10g Ricordea and Zoa Tank

[NjRiCaN]

Hello Everyone,
I have a 10g tank laying around and I was interested in making it into a ricordea and zoa tank for my bedroom. only thing is i was hoping to use some of my equipment that i have but not sure. Thats why I want your info on what equipment i should use. I have a rena smartfilter 30 and a current usa 40w CF light fixture. Please let me know if i should use this or if not what would be the best setup for what i want. Please provide brand names if you can for the equipment.

 

[Anselth]

Depending on the size of the light relative to the tank, it should be fine for what you want to do - the type and wattage are perfect for a small tank with zoas and rics. I'm not too familiar with the smartfilter, but if it's a typical hang-on-back filter, there's a good chance you can use it, either as a mini-fuge with live rock, or to run carbon and phosban in.

 

[BigJay]

I agree. Although its not an efficient way to light the tank it is ample in a small tank. Efficiency is lost by you paying for electricity to energize the light but the light doesn't reach the tank.
you will need to add a power head though. I'd say a maxi jet would be just fine , with something at least 200 GPH being ideal for zoa's and rics in a 10g

 

[Uslanja]

I have read where zoanathids like bright light. The wattage sounds good but do you know what your bulb is producing as far as colour spectrum goes? Also, what type of reflector is in the light fixture, what percentage of light reflection is it producing? I'm still learning about lighting but I think if you run a 10000K with a reflector putting 95% or more of the light into the tank, then you should be good for zoanathids! But that is just my thoughts from what I've been learning so far.

We believe our zoas browned out due to insufficient light.

We had zoanathids under a Corallife 96 watt power compact at a depth of about 12 inches and they browned out. We then learned that lack of light can also "bleach" the zoas. But, under the same fixture we kept various mushrooms and ricordeas no problem at all. In fact they reproduced and got quite large.

Our ricordea has done terrific under lower lighting.

I would think that if the zoas don't work you still have enough lighting for mushroom's and mushroom ricordea's. We would suggest that you give it a go, start with the ricordeas first, see how they do and then decide if zoanathids might do well.

Our mushrooms have done well under low lighting also.

Good luck and let us know what you decide! And lots of photos please! (I find it so much easier than reading!)

 

[BigJay]

reflectors while important are somewhat lost on power compacts. Its the reason I say they are inefficient. In other words you could get just as much light in your tank with a individually reflected 20w T5 as you would with a 40w powercompact. Its the design of the light that is the problem.
Zoanthids are NOT light demanding. I've grown dozens of varieties under 9w PC's placed 7 " 's above the corals. Rics are not universal but in general they are low to medium light corals.

 

[Uslanja]

Hi BigJay! Your right on the power compacts. We don't believe that ours was very good at getting light into the tank and we also believe that the colour shifted very early on in the life of the bulb. Wouldn't buy another one. Our ricordea and mushrooms have done well but our zoanathids have browned out and they were such a nice intense green colour when we first got them. Since we changed up lighting they are slowing colouring up again. I can`t point to the info source, but when we did our research on why our zoas browned out we had read where they like metal halides. Since that experience with power compacts we have become T5 and halide fans! But check out our nano link. We had a 10 gallon as well and ran with screw in corallife power compact bulbs in a plastic hood with no reflector. It was a great little tank and tons of fun!

We are all in favour of you getting that 10 gallon up and running!

 

[BigJay]

possibly read that on a web site that was selling halides. . Zooanthids generally will do fine in any of the normal reef lighting.
. The great thing about zooanthids is they have a built in "turkey timer" . If they aren't getting enough light they will stand up "reaching" for the light. If they are sitting flat against the rocks they are generally happy with the light they are receiving.

 

[NjRiCaN]

Thanks guys for all the responses! so it sounds to me that i will probably be investing in a t5 fixture instead of my cf. i will try the cf first tho and if it doesnt work out then ill upgrade to t5 or maybe just keep a ricordea tank. just one question guys, what about protein skimming?

 

[BigJay]

no fish in the tank right? If not I'd skip the skimmer. It's hard to get a decent skimmer for that small of a tank anyway.