Custom 20g Zoa Garden

[NYfishies]

 

Hi all,

 

Brief update on the tank.  Things are going well.  I was having various hair algae issues due to high nutrients from over feeding so I added a dozen blue legged hermits and a few snails and they are getting the job done.  Still dealing with high PO4 @ 0.30 ppm so working to bring that down by cutting back on the frozen food and holding off on feeding reef roids for a few weeks.  I also read about potassium feeding hair algae so I suspended dosing Potassion.  

 

I have added some dry rock to the frag tank in place of half the racks and started to grow out other corals besides zoas.  This is in preparation for a larger tank that I am planning in the next year or so.  

 

All the fishies are alive and loving life.  It is nearly impossible to keep all of the zoas open and happy at the same time, but even if they are half open the tank is still and amazing splash of colors!

 

 

 

 

[DaveFason]

Great update and the tank is looking so much better. I need to make a NY trip to film everyones tanks!

[NYfishies]

Update on the tank:

 

At nearly 4 years old, things are going well and the tank is mainly happy.  A few weeks ago I added a dozen small blue legged hermits and several snails to combat what was becoming a hair algae issue.  Together with lowering NO3/PO4, the new CUC for the most part took care of the algae and hopefully will keep things under control going forward.  I have given up on trying to combat these types of problems with chemicals and prefer finding natural fixes so I added the CUC and now do weekly water changes.  I did add some of Brightwell's Xport PO4 cubes to assist - the verdict is still out on those.

 

I continue to fight with hydroids.  I am not sure which type they are, but I do not believe they are Digitate Hydroids as they are all short.  Below is a pic (not mine) of what they look like for reference.  These little buggers sting the zoas and as a result they close while the palys do not seem to mind them.  I read that hydroids will come and go and there is not much one can do about them besides putty/superglue.  I have been using superglue for months now and remain optimistic that I can beat them eventually.

 

Has anybody tried using Hydrogen Peroxide to kill hydroids?  I technically could pull out every rock (each containing dozens of zoa colonies) in my tank and dip the whole rock, zoas and all?

 

 

 

I am just shy of 100 different variations of zoas and palys.  

 

 

ACC Blue Birds
Adonis Maul
Afterburners
Alien Anti-Venom
Artemis
Awesome Blossoms
Bam Bams
Beauty and the Beast
BigR Jawbreaker Vamp
Blonde Blue Eyed Bitches
Blowpops 
Blue Hornets
Blue Lagoon
Bowsers
Bowtie Blaster
Butt Kissers
CB Galactic Space Monster
CB Yellow Jacket
Darth Maul
DC Full Metal Bursts 
Dexter Date
Emeralds on Fire
Fairy Fart
Fairy Tales
Fizzy Lizzys
Flaming Dalmation
GB Rainbow Troll
Goblins on Fire
Gold Maul
Green Bay Packers
Hallucinations
Hooters 
Iron Fist
JF Acid Reflux
JF Blood Pirate
JF Rainbow Infusions
Jungle Juice/Juicy Fruit
Keds Reds
KGB
KH Sunburst
King Midas
LA Lakers
LC Petroglyths
Mandarin Oranges
Mega Marleys
Miami Vice
Moneyshot/Hyper Jubilee
Nirvana
Oxides
Pink Hallucination
Pink Hippo
Pink Zipper 
Purple Rainbow
Purple Sticky Punch
Radioactive Dragon Eyes
Rainbow Hornets
Rainbow Incinerators
Rainbow Maul
Red Death
Red Hornets
RR Pink Diamonds
RR Promethazine
RTA Alkatraz
SC Playboy Bunny
Scrambled Eggs
Solar Fusion
Speckled Fire & Ice
Speckled Krackatoa
Stawberry Wine
Sunny D's
Super Mauls
Super Saiyans
TGC Clown Shoes
TGC League of Justice
TGC Radioactive Sherberts
TGC Sacred Hearts
TGC Star Trails
Treehouse of Horror
Treehouse on Fire
Tremor 
Tutti Frutti 
Tyree Rastas
UC Cali Dreams
UFOs
Ultra Chaos
Ultra Gobbstoppers
Utter Chaos
Vulcan Blood 
White Walker
WWC Halle Barry
WWC Mambo Jambo
WWC Purple Monster
WWC Space Monster
WWC Spellbinder
WWC Superstar
Yellow Brick Roads
Yellow Jawbreaker Hornets
Yellow Submarine

