New and I love zoas!

[_bsafarijoe]

Hi guys! My name is Berg and I’m brand new to all of this! I am setting up my first coral tank in the next two weeks and I’m just a little confused on lighting. I have a 15 gallon Fluval flex that I’m going to be using as the tank and filtration. The light on it needs to be replaced. I’m thinking of cutting a hole in the top and putting a nano reef light on it. Does anybody have any suggestions? Is anybody selling one? I am also looking at other things I need to add. I have a good substrate, some live rock, two blue leg hermit crabs as my cleanup crew, and the only corals I am going to be putting in here or Zoas. I might add an anemone though. As for stocking I have no clue and I’ll get to that when I get to that. This is going to take a long time and I want to make sure I set it up right and cycled the whole tank first!

 

[billysprout]

hello berg! this is so exciting. you definitely did your research. check out your live rock over the next few days to see if you can find any critters on it. that was my favorite part of my new tank. keep an eye out for aiptasia; most other critters are beneficial.

data in this thread is important for your cycle. as long as your ammonia is being converted into nitrite, you're effectively ready to add livestock. you may need to provide a source of ammonia (eg dr tim's) at first since hermit crabs are tiny and your bio-load will be low.

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

Updated Cycling Science in Action This is a testless reef tank cycling thread, the only one from any board. If you ever had trouble with reef tank cycling in the past, you won't any longer after working some jobs with us. chances are you are using/about to use a method of reef tank cycling...

www.reef2reef.com

only zoa advice i can give you (my tank is only 6mo old) is that zoas might not open right away when they've been added to your tank. mine literally stayed closed for 2 months lol because my lights were on too high. i moved them to a spot with lower light and higher flow and they opened right up. buy an ugly $5-10 zoa frag, assume you might lose it, and put it under medium light with some moderate flow.

tuna blue A80 is the nano-est reef light i've seen for sale. my reef expert at lFS upsold me on the AI Prime 16hd and i'm super happy with it. minimize the amount of white, red and green light that you shine on your tank until you really get a handle on algae. i'd keep the lights off completely while it's cycling and keep the light on blue until you settle in. you should still expect two ugly phases (diatoms and green hair algae) in your first couple months. not harmful just annoying.

 

[Hooz]

I have a Fluval Sea & Marine Nano 3.0 light I'd sell if you decide to go that way. It's actually a pretty nice light for not a lot of money.

When I ran my Flex, I ditched the stock hood and put a screen top on it. That's the best option if you plan to run any upgraded light.

 

[_bsafarijoe]

hello berg! this is so exciting. you definitely did your research. check out your live rock over the next few days to see if you can find any critters on it. that was my favorite part of my new tank. keep an eye out for aiptasia; most other critters are beneficial.

data in this thread is important for your cycle. as long as your ammonia is being converted into nitrite, you're effectively ready to add livestock. you may need to provide a source of ammonia (eg dr tim's) at first since hermit crabs are tiny and your bio-load will be low.

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

Updated Cycling Science in Action This is a testless reef tank cycling thread, the only one from any board. If you ever had trouble with reef tank cycling in the past, you won't any longer after working some jobs with us. chances are you are using/about to use a method of reef tank cycling...

www.reef2reef.com

only zoa advice i can give you (my tank is only 6mo old) is that zoas might not open right away when they've been added to your tank. mine literally stayed closed for 2 months lol because my lights were on too high. i moved them to a spot with lower light and higher flow and they opened right up. buy an ugly $5-10 zoa frag, assume you might lose it, and put it under medium light with some moderate flow.

tuna blue A80 is the nano-est reef light i've seen for sale. my reef expert at lFS upsold me on the AI Prime 16hd and i'm super happy with it. minimize the amount of white, red and green light that you shine on your tank until you really get a handle on algae. i'd keep the lights off completely while it's cycling and keep the light on blue until you settle in. you should still expect two ugly phases (diatoms and green hair algae) in your first couple months. not harmful just annoying.

Thank you sm! I went to a reef swap today and picked out 3 5 dollar frags (two zoas, one red montipora frag) from my good friend. He is letting me borrow his light until the Aqua Knight light I ordered from eBay (got a steal) gets in. I'm going to rin it in my 1.5 until my 15 gets here.

 

[billysprout]

nice! what do your zoas look like? careful with the light, his presets might be too strong for a 1.5g at first. try to ramp up brightness slowly so you new critters can adjust.

 

[_bsafarijoe]

nice! what do your zoas look like? careful with the light, his presets might be too strong for a 1.5g at first. try to ramp up brightness slowly so you new critters can adjust.

I haven't seen them emerge yet. I am using lowww light because the tank is tiny. The 15 is getting here soon!