Some Advice Needed For LPS, Zoa Tank

[gqlmao]

Hi,

I have noticed a slow decline in my zoas for the past month, they use to be big and colorful now they are shrunken, transparent at the skirts, 90 percent won't open up. The only zoas that opened up nicely and actually liked the conditions were the fruit loops, orange oxides, LA lakers and hornets. These are known to be in the shallower cleaner water regions, which made sense. I have been reading up on it and I came the conclusion it was my water parameters and the lights being too strong. The water parameter is catered to SPS and I currently had an 8 bulb ATI fixture over a 14" high tank. I couldn't strike a balance between the Zoas, and SPS so I decided to move them even though I didn't want a second tank since it takes away attention from my main tank.

I have transferred all my zoas and rics to my old 9 gallon tank last night, and they have now all opened up in an hour and they appeared to be open still when I left for work this morning.

I plan to make this a coral only tank to house zoas, rics and acans with no fish and if possible very little CUC. I only have about 3 lbs of live rock in the tank, I didn't want to put any more in due to space confinements. The tank will only run with the very basics, carbon, gfo, pump for circulation and a heater with a Radion for lighting.

I do not have much experience in all coral tank set ups, do you think the biological filtration of the small amounts of live rock will be adequate for a purely stocked coral tank with a medium to high coral load? I will be feeding Acan plus and LPS amino acids regularly, water change will be done using recycled water from my main tank and will be done around 30-40 percent a week or possibly more. In a nutshell do you think this is a viable solution for the long run?

Thanks!

[reefwars]

your off to the right start little buddy , told you this was prob your issue and its common for those with very low nutrients and very bright lights, at your tanks height there's alot of par at the glass bottom.

so if the other tank is for zoas only then i would thing low par lights that you can increase as things get use to it , you want sps quality water but not at the ulns range.

dip all new comers to the tank as zoas house pests very easily.

lower flow but something that is adjustable is ideal.

run gfo in a tlf reactor , no skimmer is required.

no fish are good but add a few small ones to help with tank duties.

do water changes from your sps tank is parameters arnt depleted to much.

cheers and glad they are looking up youve got quite the collection over the last while and spent alot of money so im glad you were able to figure this out

cheers

denny

[gqlmao]

Thanks for the help Denny, if I didn't talk to you on the weekend I wouldn't of swapped over to a different tank. I didn't want the zoas to suffer cause I my main focus SPS, I think it will be a lot better for them.

[reefwars]

dedicated tanks are always a bit easier to run and not so much having to keep a different group happy , i think this will work well for you.

the only downside i see is now you have two addictions lol zoas and sps...its like the worst two to get hooked on lol

[gqlmao]

Haha, I will always be an SPS junkie, though Zoas and Acans are second on my list. The only good thing about this tank is that its small. Can't fit too much inside so I am limited for now.

[gqlmao]

I made a mistake, I thought this was in the general reef discussion forum. Can admin please move. Thanks!