natalia_la_loca Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 5/28/15 5/3/15 4/3/15 3/31/15 2/17/15 1/1/15 5/3/14 5/3/14 4/19/14 side 4/19/14 4/6/14 rastas and ring of fire ultra rastas foreground, ring of fire in background Couple of close-ups 3/25/14 3/18/14 Original post: Hi everyone. I'm trying my hand at a zoa garden in a Nuvo 8 that I set up on New Year's Day 2014. The tank was a Craigslist score for cheap, yay Build specs: Tank Nuvo 8 Filtration InTank media basket with lignite carbon, Phosguard Filter floss (poly quilt batting from fabric store) removed and discarded weekly picO skim 2.0 Lighting Stock light on timer. NANOBOX WITH STORM CONTROLLER [FWIW, tank also receives sunlight through a window for an hour or two in the morning] Water movement Stock pump Mini-jet 3/10/14 Cobalt MJ600 5/29/14 Heat Cobalt Neotherm 50W Fish (updated 1/22/15) 3 greenbanded gobies, Elacatinus multifasciatus One jumped, two vanished No fish now. Zoas/palys (updated 3/4/15) Blondies CGA splattered melons Daisy dukes Fire & ice Fruit Loops Glitches Green bay packers "JF bozos" (or emeralds on fire) LC petroglyphs Oompa Loompas Pink rainbows Rastas Red people eaters Ring of fire Sunny Ds Super saiyans "Twilight zone" caribbean zoas UC eagle eyes Ultra rastas Vice zoas Whammin watermelons Wobbegongs X-mens About ten different no-name morphs Couple of blue shrooms I used dry Marco Rock, cut in slabs (going for a sort of a modernish look), and seeded it with a handful of live sand. I started stocking in early February with a few zoas from my seahorse tank, and added a few more frags last weekend. The plan for this system is zoas only, with a couple of shrooms. No fish. I'm changing 2.5 gallons every two weeks. Until mid-February, I was only doing mechanical filtration with filter floss, which I changed out and threw away weekly. I finally started to see a few wisps of hair algae, so I added carbon and phosguard in an In-Tank media basket and have added a little turbo snail. I have a fuge basket and am thinking of running chaeto with an Auqa Gadget fuge light. Because this will be a fishless tank, I'm wondering how I should handle feeding. I've read good things about Coral Frenzy and aminos. Would love advice on what to feed, how much and how often! First crappy shot, day 1 Last weekend, with zoas Link to comment
Dark_ice Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 what type of zoas do you have? i seen the pics but was looking for some ID's. also lets get some lunar light pics! following along to see this tank comes along. Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted February 20, 2014 Author Share Posted February 20, 2014 lol, I knew someone would ask that, I'm terrible with zoa names These are their names (betcha can't guess which ones I made up): Green Bay Packers Twilight Zone Miami Vice Fire and ice Rastas Zoas with Sweet Orange Skirt and Nuclear Green Eyes Palys with Yellow Specks Palys with Orange Skirt and Blue Eyes I'll try to get some lunar pics. All I have to work with is an iphone Link to comment
Dark_ice Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 lol, I knew someone would ask that, I'm terrible with zoa names These are their names (betcha can't guess which ones I made up): Green Bay Packers Twilight Zone Miami Vice Fire and ice Rastas Zoas with Sweet Orange Skirt and Nuclear Green Eyes Palys with Yellow Specks Palys with Orange Skirt and Blue Eyes I'll try to get some lunar pics. All I have to work with is an iphone lol those last three. and yea lunar and iphones dont mix lol Link to comment
Mirya Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 I like your take on "modern" rock scape. Can't wait to see this tank grown in! Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted February 20, 2014 Author Share Posted February 20, 2014 I like your take on "modern" rock scape. Can't wait to see this tank grown in! Me neither! I have to restrain myself from looking at it every ten minutes and scrutinizing everything. We'll see how it goes. By the way, I love and am following your mini flower garden!!! Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted February 21, 2014 Author Share Posted February 21, 2014 Everyone's doing fine so far. I added a tiny pinch of Coral Frenzy and a few drops of Aquavitro Fuel the other day, and thought I saw a few tentacles grab some food. The turbo annihilated what little hair algae there was. A blue leg hermit is helping keep house. I just spotted a tiny aiptasia on one of the palys. Would I throw off the alkalinity in such a small tank if I killed it with kalk paste? I could also use a lighter. It's on the lower part of a frag plug, so I should be able to torch it without hurting the palys. Here's a close-up of the rastas and one other type of zoa...I believe the nice vendor at the frag swap (who reminded me a little of Skinny Pete from Breaking Bad, which will hopefully be taken as a compliment) called them Ring of Fire...all I know is, they glow like crazy under every kind of light. And a craptastic iphone shot under moonlights...this is about as good as it's gonna get until I get a better camera. But look at that ring of fire!!! Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted February 22, 2014 Author Share Posted February 22, 2014 Tonight I transferred another colony from my seahorse tank to the Nuvo. (The official name of this color morph is Man in the Blue Flannel Suit.) They lost some of their color when I upgraded the lighting on the seahorse tank, so hopefully they'll color back up under the less powerful lights in the Nuvo. Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 Yesterday I pulled out the paly with the aiptasia on it and torched the aiptasia with a lighter. I also noticed that the frag had a tiny bit of hair algae, so I hit it with 18% hydrogen peroxide followed by a toothbrush. The polyps were not pleased with me about that, but they were wide open again by evening. My "fire and ice" zoa has been closing up on me the last several days, and on closer inspection I saw it has some brown hydroids. Yesterday I did an iodine dip (Seachem Reef Dip) per manufacturer instructions. If they're not gone tonight I may frag off the zoas and toss the rock. I don't want them to spread. Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted February 25, 2014 Author Share Posted February 25, 2014 Last night the hydroids were still there, so I removed the frag and hit it direct with 18% peroxide. Harsh, but I'm not taking chances with hydroids. I tried manual removal with tweezers, but there are a lot of them on the frag and they're really small. They are also closely packed in among the zoa polyps, so fragging does not seem to be a viable option. This AM the zoas are closed up tight but appear to be still alive...no visible hydroids...fingers crossed. Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted February 27, 2014 Author Share Posted February 27, 2014 Zoas still closed two days later, but they're not melting either. Still no hydroids. I see some little specks here and there on the frag and on the bases of the zoa that may or may not be closed hydroids...they're hard to see in this crap photo. Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 Still no hydroids, but the fire & ice zoas are still closed and look like they are starting to erode...ruh roh. Going to pick up some Furan 2 today. Also noticed a couple new strands of hair algae today...will get out the H202 again if the turbo doesn't get them first. Everyone else looks great. The rastas and ring of fire had some baby bumps when I got them...they are now babies Aaaaand the other day I got a new colony at the LFS...the official name for these is Flying Spaghetti Sauce Monsters Usual apologies for crap photos... Link to comment
Dark_ice Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 move the fire and ice to a really shaded area Link to comment
1.0reef Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Nice, however those spaghetti monsters look like normal eagle eyes/whammin watermelons, a very common variant. Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 That's quite possible, because I made up the name Flying Spaghetti Sauce Monsters move the fire and ice to a really shaded area Thanks dark_ice, will do. Link to comment
1.0reef Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 It is a good one, just don't sell it under that name, names for zoas are already confusing. Naming one variant multiple names makes it worse.... Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 I know, I was just playing. I find the names super confusing. I just pick them on color. Link to comment
Dark_ice Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 i like it when the same zoa has multiple names and depending on the name it sells more. like a CAR then a UCAR Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 Exactly. It's so ridiculous. But it's human nature to slap an arbitrary label on something and charge a premium price based on the label.... Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 Yesterday I did a feeding followed by a 2.5 gallon water change. Tiny pinch of Coral Frenzy in a cup of tank water, shake well, turn off pumps, target feed VERY gently with turkey baster. After shaking the food/water mix, I let it sit for a couple of minutes to allow larger particles to settle to the bottom, as the zoas/palys only seem to respond to the really small stuff. Let sit for 30 minutes, let it run with pump for another 30 minutes with filter media removed, then did water change and added filter media back in. No idea whether this was really ideal for the zoas, but they seemed to appreciate it. I saw tentacles reaching for mouths... Everyone looking happy, except the fire & ice (still closed, still no hydroid reappearance). The rocks are getting a light green biofilm, but no further hair algae so far. Because the fire & ice was showing tissue loss, I've done Furan 2 dips on it during the last couple of days. Tissue loss seems to have slowed or stopped. Will do one more dip and then let it rest for a week and see what happens. Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 After day 2 of treating the fire & ice with furan 2, several polyps finally started to open, and after the third day, they opened a little further. However, a few of the polyps do seem to be necrotic. They're kind of grayish black and flaky. It's unfortunate to lose a few zoas, but there is still no recurrence of hydroids. Link to comment
Dark_ice Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 losing some is better than losing all, i just went though a tank switch and currently unsure about half of them :/ can be so stressful Link to comment
natalia_la_loca Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 losing some is better than losing all, i just went though a tank switch and currently unsure about half of them :/ can be so stressful So true. OMG looking at your Legendary Corals link...I know where I'm going shopping next Zoas you say... Funny you should pop in Was just checking out your candy store Link to comment
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