Current Tank Parameters:

 

Alkalinity @ 7-7.5 dKH

Calcium @ 460 ppm

Magnesium @ ~1600 ppm

PO4 @ 0.16 ppm

NO3 @ <2 ppm

Salinity @ 1.026

pH @ 8.3-8.6

Temp @ 78°

 

Feeding/Dosing Schedule:

 

I stopped dosing any elements that I cannot test accurately such as Iodine, Potassium and Strontium.  Instead, I rely on good salt and weekly water changes to replenish trace elements such as these as well as keeping Magnesium in balance.

 

I cut back significantly feeding corals Reef Roids and Reef Chili as this also feeds hydroids and vermetid snails.  

 

I use the DOS for Brightwell's Alkalin 8.3 and Calcion.

 

I manually dose Vitamarin-C weekly and Amino Acids every 3-5 days.  

 

Perhaps one of the more enjoyable aspects to the tank as of lately, besides my hand off approach, has been loading up the frag tank.  My mixed reef is in a holding state and I have not added any corals to it for over a year.  I will eventually break the tank down and give in to the battle I have fought for over 4 years with the brown polyp coral from hell.  Instead, I have been slowly acquiring some nice pieces and growing out in the zoa frag tank.  When we move to a larger apartment the plan is for a new much larger tank!

 

Here is what I have so far:

 

JF Dayglo Favia
JF Beach Bum Montipora Palawensis
WWC Skittles Bomb Cyphastrea
RC Sunburst Rainbow Bounce / Gonzo’s Golden Dragon
UC Blue Polka Dot Bikini
Jason Fox Jack- O- Lantern Leptoseris
ORA Kelly Green Psammocora
WWC Bizarro Cyphastrea
Facination Favia

Red Montipora Setosa

Orange Ricordea Mushroom

 

[PaulKendrick]

looks nicee

[NYfishies]

Appreciate it!  Here are some updated FTS.

 

 

 

[tgore]

Have you found any solution to your issue with the hydroids?

 

[Reefkid88]

I used peroxide on them but they eventually came back,but it took some time to do so. 

[BlennyBoi]

nice tank!

[skyscraper2290]

I don’t know how i haven’t seen your tank before, it’s beautiful! Love all the zoas, definitely some of my favorite corals. You have quite the collection!

[Frag Factory]

That's one of the best zoa collections I've ever seen. Absolutely epic!

[NYfishies]

On 10/16/2018 at 6:31 PM, tgore said:

Have you found any solution to your issue with the hydroids?

 

 

No I have not.  The only fix I have found is to smoother them with super glue.  The 100% peroxide dip for 1 minute did not kill them and as Reekkid said they came back.

 

Otherwise the tank is doing well.  I have been traveling all of October so have been very hands off.  I have lost a few zoas, including my colony of spek kraks.  I cant think of any reason for them melting other than... well that is what they do!

 

I think I will not buy any more zoas for a while and see how the tank does with only water changes. 

 

I appreciate all of the kind comments!

[NYfishies]

A few pics I took last night during a water change using the TruVu lens.  It works pretty well, although the lens could stand to be a bit larger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for following!

[skyscraper2290]

Looks amazing! I’m jealous you get to stare at that everyday haha

[Firefish15]

Wow, that's quite the menagerie! 

[NYfishies]

1 hour ago, skyscraper2290 said:

Looks amazing! I’m jealous you get to stare at that everyday haha

Thanks!  I love watching the zoas grow, but it is hard to also watch many of them melt knowing there isn't much I can do to save them.  I lost my colony of Hallucinations and my colony of Spek Kraks this month. 

