Wife's Zoa Garden

reiters · Oct 23, 2014

Here's the short version. I started with a 10g nano and my wife pushed until I upgraded. I now have a 135g mixed reef. The 10g has been running for 6 months with odds and ends in it from time to time. My wife has now officially claimed it as hers as along as all she has to do is pick it's inhabitants. I get all the work.

What I would like to do is run her zoa only with live rock and cuc. No fish at all and no fish food. I have a 165w full spectrum LED light on the way. I know it will never be at 100% but that's the beauty of LEDs. What I am thinking might work is to do a 1 gallon water change per day from my display tank. I do not want to spend hundreds on equipment to keep the 10g tank set. Would the zoas get enough food from the 1 gallon changes with main tank? Can I get by with only water flow and no filtration?

10g Tank:
Zoas
CUC from florida (small florida ceriths)
2 inces sugar fine argonite
10 lbs live rock
165w LED dimmable full spectrum
HOB filter with no media for flow only (rated for 75g tank - takes up almost the whole back of the tank)

135g Tank:
40 breeder sump
5 lbs miracle mud (cause I had it already)
skimmer
gfo/carbon
macro algea
100+ lbs rock
2 clowns, yellow tang, sailfin tang, lawnmower blenny, coral beauty, pajama cardinal
cleaner shrimp
CUC
running 4 months and stable (just noticed coraline growing on powerhead - not bad for all dry rock)
SPS growing and colorful
LPS doing ok..don't like my tank for some reason (except candy canes growing like weeds)
softies growing like weeds
Amonia 0
Ph 8
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
Phosphate 0
KH 8
calcium 440
Mg 1400
35gph flow
3 x 165w full spectrum LEDs blue at 100% and whites at 95%

Zero Nitrates · Oct 24, 2014

Lol! It's funny how you end up being the maintenance man. Same boat here. She picks the fish and coral and I do all the cleaning.

SaltyH20 · Oct 24, 2014

I did that at first with my 6 gallon nano, now i just change a gallong every other week but inside my hob filter i jusy threw cheato and wired me some leds under the lid and thats worked much better for me than swapping water everyday, and it still has good flow

reiters · Oct 24, 2014

@ZN: I'm good with maintaining a 10g for her as long as she is happy with me wasting every dime we have on the 135g.
SaltyH2O: That sounds like a good plan. I wasn't sure if the zoas would wipe out any nutrients and then shrink away after a while of if they needed something added. My 135 is low nutrient but does have fish so there should be some nutrient not yet removed at all times. I feed target feed the main tank every other week with a mixture of things. I could put a shot of frozen cyclopeeze in at that time and let them cycle around until something catches them. I think the 165w LED setup should really make the zoas "pop" if I run a lot of blue.

SaltyH20 · Oct 24, 2014

Sounds good i added a single small clown just tp keeep some poo for the coral to eat, they do pop in small tanks, thats a single blue led

SaltyH20 · Oct 24, 2014

Also my fuge lights i got a 13 dollar led car lights, people use for idk haha from auto zone, water proof and hss 3m tape on the back i see pretty good growth from cheato, used a old drill charger think its steps down to 9.5 volts and pushes the light good thought also about wiring a toggle switch to it but threw a timer in instead, also i used that hard plastic people use for ats to act as a gate so the cheato dont get put in the display

Pete polyp · Oct 24, 2014

It would be beneficial to have at least 1 fish to add nutrients. It would be a great tank for a pistol shrimp/goby pair. I'm sure the wife would enjoy watching them too.

reiters · Oct 24, 2014

As long as I don't get into something that needs gfo/carbon/skimmer/filter/... then I don't mind what is in there. I know as soon as I start feeding, that I have to deal with export of nutrients. I was also thinking of planting some dragon's breath algea instead of putting macro in the HOB. I could remove the HOB and add a harbor freight powerhead (200gpd - $8). Swapping 1 gallon a day of water from main display isn't an issue because they are 3 ft away from each other.

Keep the ideas coming. I plan on doing something to it and want low maintenance.

I hope I am not coming across as lazy. I spend 1h minimum a day plus all the $$ I have on the 135g so I don't need another time/money pit.

Pete polyp · Oct 24, 2014

My tank only has a hob filter and powerheads. If I notice algae growth I use a little aluminum oxide (phosphate sponge) that might happen about every 6 months.