A
Anonymous
Guest
I'm in the process of using a tank and making it a zoo only tank (although knowing me I'll throw in a fish or two). I want to kind of fiddle with a few things
1) growing out zoanthids from people nice enough to give me a couple heads for trade or giveaways at local swaps or anyone willing to pay shipping (not for profit though)
2) experimenting with different types of mounting surfaces and compare growth rates how quickly they spread out, surfaces like live rock, pvc pipe, acrylic, eggcrate plastic, to kind of get an idea for how readily they attach and propagate. I'll really try to do this semi-scientifically (atleast until I get bored) and document various results
Now I'm curious what would be the best setup for this in the various ways. The tank will be a 30g tank, approx dimensions are 36L x 15W x 16H (which upon remeasuring seems to be 38g?). I'm going to run this as a single tank, no sump/refugium or anything else hanging off the side or anything, this is going to be a quiet tank with none of that nonsense.
Substrate: Sand or No sand? I really want to stay away from a DSB(mostly due to lack of sand), but I realize softies like a little more "dirty" of an area(ie food), plus I hope to get some pods going on here without predation (other than the corals, or until I inevitably get bored and put a cute little fish in there ) .
Filtration: Since there (atleast initially) will be no fish or anything I'm hoping my bioload will be low enough that I won't need a skimmer, unfortunately I know the dirty (no pun) truth that the zoanthids will require food of some sort that will probably extend beyond the ability for the pods to procreate and feed them (not to mention they need food to go on too!) so might need some sort of skimming, and I have a CPR bakpak skimmer that I could use as a skimmer. Just curious what thoughts others might have here maybe a HOB whisper/pengiun type filter or what not (something cheap).
Waterflow: I have two ideas on this matter (or a combo of both) one is using a Seio620 I have collecting dust.. I figure that thing would be more than enough flowwise, just over 15x the water and its diffuse enough that nothing we get blasted. Another idea is a closed loop where the pump sits inside the tank, and then just use pvc pipe along the ground with various tees to shoot water angled out at various locations which could be nice with the overall theme of trying to grow zoos on the piping to cover it up etc, the problem with this though is that I'm a tad worried about the pump vibrations that would occur for a pump of similar volume (600gph range) especially since it'll be hooked to piping that would vibrate as well.
Lighting: I was thinking of going with some T5 lights, unfortunately that'd cost me a few bucks to buy the bulbs or the ballast/bulb assembly, and I do have some 55w/65w PC bulbs sitting around (in 10kK and Actinic variety) which are cheaper, although the issue is the odd size 22" long, so I'd have to stagger them. I originally was thinking 1-55w 10000k bulb and 1-65w actinic, but I'm thinking maybe 2-55w bulbs would be better. The PC bulbs would require me to hook up some sort of canopy as well, T5 bulbs would end up costing me $50 for a 78 watt setup (36" long), but they have "blue" bulbs, and that doesn't fluoresce for sh**.
Rocks: Well I have plenty of live rock (or atleast was at one time) cooking in bins on my porch (even has heat in there! just no light), but I dont want to just cram the tank full of rock, because I dont want a full reef tank I want a zoanthid growing tank. So thinking a 1 or 2 larger pieces, and maybe a few smaller ones.
Feeding: Any ideas on what to feed? Phyto/cyclopeze/rotifers/what? And how often?
So I'd appreciate any comments, advice whatever any can give. Right now I'm not really commited to anything except the tank and the location, and the fact this is a zoo growout area.
1) growing out zoanthids from people nice enough to give me a couple heads for trade or giveaways at local swaps or anyone willing to pay shipping (not for profit though)
2) experimenting with different types of mounting surfaces and compare growth rates how quickly they spread out, surfaces like live rock, pvc pipe, acrylic, eggcrate plastic, to kind of get an idea for how readily they attach and propagate. I'll really try to do this semi-scientifically (atleast until I get bored) and document various results
Now I'm curious what would be the best setup for this in the various ways. The tank will be a 30g tank, approx dimensions are 36L x 15W x 16H (which upon remeasuring seems to be 38g?). I'm going to run this as a single tank, no sump/refugium or anything else hanging off the side or anything, this is going to be a quiet tank with none of that nonsense.
Substrate: Sand or No sand? I really want to stay away from a DSB(mostly due to lack of sand), but I realize softies like a little more "dirty" of an area(ie food), plus I hope to get some pods going on here without predation (other than the corals, or until I inevitably get bored and put a cute little fish in there ) .
Filtration: Since there (atleast initially) will be no fish or anything I'm hoping my bioload will be low enough that I won't need a skimmer, unfortunately I know the dirty (no pun) truth that the zoanthids will require food of some sort that will probably extend beyond the ability for the pods to procreate and feed them (not to mention they need food to go on too!) so might need some sort of skimming, and I have a CPR bakpak skimmer that I could use as a skimmer. Just curious what thoughts others might have here maybe a HOB whisper/pengiun type filter or what not (something cheap).
Waterflow: I have two ideas on this matter (or a combo of both) one is using a Seio620 I have collecting dust.. I figure that thing would be more than enough flowwise, just over 15x the water and its diffuse enough that nothing we get blasted. Another idea is a closed loop where the pump sits inside the tank, and then just use pvc pipe along the ground with various tees to shoot water angled out at various locations which could be nice with the overall theme of trying to grow zoos on the piping to cover it up etc, the problem with this though is that I'm a tad worried about the pump vibrations that would occur for a pump of similar volume (600gph range) especially since it'll be hooked to piping that would vibrate as well.
Lighting: I was thinking of going with some T5 lights, unfortunately that'd cost me a few bucks to buy the bulbs or the ballast/bulb assembly, and I do have some 55w/65w PC bulbs sitting around (in 10kK and Actinic variety) which are cheaper, although the issue is the odd size 22" long, so I'd have to stagger them. I originally was thinking 1-55w 10000k bulb and 1-65w actinic, but I'm thinking maybe 2-55w bulbs would be better. The PC bulbs would require me to hook up some sort of canopy as well, T5 bulbs would end up costing me $50 for a 78 watt setup (36" long), but they have "blue" bulbs, and that doesn't fluoresce for sh**.
Rocks: Well I have plenty of live rock (or atleast was at one time) cooking in bins on my porch (even has heat in there! just no light), but I dont want to just cram the tank full of rock, because I dont want a full reef tank I want a zoanthid growing tank. So thinking a 1 or 2 larger pieces, and maybe a few smaller ones.
Feeding: Any ideas on what to feed? Phyto/cyclopeze/rotifers/what? And how often?
So I'd appreciate any comments, advice whatever any can give. Right now I'm not really commited to anything except the tank and the location, and the fact this is a zoo growout area.
