eggcrate height

[duke1231]

I am going to be moving and turning my 29gal. into a zoanthid frag tank, until I can upgrade my lighting and tank size. My question is how far down from the top of the water should I put my two levels of eggcrate, for zoanthids?

[Phurst]

What's your current lighting setup?

[duke1231]

pc's daylight actinics 130watt daylights

[Phurst]

I'm not sure about daylight actinics. Are they like 50/50s? Half daylight, half actininc?

With regular 10K PCs, you'd probably be OK from top to bottom, and you may still be, but if it were me, I'd work from half way up to the top.

[gwen_o_lyn]

I think in this scenario I would put the eggcrate in the position that is most convenient to you. Zoas do well pretty much anywhere under PC's.

[duke1231]

I was talking to, what I call my personal fish man at my lfs and said most all of thier sps to well underneath thier vho's. phurst they are 50/50 pc's that I have.

[gwen_o_lyn]

hmmm sps under vho's is kinda risky. Sure there is SPS that grows under the low lighting, but the vast majority of it needs higher lighting.

[CarmieJo]

The other thing to think of is how long the SPS are at the LFS. They may live under the VHOs but not thrive.

For example, I have a monti cap frag that a friend brought to a meeting for someone else. When that person didn't show up he gave it to me just to see what would happen. It was at the top of my tank under my PC lights. I have had it for a few months and though it is still alive it has not grown. I am anxious to see how it does under my new Solaris fixture.

[duke1231]

oh your so lucky, I long for that light system. I plan on just keeping zoanthids and frogspawn, which I heard don't need the high light.......I hope.

[CarmieJo]

My zoas were fine no matter where they were under the lights. My torch, Euphyllia sp, the same genus as frogspawn liked to be about halfway up. I haven't had my Solaris long enough yet to know how everything is going to respond.

[duke1231]

I will just have to test certain spots in the aquarium on the eggcrates to find which one will work.

[Rob]

well i dont have much to add.. as everyone has noted with zoanthids and PC lights. you can put the egg create anywhere...

one thing to note, is make sure you can move it or get under it.. stuff will fall and you will need to clean under it.. ;) just a tip for ya..

[duke1231]

Thanks Rob, it's always nice to get your advice. So shoule I leave room in the back of the aquarium for a vacum?

[doctorthompson]

I was talking to, what I call my personal fish man at my lfs and said most all of thier sps to well underneath thier vho's. phurst they are 50/50 pc's that I have.

I'd ditch the 50/50 and just use all 6700K bulbs, the tank won't have an aesthetically pleasing hint of blue anymore but you'll get better growth.

Yeah, almost all "SPS" will do just fine under VHO bulbs if you feed the tank regularly. But again, you'd potentially lose some of that typical "reef tank aesthetic" because many species will drop their colorful refraction pigments - they'll be brown, but still quite healthy and successful.