What is the perfect zoanthid prop tank?

xroads

New member
I am looking to add a species specific zoa prop tank to my systems.

What would be the perfect system for farming them? I was planning on a 4 ft x 8 ft space, 12 inches deep or so.

Other then that I am open to ideas.

Raceways, amout of fish, lights, flow?
 
My buddy has a setup like this. He has 8 T5's for lights. Fish keep to fish that are going to serve a purpose. Small also. More crabs, snails, and shrimp than anything.
 
sounds good, I have a yellow corris wrase and a small Scopas tang in mine to serve a purpose, snails and crabs. And a bi colored blenny, just cause I like him....
 
The size of the tank has no impact on a zoanthid. Water quality, flow and light are all it cares about.
 
actually I calculated the volume of 96x48x12 its 240 gallons so I would say two mp10's would be good.
 
My zoos are propped under blue plus T5s. Water is old water from display after a WC and good laminar flow.
 
+1 on an 8 bulb t5 fixture, I used to farm zoanthids like crazy under that one with 6 ATI actinic and 2 ATI aquablue bulbs. Ended up swapping out one of the aquablues for a pure actinic at the end there too... Salinity is really important for farming those, so make sure you use a refractometer and calibrate it properly with calibration fluid.

The best thing for getting good growth out of zoanthids is flow, and lots of it. 2 mp10's would be great for one tiny corner of the tank, think bigger, plus those are way overpriced for a farm system. A closed loop with a good pump is probably a good way to go... You can have the best light and water conditions, but they'll just never go nuts without good flow.
 
Is depth a consideration with these? Could you use something shallow say in the 6" neighborhood?
 
Thanks for the replies.

I am thinking of using a raceway, with 6 inch wide paths, a foot deep. May just use a mag 12, enter in one end, out the other.

Any good growth with LEDS?

How abour fish for nitrogen? Or fishless?
 
prop tank

prop tank

Mine is 8' L,30" wide, and 18" deep,

I use a Maxijet 4500 and return the water through a spraybar, and a bulkhead fitting on the opposite end, I first used just old VHO fluorescents, now prefer the T5 with 2 MHs, so far the 4500 seems to do a decent job. The water comes out, goes through a deep gravel filter and then on up to the spray bar. Which is angled towards the opposite end and is just a few inches over the vat end.

it raises frags, shrooms, and zoas, some ricordia, lights are about 24" above the water surface. It gets a water change about once a month. Am taking it all down as I am moving in 3 weeks which will be an all week job. I knew I was going to so have been reducing the whole biomass.

At the new place I will build another 36" wide and 18" deep.Lighting will be about the same, the room windows face east. I may add a tang and a wrasse to both, not sure, they will have Bangai cardinals.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I am thinking of using a raceway, with 6 inch wide paths, a foot deep. May just use a mag 12, enter in one end, out the other.

Any good growth with LEDS?

How abour fish for nitrogen? Or fishless?

I wouldn't use any pathways, just leave it as an open tank for better flow...

ime LED's give good colors but not the best growth for zoanthids, but the technology's come a while since I tried those for propagation... Fish are good, since zoanthids like to eat fish poop.
 
Any coral likes fish poop.

I've found fish to be clumsy idiots with corals. If they come within a 1/2" of a zoa, it closes up. As you can expect, this happens several times a day. I'd keep it fishless. If you're actually farming these, odds are you'll be coral feeding anyway. The 5 microns of fish poop really aren't going to matter.
 
I like wrasses in prop tanks because they eat Amphipods and other small crustaceans. I have a 4' x 4' tank and its been lit with one 400 watt which has good spread and grew anything. I would use two 400 over a 8' x 4'. To get good spread with T5s over that size tank, you are going to have to use a lot of bulbs and replacement isn't going to be cheap.
 
I have a 4' x 4' tank and its been lit with one 400 watt which has good spread and grew anything. I would use two 400 over a 8' x 4'. To get good spread with T5s over that size tank, you are going to have to use a lot of bulbs and replacement isn't going to be cheap.

Actually, T5's give much better coverage at lower power consumption than halides... The halide's always going to have the strong focal point and lower light on the outsides of the tank, but the t5's will give uniform lighting across the whole thing. A 4' 8 bulb fixture will outperform a 400w halide for sure, it's the main reason I switched my old farm over from 400w halides to 4' 8 bulb t5's :)
 
Some call the long shallow tanks like 96x24x12 a raceway, also larger tanks that usually have a divider in the middle with current generating devices each end catercorner to each other creating a circular current.
 
raceway or no?

raceway or no?

You can get excellent water flow in a wider tank just by having a good spray bar and pump, along with powerheads on the sides, give you all of the flow that you need and then some.
 
Long shallow tank, I got that....but what about "current generating devices each end catercorner to each other creating a circular current. "

Any pics of examples?
 
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