Zoanut's Zoa & Paly tank

[Zoanut]

I dont keep a traditional "show" tank anymore, since i enjoy the cultivation and propagation of zoas and palys so much that is my primary focus! I grow, trade or sell and expand my collection whenever possible. I love gardening, so it kind of makes sense that i love this style of reef keeping.

This is my setup:
48x18x12 glass tank
2-Reef Breeder 16" LED's
36x18x18 glass sump (fuge section w/ rock & calerapa)
Reef Octopus NWB-150 6" skimmer
Mag 5 return
2-Seio M1100's for flow


The "tank" is devoid of sand and rock. Only thing that goes in their is coral to grow and egg crate to keep things from blowing around. For fish, right now all i have is a 4" yellow tang. Im looking for a nice wrasse and possibly a few more fish (zoas love their fish poop!)

The sump has about 60 lbs of rock in it, calerpa and for now a spiral CFL bulb in a 10" reflector. I would like to get a more intense fuge light, but this is working for now. Im a big fan of the Berlin system.

Pics of the setup (in my basement of course!)

The pics are about a month old, ive since added a few outlets above the tank to clean up the wiring. I like to think i know what im doing when it comes to growing Z's and P's, if you have a question please feel free to ask!

 

[Zoanut]

Some of the cool things ive got growing out

And who loves actinic shots? I DO I DO!!!

 

[Zoanut]

One last actinic shot, couldn't resist

 

[iTzJu]

nice stuff man!

 

[Dakram]

Looks good


Sent Via the R2R Forum APP

 

[Zoanut]

Thanks guys!

Im working on some new pics tonight, im a big noob with cameras and im still learning. Tonight im playing with a F/2.0-F/2.3 setting, i took some test shots earlier and it looks like that f stop will get me some accurate colors with higher shutter speeds than i have been using.

 

[Zoanut]

Wider aperture = good! Learned something new tonight. The colors are finally getting good and accurate.

These are some zoas im excited to see how they grow, i plucked them off a boring mini colony of red and green zoas i picked up for $10.

These guys are awesome, slow to grow but awesome. Ive already made one frag from them and only had them about 9 months.

Cool pattern. Again plucked off some boring red and green mini colony i picked up for cheap.

 

[Zoanut]

And of course, since i introduced the tank here something had to happen. While taking pics last night i turned off my return pump/powerheads. When i turned the return back on, it chattered a bit then stopped working. I broke it down, looked it over and found nothing wrong with it...but i cant get it to fire up now without knocking on it with a hammer (which is tricky since the pump sits down inside the sump)!

So im looking for either a new impellar, or a new 500-600 GPH pump.

 

[mainereefer]

get a rio hyperflow pump! I have a hf26 on my 180g and a hf17 on my 30g love them both

 

[revhtree]

Nice collection!

 

[Zoanut]

get a rio hyperflow pump! I have a hf26 on my 180g and a hf17 on my 30g love them both

Tempted, but i found a used Mag 5 i had in a pond outside (ok my wife suggested where it might be, then confirmed it was their while i was at work). Im hoping between the two of them i can get a good running pump.

Nice collection!

Thanks Rev!

 

[revsgirl]

Very nice!! Thanks for sharing!


Chasing the Dream Giver, not the dream! Tonya

 

[Zoanut]

Traded some stuff this weekend, and got some new stock for grow out!

 

[Zoanut]

This is the first system ive really let get "dirty", skip waterchanges, etc...its too soon to tell about growth but colors have never been better. I have some orange digi that is NEON orange and the zoas have really held color or gotten deeper colors. Plus its a lot easier to just fill up the top off once a week and forget about the tank most of the time. The fuge handles all the crud, and the tang keeps the corals cleaned up pretty well.

 

[Zoanut]

I got my diopter kit in the mail for my Canon G5. It took me an hour to learn what they like, and 10 minutes to get pics like this.

Compared to what i normally do with just the macro mode on the G5:

Im pretty happy. Its not as sharp as i would like, but for $76 (camera and diopter kit) i really can not complain.