Here I Go Again - Office 10g

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Dustin07

Active member
One of my co-workers is leaving to become a baker, so she gifted me this setup. I was happy with the little 5g nano I had on my desk, but since nothing ever really became of it I decided to tear down the 5g and run with this bad boy. Argh.

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I took this picture before I did some cable management and got everything fairly organized and cleaned up. I have an idea for a small garden in here. I truly do not know if this light will be strong enough but we'll see. I'd rather not go drop $300 on another RedSea 50w, but I do like them. I actually picked one up recently for $175 almost completely new with the arm so I'm pretty happy about that (but it's in use on my home tank).
 

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I'm going to try a few things here.
I'm planning on a 99% Zoa tank plus some janitors.

Watching how some of my Zoas have spread so well at home, I have this idea for using very specific shaped rocks to start colonies and letting them take over to create the shapes I'm hoping for. I've had plenty of luck with 10g tanks in the past so I'm not too worried about that.

The things that are on my mind:

  1. I want to keep the cover on, but I might regret that because
    1. my home tank does not have a cover so I top off frequently
    2. my home tank has direct light from the LED's with no cover to shade it
  2. Will the lighting be strong enough....? IDK. This light is a 35w that I had intended for a tank half its size. I'll start with very inexpensive, probably bargain bin $9.99 frag and see how it goes before "investing" in either more expensive frags or lights.
  3. I might use this as a test tank to see how my own frags go from my home tank
  4. I have seen some people mention that certain shrimp are actually hard on zoas and softies so I need to explore that more.
    1. I think bumblebee shrimp and bumblebee snails on black sand could be cool, but not at a risk to the Zoas
  5. I'm running black sand... thin, but black. I have some concerns about that. But if it works the tank also has tinted sides and I think Zoas will absolutely pop in here.
 
That light has 6 blue , 2 white and 2 near-UV leds, which I think is enough for 10 gallons. I ran a DIY kit from rapidled over a 10 gallon that was 6 royal blue and 6 white non-dimmable and it was close to too much.
 
kharmaguru said:
That light has 6 blue , 2 white and 2 near-UV leds, which I think is enough for 10 gallons. I ran a DIY kit from rapidled over a 10 gallon that was 6 royal blue and 6 white non-dimmable and it was close to too much.
Click to expand...

the upside with a light like the RedSea is that you can dim it. this one has some dimming options (not that I think it will be too bright) but the hardest part is the timer. it considers "sunrise" to be when you plug it in, lol.

I hope you're right! I'm prepared to be wrong if i need to get a better light, but.... I have this one... so it would be nice if it worked...
 
Looking good so far. I agree the light will likely be plenty and I think the zoas will pop with all the black. Should look really good I think.
 
I ordered a pack of these yesterday, I sorta envision 2, maybe 3 of them, each with a very specific but different colored colony of zoas over taking it:

www.bulkreefsupply.com

10-Pack Aquadome Frag Mounts

Cured for 2+ Months & 100% Reef Safe! Reefsmart Aquadome Frag Mounts are perfect for large coral frags and will help add stability and additional surface area for the coral to start encrusting. Each Aquadome has a concave upper portion that makes mounting corals easier and allows for a pool of...
www.bulkreefsupply.com www.bulkreefsupply.com

Then I think I want something that is about twice that size, and one more very large focal piece to cover.
 
So a guy in a local facebook group was offering Utter Choas frags for $10 ea. I grabbed 2.... he gave me a 3polyp frag and a 2polyp frag. I figured one for my home tank and one for this tank when it's ready... got them home and they opened up immediately. pretty happy with that snag.
 
Dustin07 said:
@bradleym I'd love to hear more!
Click to expand...
Sorry for the delay, it was a crazy week!

Basically, in order to capture some from an existing rock, I find it very difficult. So I have started using frag plugs or ceramic tiles instead. Frag plugs can easily disappear in a sea of zoas on the rockwork after a few days/weeks, and ceramic tiles can be placed on the sand or bare bottom.

To start, I use a razor blade to scrape off some zoas from an existing colony on a rock, making sure to scrape up a thin layer of rock. This little bit of rock is easy to glue to the plug or tile. From this point on it's very simple, once the zoas cover the plug/tile, you can just frag that as if it were a hard coral. I typically need nothing more than a strong pair of wire cutters. You can also cut ridges into the underside of the plugs/tiles before adding them (a tic-tac-toe pattern on a square tile for example) , making them very easy to break later. You can then glue one piece onto a new frag/tile, set this in place of the one you took out, and start again.

The only tips I will add are these:

When using ceramic tiles, only use unpainted, uncolored, actual ceramic tiles. I can't vouch for anything else being reef safe. And it works much better if coral grows with the underside of the tile facing up, as this surface is more porous and less smooth.

When using frag plugs, it is much easier to cut up the large flat discs vs. your standard frag plug with a stem underneath.
 
kharmaguru said:
Unless you have urchins in which case the flat discs are regularly going for a ride. You know the world isn't flat because the cats would push everything off the edge. Same idea.
Click to expand...

Until I get an opportunity to spend time in orbit I'm going to abstain from joining that debate 😂😂😂

But my experience has been hermit crabs are the felines of the fish tank 😂
 
I have a knowingly irresponsible experiment going on with my office tank. Since I snagged 2 frags of utter chaos for $10 I put one of them in my office tank at work. the water is not well established. I fresh water scrubbed some rock I had and essentially have only a nassarious snail in there. The zoas were happy ish on day 1, but have been closed since.

I've been doing a lot of research on the various reasons that peoples zoas fail to open. I just simply never have that issue on my home tank. even when it was only 10g. I kept a 5g tank at work on my desk but zoas failed and pulsating xenia was fine.

I saw one person suggest debris causing an irritation so I attempted a little fresh water dip on these guys swirling them around and a LOT of debris was released into the bottom of the bowl. I relocated them a little higher (closer to the light) and different flow area of the tank.

I'm not really planning on sacrificing them, I may take them home tonight or tomorrow to rehab if it's not too late but I still wonder if its poor lighting, or if there is something simply wrong with the water I am using.

The only difference in my home tank vs my office tank is the water source.


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reefing102 said:
How’s your nutrients looking in the new tank?
Click to expand...

on the very clean to too clean side, (like 0 reading on nitrates and nitrites. I have seen the numbers go up SOME on this new tank after the introduction of my semi cleaned liverock and plankton, so todays lower numbers are after a small previous spike)

I can feed the tank some more benepets to get some nutrients in there, but they're already puckered up so I don't think it would effect them. I've had this happen before, took the zoas home and had them open and reproduce in my home tank.

Aside from this 35w light I am running the only differences really between my office tank and home tank are:

  • water source
  • aeration. (home tank has additional aeration, which seems to be a necessity in that tank)

I might also bring my home test kit in tomorrow, I think it's better than the one I have at the office.
 
Took him home to where I knew zoa's were happy and he's already starting to show a little color ... Just a little, but it's progress.
 

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