New to Corals, starting with Zoas?

[TheStrangler]

Hey everyone, I've had a FOWLR tank for many years but am now just getting into reefing with a brand new setup. That said, I'm familiar with a bit of info that I've skimmed in passing regarding corals and coral health, but don't have answers to specific questions I'm searching for. I have read quite a few threads in the section, but I'm just going to ask to clear up any ambiguity.

So my tank is cycling now, no fish just live sand, dry rock, and bottled bacterial + ammonia dosing. When I get to the end of that, I know everything will be somewhat unstable and I'll have all of the fun diatoms, algaes and other things to contend with, but I've read that Zoas are pretty forgiving assuming you keep things from settling on them. My question is, if i use a frag rack to place them in an ideal spot lighting wise and a bit of flow to keep things from settling on them, would I likely be safe starting with some forgiving zoas/softies? The impression that I got was that they wouldn't contribute to the bioload on the tank significantly and might even enjoy some low nitrate levels from the target feeding I'd do.

I expect to wait a month or two to start adding fish and inverts, just wondering if I could get away with something to scratch the reefing itch a bit sooner while Im waiting for the tank to prepare for a larger bioload.

 

[Hemmdog]

I would wait until uglies have passed. It’s worth the wait. Once algae pops up you can get snails, you can get really into snails!, name your snails! Then hermits! Then a fish or two! Then zoas.

 

[TheStrangler]

Perfect, thanks for the response. I'm happy to wait, just wanted to know if its was feasible to ooh and aww over pretty zoas while the snails and hermits clean up the uglies.

 

[Hemmdog]

Perfect, thanks for the response. I'm happy to wait, just wanted to know if its was feasible to ooh and aww over pretty zoas while the snails and hermits clean up the uglies.

You can do it, I did on my first reef tank, but it’s risky and I lost a fair amount of coral. If you have measurable nitrate and phosphate and stable parameters you can give it a try. I’d just wait a little bit for the tank to mature and to let the pod and bacterial populations increase before coral is thrown into the mix.

 

[TheStrangler]

Sounds good to me, I'm culturing phytoplankton now, pods will be soon to follow, and I may throw rotifers into the mix. Gotta keep yourself entertained with something so you don't get impatient staring at an empty glass cube.

Thanks