Questions on Zoa husbandry

[Chupakabra-King]

Alrighty folks I have a 24 gallon AquaPod with about 25 - 30 lbs of live rock that are covered in Vietnamese zoas all over them . Super neon yellows , greens , then some beautiful eagle eyes and watermelon Zoas . I am satisfied and dont need anymore and could probably do with taking a few frags to the LFS actually , but anyway on to my question . WHat do you see as a best way of nutrient export/water changes on this type of tank ? I havent done a waterchange yet and its been about 2 weeks . Everything is doing well . The tank was already an established tank and the rock was fully cured . I was thinking of doing 3 gallon WCs weekly to Bi weekly , but was told that was too much . Everything is open (except the new ones I put in last night but hey thats ok they will open up eventually) I just wanna keep everything happy and beautiful and as trouble free as possible.

Any helpful input is much appreciated !

Thanks,

Joe

 

[Chupakabra-King]

The silence is deafening ! Oh well forget it . I'll figure it out on my own like I always do .

 

[jjmcat]

What kind of bio load do you have?Are you keeping any fish or inverts?I dont have any experiance with smaller tanks but I do a 20 to 25 % water change on my system every 2 weeks.I do have a fairly large bio load.Do you have a skimmer on your system?

 

[Chupakabra-King]

one fish, loads of Zoas and shrooms. Thats it. About 25 lbs of LR in a 24 gallon system. The new Zoas opened up yesterday, with everything looking great. I am going to do a WC this week . Gonna start at 2.5 gallons and see what happens.

 

[jjmcat]

What type of fish do you have and how often do you feed it?I didn't notice if you ran a skimmer.

 

[Chupakabra-King]

I feed it 3 times a week frozen brine and mysid shrimp. Its a green clown goby . No protein skimmer . Too small of a tank . WCs all the way for me .

 

[jjmcat]

I know they make those nano fission skimmers for the bio cubes but it sounds like you know what you want to do.If your just going to do water changes then do a 5 to 10 % weekly change.Keep an eye on your parameters and if they don't look right then adjust what you are doing.For me I learned everything by trial and error.I didn't know about reef central when I first got into the hobby and believe me it cost me dearly.

 

[Guygettnby]

i also have a 24g aquapod and i do around 3-5g water changes bi weekly.i would recomend you do a least that to your tank. smaller tanks are actually alittle harder to keep and when things go wrong it all happens very quickly. if you are planing on adding more fish down the line i would look into getting a skimmer for the tank. there are several good skimmers out there that will work on the tank depending on what lights your using. another thing is make sure you have decent flow in the tank. so with all tha said here are some questions for you.

1. what kind of lights on this tank? stock?
2. does this tank have a lid or have you removed it in favor for a better light setup?
3. what kind of pump are you running? stock or upgraded?
4. any power heads in the tank?
5. how much substrate and what kind?
6. do you have any of the intake blocked off? surface skimming or all open?

 

[Chupakabra-King]

jjmcat yeah I been reefing since 1998 with a 110 gallon setup , just sold that about 2 weeks ago . I couldnt afford it anymore . Everything I learned was trial and error too . It works for me . Thought I would try and post up some questions about these small tanks since this was my first foray into nanos , but I can learn these too by trial and error if I have to . . .



1. what kind of lights on this tank? stock
2. does this tank have a lid or have you removed it in favor for a better light setup? Stock lid
3. what kind of pump are you running? stock
4. any power heads in the tank? 1 Maxi-jet 600 with one of those turning flow heads on it
5. how much substrate and what kind ? 1/2 inch of aragonite sand
6. do you have any of the intake blocked off? surface skimming only yes I blocked off all the weirs but the top inch .

 

[Guygettnby]

ok, looks like you should be fine on some things. if you choose to put more fish in your tank at a later date i would look into a skimmer for the tank though. just dont get the current fission. you could also upgrade the main pump to increase the times the tank is cycled. that is something alot of the nano people end up doing aswell, i have done this and i added a second power head.

but it does sound like you should be good to go. just remember to do a water change once a week or even every two weeks. but dont go longer then 2 weeks between water changes.