My reef plans, yay or nay.

[Cowillaggn]

Attention Moderators: I'm new to this forum and don't know where to post this thread. Please move it to the best subforum or whatever their called :)
Hi,
I will be starting my very first reef tank after my week long vaccation :)

Bill got me pointed in the right direction and told me that this forum would be helpful. So far the plan is:
20 gallon tank with however much liverock (Help?) I need with live sand. For lighting, I'm getting a T5 with one "10,000K Daylight" and one "Actinic 03 Blue" tubes. For filtration and current, I have a Eheim Classic 2213 With a surface skimmer. This kicks out about 440 LPH. Is that a strong enough flow for the entire tank? or do I need powerheads? And, of course I have a heater, as I live in a cold climate.

The corals I like a lot are zoanthids, and whatevery "easy" corals you guys recommend.

So, Finaly the questions.
1.)Is the lighting and equipment good enough?
2.)How much liverock will I need?
3.)Will Zoanthids be ok for me to begin with?
4.)What are some good fish and members for the all important "Cleaning Crew" I should get?

Thanks for your time  :D

[Cowillaggn]

Sorry, I don't know how to edit posts. What would I need to feed Zoanthids?

[Bergy]

hey cow,

I moved your thread to the into forum for now.. if you hang out here for a bit, i will set you up with your own private forum...

As for feeding corals, i dont do it unless i can see them eat/digest/take in... so, for zoas, some do and some dont...

you will see when you feed your fish.. if some fish food hits the zoa, and it closes up, and then is gone in a fe minutes, then you know it eats... Some folks know that some types do in fact eat, and you can ask them if they eat, or if they should be fed... typically, if they do eat, then they probably propagate faster... I know my 'purple deaths' will grow 'baby' after baby, if i fed them daily...

I have some 'cinnamon polyps'  (okay, go look them up), which also eat and grow...  my frags hve doubled in the 6-12 months that i have had them.. and they now look like colonies, and take up a 6" sq area...  (maybe 50 polyps?)

Other corals also eat, lps... but not all...

I would not 'feed the tank' with coral food that you find at the lfs... waste of money..  same with other additives... dont add anything unless you can test and empirically determine it is lower then what is best for the corals/marinelife


 

[Cowillaggn]

wow. thanks.
This is such an amazing forum!

[RandyFolds]

Lighting really doesn't matter much for Zoanthids...

I have some colonies of zoas that have been in a 20G quarantine tank  with only an airstone for circulation, with no lighting for almost four months now. They only get sunlight that makes it through the miniblinds, which isn't much, and they are still thriving. They have not grown much, but continue to expand and face the little light they can get. It has become an experiment now to see how long they will hold on.

You might notice color shifts in some of the fancier specimens you may aquire, but the t5s should be fine.

[Bergy]

wow,  zoas, maybe SOME, zoas will 'survive' in low light, but most will need light... some of the fancier species will be more specific about light..

and yes, there are some that dont like light...   

t5 will be okay for zoanthids no problems... 

[Cowillaggn]

great. I'm so exited to start!

[RandyFolds]

Like I said, they aren't much on the growing side, but they are going through their normal polyp cycles and aren't shrinking.

Bill is right about the fancier ones being more particular about light. What I was saying is that they will turn to red and brown if they are light starved, which is dissapointing after paying $30 for a little clump of blue zoas.

[Cowillaggn]

Cool. What would be some good fish and invertebrates? I think I want some peppermint shrimp because I've heard they eat those evil apista things. True or False? ???

[Bergy]

some peps will and some wont... but the key is, to not worry about it till you have aptasia...

there are lots of evil, no good, narmful this and thats...

and you should have all the natural things that kill off those things, but dont stock them up till you know you got something...



as for starter fish.... clown fish are a good fish as they have lots of personality and they swim around freely...

i also like snails, so i suggest nassarius snails... along with others, like turbos and astrea snails.

i also like that dart fish, or whatever it was called.... those are kind of cool and fairly hardy...

but, really what kind of fish are you interested in... what did you see that said you should get into the hobby???

[Cowillaggn]

The Zoanthids and acropora corals in a display tank at my LFS are what made me want to start. I have no idea at all with fish, then again, I do like hi hat drums, but aren't they kind of sensitive?

[Just_Greg]

The Zoanthids and acropora corals in a display tank at my LFS are what made me want to start. I have no idea at all with fish, then again, I do like hi hat drums, but aren't they kind of sensitive?

they get WAY to big for a 20 gal...minimum tank size would be more like a 75 gal.

[Bergy]

interesting fish btw..

and yea, check out www.zoaid.com  and search for different Zoanthids...

BTW: where do you live???

acropora.. will need as much light as you can handle.. the t5 on that size tank are limited to 24watt bulbs.. and that maybe just a tad on the weak side for sps...

but, you can also choose from leathers and softies and lps...

a good neon toadstool always seems to be a big hit with new reefers

[Cowillaggn]

Hi, now that I think about it, I do really like some softies. :) I live n the mountains of colorado, but I have a fantastic lfs that has amazing fresh and marine livestock  ;D

[Hajra]

live rock i am told typically one pound per gallon of water. but also remember that the sand and other decorations take up space that would be water. i have a ten gallon with about ten pounds of LR and the 36 gal that i am workin on gettin more live rock but has about 15 lbs already.