Zoanthids Only *Going for an upgrade*

[anemone fan]

Thinking about changing it to a zoa tank. Need a new light source. Suggestions?

 

UPDATE:

11/26: added a Yasha Goby, purty but shy.

12/14: added a candy cane pistol for the yasha, they paired up in 10 minutes.

1/11: haven't seen the pistol in a while

2/19: broke down tank and moved critters to 20L

 

FTS: None

 

Equipment:

5.5 AGA

Koralia Nano

75W Stealth Pro

12W PC 6500K/Actinic

 

Livestock: None

[animalmaster6]

Just started up a 5.5 gallon Anyone have any suggestions for a small reef safe fish for the tank, remember size and that there will be corals and snails for cleaning and tons of food/water changing for the non-photos.

Try to get a Bryaninops yongei. They are amazing but need NPS and gorgonians. One would be very, very interesting to see. The only problem with them is they are to find.

 

Trimma and Eviota gobies are awesome, as are Greenbanded Gobies and Flaming Prawn Gobies. ORA Tiger Gobies are interesting.

[owlbassboy]

are you going to have any lighting for viewing?

[anemone fan]

Try to get a Bryaninops yongei. They are amazing but need NPS and gorgonians. One would be very, very interesting to see. The only problem with them is they are to find.

 

Trimma and Eviota gobies are awesome, as are Greenbanded Gobies and Flaming Prawn Gobies. ORA Tiger Gobies are interesting.

Do the Bryaninops yongei eat the NPS or need it for habitat, if they are munching on it, then no. All these gobies look neat. So a goby is probably the best fit then? My girlfriend is going to be picking the fish, but I'll try to steer her towards certain fish. Would a goby/shrimp pair be out of the question?

 

are you going to have any lighting for viewing?

I have a hood/integrated light for the tank which takes a 25W (max) tube fluorescent. I should see if I can find myself a CF that fits that, I may end up putting some zoanthids on the top of the rock cave if I can, my LFS has some blue zoanthids that look awesome.

[fearofablackmetalplanet]

digging the stonehenge look of your 'scape! so cool!

im interested in how this turns out! keep us updated and take pics when you get it going!

[bitts]

pulling up a chair.

[animalmaster6]

Do the Bryaninops yongei eat the NPS or need it for habitat, if they are munching on it, then no. All these gobies look neat. So a goby is probably the best fit then? My girlfriend is going to be picking the fish, but I'll try to steer her towards certain fish. Would a goby/shrimp pair be out of the question?

 

They eat the bottom below the branch tip, doesn't seem to bother the coral.

They only host Black corals of the genus Cirripathes BTW.

 

A goby is definetly the best choice.

 

You could probably do a smaller shrimp goby pair like a Hi Fin Red Banded Goby with a Red banded Pistol Shrimp or a Yasha Goby with a Red Banded Pistol Shrimp.

[anemone fan]

They eat the bottom below the branch tip, doesn't seem to bother the coral.

They only host Black corals of the genus Cirripathes BTW.

 

A goby is definetly the best choice.

 

You could probably do a smaller shrimp goby pair like a Hi Fin Red Banded Goby with a Red banded Pistol Shrimp or a Yasha Goby with a Red Banded Pistol Shrimp.

 

I was thinking goby, and the girlfriend is a fan, saw some "candycane gobies" at the LFS, perhaps one of those would be appropriate. I don't know, with only 5 gallons, if I'll have any really tough NPCs such as black coral, they would seem to need more space to be healthy. Here are some pictures of two octocorals that are going in my tank when the cycle is near completion, they are hanging out in a cave in my 20L.

 

An unidentified aphotosynthetic octocoral (any IDs appreciated)

 

Chili coral (anyone want to ID the species)

[animalmaster6]

Pretty neat corals. I love NPS.

 

Trimma canna? That's an awesome species. Can't go wrong with a group of them.

[anemone fan]

Pretty neat corals. I love NPS.

 

Trimma canna? That's an awesome species. Can't go wrong with a group of them.

 

Group? In a 5.5? Those aren't stony corals, they are soft corals (octocorallians, eight branched tentacles).

[animalmaster6]

Group? In a 5.5? Those aren't stony corals, they are soft corals (octocorallians, eight branched tentacles).

I know they are soft corals I just said "corals".

 

Yeah you could do a small group.

[anemone fan]

What about a seahorse, I haven't done any research, at all, but what would I need and would the seahorse be strong enough to swim against a koralia nano?

[animalmaster6]

Seahorses need very low flow. What species? Koralia Nanos have decent flow right? THis tank is small too so I think the flow would be a little too strong

[anemone fan]

I don't want one, my girlfriend does, all I needed to hear was it wouldn't work. The nano puts out 205 gph I think. That's a 37 times volume turnover. Didn't do the math before, but that will be good for a high flow NPC tank. Need to test the params soon to see where I am in the cycle. Do you think I'll need a CUC without a light source, or should I just place my mystery octocoral in and see what happens? Any suggestions for getting the sand that is floating in the surface tension?

