights. Along with the t5s I think you would get some good growth. And the leds will get the zoas to really pop in color.
 
I have terrible luck tyring to buy 1 or 2 polyps at a time. Takes so long for it to amount to anything and more times than not melt before getting to appreciatable size. So for me, they need to be mounted and at least 10 polyps on the plug before I would buy them. Otherwise ( for me ) it's just a waste of money.

Like muskey says there is such a variance between one and another. Some like higher light, some like lower light. Some grow like a weed others hardly grow at all. For the most part it will be trial and error for a particular tank epsecially a tank on the low light side as you have.

For example: I had two mini colonies ( about 30 polyps ) of the pink paly ( typically referred to as Armor of God ), I got them from 2 different sources to the human eye they look the same but one grew like a weed and the other never grew at all in a 2+ year period. So it's going to be really hard to generalize.

I can say, if you are buying single polyps your looking at several years before you will have much of a garden. So need to be patient. I'd start with the more common ones that have nice color for example the tubs blues, nuclear green, bam-bams etc. so that you can afford a 20+ polyp frags and your tank will start to fill in much quicker. Then can start going for the more expensive smaller polyps as the tank won't look so empty while waiting for them to turn into a colony.

I also would stay away from buying zoanthids that have several kinds mixed on a single rock. Usually one will be more dominant than another and smoother the lesser out. Best to keep them seperated and not let them mingle.

Another advice, use more smoother rocks for zoanthids. When using smooth rocks, as a way to control ( and frag them ), you can literally just peal the matt off like a bandaid and take chucks off together. But when not on smoother rocks you typically have to cut the rock up to get them off to control population or nuke them with kalkwasser ( which of course is a shame when you could trade the frags or sell them for new ones ).
 
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Thanks for all the great advice! Once my tank has cycled I will let you know how it goes!
 
They are correct. Zoa's are ht or miss. They drive me crazy! You can have them it a dirty unkempt take and they thrive and then another tank with perfect parameters and never get them to grove well and just melt away. What's really infuriating is watching as they take turns. Having some colonies do horrible while at the same time, others doing great. A few months later, they switch. The good goes bad and the bad opens up like never before. A part of the is each zoa has different requirements and they can just be little asshats. I strongly believe you are going to have much more potential with t5 lights than LED's.
 
Leicester56 said:
Hi,
this is my first journey into the saltwater world. Just set up a 40 gallon breeder with 45lbs. Live cured rock and a 20 gallon long DIY sump (contains reef octopus 110 skimmer and soon to be used Refugium) chambers. It has only been up and running for about 5 days. I was originally shooting for a FOWLR tank but am considering adding Zoas colonies after well cycled and some fish are in. I have a hard time finding info regarding lighting options for this size tank if Zoas are the only non-fish/invert inhabitants of the tank. I currently have a 36 inch T5HO ballast with one 10,000k and one actinic bulb with a total of 76 watts. Due to the width of the tank and the narrow ballast there is quite a bit of variance in light intensity in the very front and very back of the tank. Thoughts? Any other info regarding general Zoa care welcome. Cheers!
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36" T5 bulbs are generally 39watts a bulb so should be 78 watts total. You may want to double check and see what bulbs and fixture you have. You will want to probably run about 4 bulbs over a 40br tank.

If your looking for zoa's and frags I have 1,000's of them at my store.
 
Hi! Thanks for the advice. If I were to switch to an LED set-up for a 40 gallon breeder with the intention of adding Zoas, do you have a suggestion regarding make/model? Where is your store? I would love to check them out! Any chance you also carry black clownfish? Cheers!
 
http://www.tcmas.org/v4/forums/showthread.php?57808-acharpenter-s-quot-Latest-quot-40-breeder-build
This thread has some good info for you on lighting as Angie has been testing a few different set ups.


My tank has the same footprint as a 40br. I currently use an aqua illumination hydra and 2 36" t5 strips. I really like the combo and as many people have stated before there are benefits to each.

As I said before I really think you should look into led strip lights. Keep your 2 bulb t5s. Add two led strips and see what happens. Could even get some ramping going on with all of the different lights.

And with zoas it's all about the colors. LEDs will amaze you. I live in Minneapolis and you can stop by to see my set it if you'd like! Lots of zoas in my tank
 
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Leicester56 said:
Hi! Thanks for the advice. If I were to switch to an LED set-up for a 40 gallon breeder with the intention of adding Zoas, do you have a suggestion regarding make/model? Where is your store? I would love to check them out! Any chance you also carry black clownfish? Cheers!
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My store is in Mankato, MN

Otherwise you can see our website for the equipment we carry in stock also: www.fragtasticreef.com
 
Hi guys! So after some research I decided on a maxspect razor LED fixture, 16,000, 120w. I like that it has a built in programmer and seems to be getting decent reviews at a fairly modest price.
 
Leicester56 said:
Hi guys! So after some research I decided on a maxspect razor LED fixture, 16,000, 120w. I like that it has a built in programmer and seems to be getting decent reviews at a fairly modest price.
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If you need to purchase one I have them new and will give you a sweet deal on one. Just let me know if your interested.
 
I already ordered it prior to posting. :( I will absolutely visit your store for frags once things have matured a bit in my tank, though!!!
 
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