 

51 minutes ago, Firefish15 said:

Wow, that's quite the menagerie! 

Haha thanks!

[vlangel]

Your tank is stunning.  I never can keep zoas so I really appreciate looking at yours.

[NYfishies]

On 11/1/2018 at 7:14 AM, vlangel said:

Your tank is stunning.  I never can keep zoas so I really appreciate looking at yours.

Thanks!  That especially means a lot coming from a fellow Pittsburger!  I am originally from Irwin, PA and went to school at PITT.

[FlytheWMark]

I love this tank, just beautiful.  I'm sure you've posted this before (I'm too lazy to look 😉 ) but could you post your paramaters, lighting schedule, etc?  I know each tank is different but I've had varying luck with Zoa's.  Some of mine are multiplying, some look good but haven't spread and I've had a couple melt recently.  I have a recent addition of a beautiful pink one that added 3 heads in the last month, all of them are bright pink but the original head has lost alot of it's pink and I'm wondering if I'm doing anything wrong.

 

Again love the tank!

[Christopher Marks]

Wow I can't believe it's almost been 4 years since it first began! It has really recovered beautifully since the setback, I can't believe you're to almost 100 different variations! 🍻

[vlangel]

46 minutes ago, NYfishies said:

Thanks!  That especially means a lot coming from a fellow Pittsburger!  I am originally from Irwin, PA and went to school at PITT.

I did not know that!  Cool, I went to school at GCC and then transferred to the Art Institute of Pgh.  I live in Gibsonia, which is the north hills area.

[NYfishies]

On 11/2/2018 at 3:24 PM, Mark L. said:

I love this tank, just beautiful.  I'm sure you've posted this before (I'm too lazy to look 😉 ) but could you post your paramaters, lighting schedule, etc?  I know each tank is different but I've had varying luck with Zoa's.  Some of mine are multiplying, some look good but haven't spread and I've had a couple melt recently.  I have a recent addition of a beautiful pink one that added 3 heads in the last month, all of them are bright pink but the original head has lost alot of it's pink and I'm wondering if I'm doing anything wrong.

 

Again love the tank!

Thanks!  I checked this past week and my parameters were as follows:

 

Alk 7 dKH

Ca 375 ppm

Mg 1600 ppm

PO4 0.21 ppm

NO3 <2 ppm

Salinity 35 ppm

 

Both Alk and Ca are being consumed more than i am dosing so i have increased the daily dosage.

 

My lights run for 11 hours a day.  I use a Nanobox DUO over the display and a Nanobox Mini over the frag tank and both run near max levels.

 

Zoas are very finicky and love consistency and not being bothered.  I have found the less i look at them the happier they are haha.

[teenyreef]

Zoas look great! Regarding the hydroids, I just came across a thread in another forum about using Fenbendazole to kill them. Just Google hydroids and Fenbendazole. I found Fish Bendazole on Amazon for a good price. 

[NYfishies]

10 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Zoas look great! Regarding the hydroids, I just came across a thread in another forum about using Fenbendazole to kill them. Just Google hydroids and Fenbendazole. I found Fish Bendazole on Amazon for a good price. 

 

Thanks Teeny.  Appreciate the compliment!  I have also read about Fen... I just don’t want to add anything to the tank at this point.  Seems the less I tend the better it is.  Have been gone from the apt the last 4 days and its cool to watch the pH, for instance, become very stable.  Ranging from 8.3 to 8.45.  I have to wonder, just Sarah and I breathing in the apartment must have a large effect on the water.  When I add something to such a small volume it clearly has drastic effects.  Sticking my hand in there to move rock around is probably not good in a 20 gallon tank with very delicate creatures.  

 

Lost several zoas as of late, ones that I knew would not last.  Hallucinations, Spek Kraks, Spellbinders, Strats, etc.  Happy to see so many others thrive.  Been focusing a lot on my next tank.  Happy to be able to keep a lot of non zoas in the frag tank right now.

[DaveFason]

Tank looks great Jonathan. Hoping to see this in person soon!