I am about to end my 20 gallon zoanthid tank experiment in favor of upgrading to one larger overall frag tank system. This is purely or ease of maintenance and utilization of existing equipment like my calcium reactor and the fact that my son really wants to start raising baby clownfish again. I'm trying to understand what I might have learned with this tank in the meantime. My zoanthids in this tank have gone crazy with growth. I have never grown AOI's and rainbow rhino's as fast as I have in the time this tank has been set up which is only a few months.
There are several factors that are different from my other two tanks, I am using a single AI Prime 16HD light set to the BRS recommended (Blue Plus) settings and due to the fact that I haven't set up a doser on this tank, my alkalinity has drifted down to around 7 dkh since I dose manually. My other tanks are targeting 8 dkH. Weekly, I am doing 50% water changes in this tank and the makeup water is coming from my frag tank since it has a higher nutrient load. Depending on how high the phosphate is on that tank, sometimes I use only 25% frag tank water and 25% new saltwater. This system is really good at processing phosphate and nitrate, so most of the time nitrates and phosphates are nearing zero by the end of the week.
Lighting on my other two tanks are using Aquatic life hybrid systems (2x blue plus, coral plus, actinic) with either a Kessil AP 700 or a Mitras 7206 (set to Coral AB+). My T5's are on 4 hours a day for mid day. The LED's are on for 12. On the 20 gallon tank the AI Prime 16 HD is also on for twelve. I have preferred the hybrid systems (LED and T5) for the fact that it made sense to me that if the corals were grown with a combination of lighting spectrums, they could more quickly adjust to other tanks when sold. This may not be a true at all and I'm not sure how to go about testing that one.
I know that there is a lot in play here, but any ideas as to which of these factors might be making the biggest difference, another possibility is always all of the above?
There are several factors that are different from my other two tanks, I am using a single AI Prime 16HD light set to the BRS recommended (Blue Plus) settings and due to the fact that I haven't set up a doser on this tank, my alkalinity has drifted down to around 7 dkh since I dose manually. My other tanks are targeting 8 dkH. Weekly, I am doing 50% water changes in this tank and the makeup water is coming from my frag tank since it has a higher nutrient load. Depending on how high the phosphate is on that tank, sometimes I use only 25% frag tank water and 25% new saltwater. This system is really good at processing phosphate and nitrate, so most of the time nitrates and phosphates are nearing zero by the end of the week.
Lighting on my other two tanks are using Aquatic life hybrid systems (2x blue plus, coral plus, actinic) with either a Kessil AP 700 or a Mitras 7206 (set to Coral AB+). My T5's are on 4 hours a day for mid day. The LED's are on for 12. On the 20 gallon tank the AI Prime 16 HD is also on for twelve. I have preferred the hybrid systems (LED and T5) for the fact that it made sense to me that if the corals were grown with a combination of lighting spectrums, they could more quickly adjust to other tanks when sold. This may not be a true at all and I'm not sure how to go about testing that one.
I know that there is a lot in play here, but any ideas as to which of these factors might be making the biggest difference, another possibility is always all of the above?
