Sharbuckles Zoanthid Frag Tank

[Sharbuckle]

My girlfriend actually said yes to another aquarium!!!

Only one catch, has to be a frag tank.

Time to start planning..

Thinking about building an 18x18 AIO out of acrylic. I only want to grow zoas. Should I go t5 or led? Led would be nice and simple. I can just buy another AI Prime and have it running on my current schedule with my 29. But a small 2xt5ho fixture might really be all I need.

I have a few koralia nanos kicking around so flow is taken care of.

Realistically I've never built anything from acrylic so I might look for something already built. I only have about a 20x20 space to work with soooo

anyway

Here we go!

[Sharbuckle]

Did some shifting around which got me some extra space. So now ive got 18x25 space. Allows me to get a 24" t5. More options the better

[NanoReefer27]

T5 would probably be fine honestly, but it really is personal preference. LED would give you the option to grow other stuff though and you never know where this hobby takes us haha.

[Sharbuckle]

T5 would probably be fine honestly, but it really is personal preference. LED would give you the option to grow other stuff though and you never know where this hobby takes us haha.

Strictly zoanthid frag tank. I want to nail down the perfect conditions for zoanthid growth.

 

Ive had incredible success with zoas and t5 so im leaning that direction

[natalia_la_loca]

Planet Zoa had some articles about zoa lighting. They were using LEDs and stopped because they were getting better growth from either T5 or MH, I don't remember which.

[Sharbuckle]

Planet Zoa had some articles about zoa lighting. They were using LEDs and stopped because they were getting better growth from either T5 or MH, I don't remember which.

Thanks for the heads up! Really appreciate it

[teenyreef]

Good luck, I'll be following!

[Sharbuckle]

Good luck, I'll be following!

Thanks! Starting with looking for a light. There is a guy in town that does custom acrylic work. Going to contact him and get a price.

[Sharbuckle]

Found a coralife 2 bulb t5 fixture today locally for $20! Great deal. What kind of bulbs should I use, i thinking of just using a led strip for actinics.

 

Any suggestions on which 2 bulbs to run for zoanthid growth would be appreciated. ATI? Giessman? UVL?

[Red_Blenny]

I've been happy with ATI and Giessman bulbs. For a 2 bulb, I'd use ATI Blue Plus or Giesemann Actinic Blue and ATI Coral Plus or Giesemann Aquablue Coral.

 

There's a thread here about the bulb comparisons between ATI and Giessmans:

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/360936-giesemannati-t5-lamp-comparison-pics-par-and-a-whole-mess-of-data/

[nano_MC_reef]

i hope this turns out well i will definitely be following

[Sharbuckle]

I've been happy with ATI and Giessman bulbs. For a 2 bulb, I'd use ATI Blue Plus or Giesemann Actinic Blue and ATI Coral Plus or Giesemann Aquablue Coral.

 

There's a thread here about the bulb comparisons between ATI and Giessmans:

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/360936-giesemannati-t5-lamp-comparison-pics-par-and-a-whole-mess-of-data/

Thanks for the suggestions, I think im gonna go for ATI bulbs, the two you suggested. Picking up fixture this week. Gonna start planning the tank this week too.

 

Considering zoanthids like a "dirty" tank, should I go skimerless? I wont have room for a fuge so im thinking about running a small skimmer, maybe tunze 9001.

i hope this turns out well i will definitely be following

Thanks. Im hoping it turns out too!!

[Sharbuckle]

Long overdue update. Got a third AI prime for a future upgrade so in the mean time... Its going on the frag tank. Picked up some egg crate and a 15g long today. Just gotta get a heater and were off.

 

Spent about $200 on zoa colonies today too and some frag plugs to get this baby rolling. Pictures by the end of the week.

[Sharbuckle]

Some of the Zoanthids I picked up. Wonder if they have fancy names.

 

 

 

[Sharbuckle]

Should I add live rock to the frag tank? It wont be attached to my main system like I wanted so I suppose it needs enough rock to support itself.

[Sharbuckle]

Painted the background black. Deciding on how I want my crate set up. Dont think I want to make different levels. It will be just zoanthid/palys so no need for higher areas. Anyway. Will cut egg crate tomorrow.

Can you spot the puppy?

[Sharbuckle]

Went to go buy a heater today. Came home with more zoas and a phosphate test. This may take a while....

[Sharbuckle]

Making progress. Built my frag shelves today. Got superglue all over my hands in the process but it looks good. The rack is about 18" long. IMO the AI prime has a decent spread up to 18" so the empty space on the ledt will house some live rock.

 

[teenyreef]

Nice frag rack, it looks great!

 

I tried to run my little frag tank (it's a 4g AIO) bare bottom with just floss/carbon/gfo. The plan was to do frequent/large water changes. It should have worked great, but instead I had algae take over within a month. Nitrates and phosphates always read zero, of course.

 

I drained the tank, soaked it in bleach and scrubbed all the algae off. Then put some rubble rock in the bottom and refilled it, and added a few snails. No problems since. At least, none related to nutrients.

 

I wish it was completely empty because detritus tends to collect under the rubble, so I have to do more work to clean things out during water changes. But if I have to I just pull out the whole frag rack along with the rocks and suck everything up off the bottom of the tank during a water change.

[Sharbuckle]

Nice frag rack, it looks great!

 

I tried to run my little frag tank (it's a 4g AIO) bare bottom with just floss/carbon/gfo. The plan was to do frequent/large water changes. It should have worked great, but instead I had algae take over within a month. Nitrates and phosphates always read zero, of course.

 

I drained the tank, soaked it in bleach and scrubbed all the algae off. Then put some rubble rock in the bottom and refilled it, and added a few snails. No problems since. At least, none related to nutrients.

 

I wish it was completely empty because detritus tends to collect under the rubble, so I have to do more work to clean things out during water changes. But if I have to I just pull out the whole frag rack along with the rocks and suck everything up off the bottom of the tank during a water change.

Last thing I need is algae issues. Thanks for the advice teeny. I wonder if i should put a small layer of sand and throw in a few sand sifters to keep it mixed up. Original plan was to fill the bottom with rubble. A mixture of rubble and sand probably wont hurt.

[teenyreef]

I didn't do sand and I'm glad I didn't. I can completely clean out the tank by just putting the frags and rubble in a bucket.

[Dunlager]

You could use some marinepure blocks or spheres for your bio filtration.

[teenyreef]

You could use some marinepure blocks or spheres for your bio filtration.

If you do let me know how it works. I've been thinking about doing that too.

[Dunlager]

I have some in a media basket in my nuvo. For a frag tank all you would need to do is put a block or a bunch of spheres in and seed them with a little live rock. It's a great way to get a lot of bio filtration in a tiny package.

 

BRS has a video on setting up a frag system and they talk about using them.

[Sharbuckle]

No updates yet, probably two more weeks before this tank is up and cycling. However the zoanthid colonies that I purchased are growing quite well. I grow impatient.