Looking for a few quick tips - frag tank, maintenance, ect...

[rsteagall]

I have a 12g nano cube dx that was a species specific mantis tank for over the past 2 years. Sadly the mantis died in the last month... she had a good life I suppose though. Soon, our reef club will be having its annual frag swap and I'm wanting to turn this 12g nano deluxe into a frag/holding tank for anything I buy at the swap. Here are a few "what would you do" questions.

1. Would you go bare bottom or try to keep the 2" of substrate that is already in the tank?

2. I'm thinking of using egg crate to create an angled shelf from high in the back to low in the front with ledges. slope shelving system from back to front. How would you do it?

3. I will not be putting any fish at all in this tank for the lowest bioload possible. Would you put any snails, hermits, or anything else in the tank for any kind of cleanup that may or may not be needed?

4. What maintenance would you perform on this tank? Dosing? Tests? Water change frequency?

5. When adding new frags, what are a few quick/easy things that can be done to make sure nothing "bad" is introduced?

6. What basic params should be kept for a softie/zoa specific tank such as this?

7. I plan on keeping with the stock DX lighting, but would you increase flow of the tank or do anything else hardware wise?

8. Anything else you would add?

I'm ready to do something with this thing ASAP because the frag swap is less than a month away and I want to have all the quirks figured out before then.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[rsteagall]

Heh. Do people hate me, my questions, or both?

 

[rsteagall]

/me sniffles

 

[killingseed]

1. if yougot it nothing worng with keeping it.
2. buy egg create from HD or lows, some pvc and some tie wraps then build tables and shelves.
3. snails, hermits should be fine and helpful.
4. water changes
5. start them low and work them up close to the light. Maybe reduce the lighting when adding new frags till they start opening.
6.same as fish par. doesn’t change.
7. I would ditch the light and go MH or t5s or both.

 

[rsteagall]

I've not measured it... but I'm sure there might be some PO4 buildup. With that said... now would you clean everything out and go bare bottom or just clean everything out really good/vacuuming the sand bed?

I hear ya on the lights, but would like to stick with the stock hood without going open top and changing a bunch of stuff from stock. The stock lighting is 2X24w combo bulbs. Would moving the frags closer to the surface of the water fix the lack of lighting issue? If so, how far wo uld you put them from the surface? What about different bulbs?

 

[killingseed]

those light are not good. no i would never vacuum the sand. just leave it if is concerns you then add some snail or a sand shifting goby , something that will stir the sand up a little.

once again ditch the lights. taking a frag of zoa for a mh to pc is easy but taken zoas from pc to mh isnt as easy. a frag tank should be as good as a normal tank. personal i would never keep zoa in pc lighting so in turn i would never setup a zoa frag tank with pc lighting. if you have to you may want to have them as close to the , up to 1 or 2 inches from the lights.

 

[rsteagall]

taking a frag of zoa for a mh to pc is easy but taken zoas from pc to mh isnt as easy.

Did you mean the opposite of what you said? If not, why is taking zoas from pc to mh hard? Please elaborate on that a little...

I guess I'll start looking to see if someone has a 70w-150w MH pendant for cheap around here.

 

[gsusfreak]

he said it corrent ryan, when introducing new zoas to a PC setup from MH, the zoas are more likely to adjust and do fine under the lighting......but when coming from a PC to a MH....they can melt and practically whither away within days since its such a huge leap for them...thats why most people acclimate them weeks at a time, starting with a shaded bottom area...and then out to the direct lighting...and then up on some rocks a few inches higher...and so on, until they get to the spot they planned for them

 

[nalbar]

There is nothing wrong with PC lighting for zoas, particularly in a 12 inch high tank.

I throw spare frags (And I mean really throw) into my fuge, which just has PC lighting.

They grow like crazy in there, 12 inches from a 24 inch PC.

PC is fine. MH is over kill for a small tank like that. I kept a 70w MH over my nano, but I would not do it again. To much heat and evaporation.

I have duel 250MH over my present tank and would do T5 if I was doing it now.


nalbar

 

[gh0st]

It really depends on how "pure" of a frag system you want in regards to removing the sand.

For a "true" frag system, I would lose the susbstrate and go bare bottom as it is much easier to keep clean and avoid detritus build up.

If you want something that is more pleasent to look at, leave the substrate in.

I'll second the PC's being fine for such a small tank, MH would be overkill and cause heat issue as nalbar mentioned. Just be sure to let anyone who gets one of your frags know they were under PC's so they can acclimate them accordingly.

A good trick for encourageing faster growth is to place the starter colony low in the tank, and it will spread upwards looking for more light.

As for additives and maintanince, frequent large water changes (50% or more every week should be all you need to do with a good salt mix)

I'd probably increase the stock water flow with one of the nano koralias or something similar, shoot for between 30-60x per hour tank turnover.