[anemone fan]

 

Would the addition of more live rock be cool? Pretend the grey blocks are LR (Adding on to the stonehenge).

[igotreefermadness]

I think it would look good, but you would overshadow a lot of tank space. I'd just be worried about it looking like it was put together ya know.

[anemone fan]

I think it would look good, but you would overshadow a lot of tank space. I'd just be worried about it looking like it was put together ya know.

 

Put together? With a non-photosynthetic tank as much space and light doesn't matter. I can see fine under the rock now and it won't get any darker. Lots of NPC like hanging from the underside of rocks, look at ocean reef caves. It allows them to be larger without having an actual calcium carbonate skeleton like LPS and SPS.

[animalmaster6]

I don't want one, my girlfriend does, all I needed to hear was it wouldn't work. The nano puts out 205 gph I think. That's a 37 times volume turnover. Didn't do the math before, but that will be good for a high flow NPC tank. Need to test the params soon to see where I am in the cycle. Do you think I'll need a CUC without a light source, or should I just place my mystery octocoral in and see what happens? Any suggestions for getting the sand that is floating in the surface tension?

Definetly too much flow for a seahorse IMO.

 

I would definetly still do a clean up crew. Detritus and things will still grow, as will algae. Clean up crews are important even if there is not any light.

 

Maybe adjust the Nano's positioning a little bit to get rid of the sand?

 

 

Would the addition of more live rock be cool? Pretend the grey blocks are LR (Adding on to the stonehenge).

Loved it originally, lvoe it even more now.

[anemone fan]

I would definetly still do a clean up crew. Detritus and things will still grow, as will algae. Clean up crews are important even if there is not any light.

What to get then, perhaps a cerith or two? Brittlestars and copepods as well as worms will take care of detritus, I've always thought of hermit crabs as more trouble than anything.

 

Maybe adjust the Nano's positioning a little bit to get rid of the sand?

Are we talking about the sand on top of the rock, I need to bring a pipette home from the lab to blow it off. I think I'm going to angle the nano a little higher and left (from the front) so that it will keep stuff from settling up there. Do you think zoanthids would live well off of a PC if they were placed on the top of the rock or do you think I should make this a strict NPC?

 

 

Loved it originally, lvoe it even more now.

[animalmaster6]

What to get then, perhaps a cerith or two? Brittlestars and copepods as well as worms will take care of detritus, I've always thought of hermit crabs as more trouble than anything.

 

 

Are we talking about the sand on top of the rock, I need to bring a pipette home from the lab to blow it off. I think I'm going to angle the nano a little higher and left (from the front) so that it will keep stuff from settling up there. Do you think zoanthids would live well off of a PC if they were placed on the top of the rock or do you think I should make this a strict NPC?

 

 

 

The micro brittle stars on ReefScavengers are great for the sand. Amphipods and Copepods are great too. Believe it or not, bristleworms are excellent clean up crew members, I don't trust them when they get big though.

Dwarf Ceriths are great. For the algae get some Nerites. Theya re awesome. I love Turbos but in a tank this size they'll plow everything!

 

Zoas will probably do well under PC's. You should make this completely NPS IMO and put some zoas in your 20 gallon but it's your decision

[anemone fan]

The micro brittle stars on ReefScavengers are great for the sand. Amphipods and Copepods are great too. Believe it or not, bristleworms are excellent clean up crew members, I don't trust them when they get big though.

Dwarf Ceriths are great. For the algae get some Nerites. Theya re awesome. I love Turbos but in a tank this size they'll plow everything!

 

They don't sell microbrittle stars, I have a few in my 20L, hopefully they will reproduce and I'll have more, the pods will be from my older tank, I have a ton of copepods and a few amphipods (I'll probably bring a LR home and let in sit in the tank for a week to let them go all throughout my tank). To the best of my knowledge I don't have bristleworms, at least I haven't seen any yet. I've seen dwarf ceriths before, but never nerites, aren't they intertidal? I'm a big fan of trochus snails, I may just end up transporting snails from one tank to the other if the algae ever gets out of hand, my guess with not very strong bulbs is, it won't.

[animalmaster6]

Sorry, not ReefScavengers, it's IPSF http://ipsf.com/

 

They are great for seeding a tank.

 

Not sure if ceriths are intertidal, I know is they are fantastic claeners.

 

Trochus' are great too.

[anemone fan]

Checked the params: what a quick cycle.

 

Sal: 1.023

Ammonia: <<0.25 ppm maybe?

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 10 ppm

 

If I remember, I'll go to the lab and pick up one of my two corals for the tank!!!

[animalmaster6]

Can't wait to see the corals. Where is your lab?

[anemone fan]

Can't wait to see the corals. Where is your lab?

 

The lab is at the University of New Hampshire, I work on an invasive sea anemone. My first NPO (non-photosynthetic organism) as I am now going to call them. Anyone have an ID? BTW, updated FTS in OP.