aquapaul's Zoa Garden

[aquapaul]

So for my birthday my wife got me a standard 20 gallon long. I thought for a bit on what I was going to use it for and have settled on a Zoa garden with a couple fish. Nothing fancy and looking to keep it simple. Here are my thoughts.

Tidal 55 HOB filter dialed way back
Tunze ATO
BRS 100w Heater with controller
Tunze nanostream 6040 power head
Pair of AI Prime 16HD

live sand and mix of live and dry rock

Stocking list:

Obviously various Zoanthids

2 Nassarius snails
2 scartlett Hermits
1 Turbo snail
2 cerith snails

1 Tails Spot or Midas Blenny (Still debating)
1 Fire fish

Open to feedback as this is still a work in progress.

 

[MERKEY]

That's sweet! Congrats!!

Any pics?

 

[Peace River]

I like it! What are your plans for testing? Will you be doing any dosing? I look forward to seeing this come together!

 

[aquapaul]

No pics yet, picked up black paint for the back glass and will get that done this weekend. Once it is all setup I will start posting pics.

Testing is my normal routine, Hanna for most things I can, Red Sea for things I can’t and Milwaukee refractometer for salinity.

I am contemplating dosing all for reef once I get it stocked, I haven’t used it before but like their salt and thought this might be a good test area for it. Dosing will be manual for this little guy to start with but may add a doser down the line once I get it dialed in.

 

[aquapaul]

Here is the tank and stand, will start working on some aquas cape in the next couple weeks after a bit of a vacation.

 

[aquapaul]

So I am contemplating doing Lightbar2 for my zoa tank and am debating doing 1 70cm ocean blue and 1 70 cm actinic blue for my lighting. @Ditto and @Lasse I know you are the resident experts on the light are. Do you think this would be enough light for a zoa garden? Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Lasse]

Are you going to manage the bars with a P4/P3?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[aquapaul]

@Lasse Yes I will be getting a P4 to manage the bars with.

 

[NanoDJS]

It should be easy to get the 200 par average with 2 of those on that tank. I have never used or seen the those lights but they look pretty sweet , I run a 20L always , one of my fav footprints cant wait to see the progress. It even seems you could run the actinic its 14k with the deep actinic and it would be like the AB+ color from what I can see around 20k. I could not find the ocean blue spectrum bulb , these are super interesting, good luck with the build.

 

[Ditto]

Two should have no issues, your going to want to take pat reading after you set them but you should have no issues.

What is your exact tank size?

 

[aquapaul]

Two should have no issues, your going to want to take pat reading after you set them but you should have no issues.

What is your exact tank size?

30x12x12 is the tank size. Probably run the lights 12” above the water.

 

[Lasse]

I asked because there is power in these bars. If you have a P4 - you can adjust them. You are thinking about ocean blue and 1 actinic. These bars have RGB LEDs and they give you a whitish shimmer even if you running heavy blue spectra. I would consider - because it will be a Zooa garden - to use 2 deep actinic instead - or 1 deep actinic and 1 actinic. Below you see the spectra from them in different combinations

2 deep actinic

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1 deep actinic - 1 actinic

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2 actinic

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1 deep actinic + 1 Ocean blue

​

1 actinic - 1 ocean blue

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2 ocean blue

​

Sincerely Lasse

 

[aquapaul]

I asked because there is power in these bars. If you have a P4 - you can adjust them. You are thinking about ocean blue and 1 actinic. These bars have RGB LEDs and they give you a whitish shimmer even if you running heavy blue spectra. I would consider - because it will be a Zooa garden - to use 2 deep actinic instead - or 1 deep actinic and 1 actinic. Below you see the spectra from them in different combinations

2 deep actinic

​

1 deep actinic - 1 actinic

​

2 actinic

​

1 deep actinic + 1 Ocean blue

​

1 actinic - 1 ocean blue

​

2 ocean blue

​

Sincerely Lasse

Thank you @Lasse I agree the 2 deep actinic may be a better spectrum for me. I think that is what I am going to go with. Probably a 100 w power supply and a splitter. Anything else I will need other than the P4? Planning on doing a mount out of 80/20 black aluminum floated over the tank.

 

[Lasse]

Another tip - buy at least 150 W power supply. The splitter you have to buy will manage 4 bars and you never know

Sincerely Lasse

 

[aquapaul]

Another tip - buy at least 150 W power supply. The splitter you have to buy will manage 4 bars and you never know

Sincerely Lasse

I guess I could always want a second zoa garden next to it

 

[aquapaul]

It has been a while but made a little progress today. Rocks finally came in and here is the first take at the aquascape. Let me know your thoughts.

 

[Brandon Smith]

What is your plan for flow? You may face some dead spot issues with the scape. I do love it by the way.

 

[aquapaul]

What is your plan for flow? You may face some dead spot issues with the scape. I do love it by the way.

Currently have a tunze 6040 but may go with a maxspect gyre xf330 on the back wall but worried it may be too much flow. But at 20% power it should be 25x turnover

 

[aquapaul]

He is the scape and went with the reef wave 25 for circulation. Will set the scape this week and get water in it this weekend.

 

[aquapaul]

Well it has been up about a month, lights arrived thanks @Vinny@GHLUSA, now to figure out a light schedule and see how my cycle is coming along.