zoa help

[MikeB]

Why are my zoa barely growing when all my lps coral are thriving and growing well?  Even my Rainbow lobo is growing faster

 

[Boga]

Why are my zoa barely growing when all my lps coral are thriving and growing well?  Even my Rainbow lobo is growing faster

In my old tank, I could not keep zoa's. They died off. LPS were thriving as you said.

With my new set up it looks that zoa's do well. Below are the changes that I've done and in my opinion may affect them:
- before I had filter socks and now I don't. Maybe more food (micro particles) are in the water column now.
- once per week I feed zooplankton.
- better water quality now than before
- improved lighting

I want to now the answer as well, so I hope more folks would chime in.

 

[nexusnight]

not sure really here either. in my old 55g i could get em to grow either, now ive been getting close to 1 polyp a week on almost all of my zoo frags. i do run leds now bigger tank and feed the fauna marin zoa/ric food

 

[TORX]

I will need to re read, but I think there are certain chemicals and vitamins that they use more then other lps. I can not remember off hand though

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[Poseidon]

my lps doesnt grow that fast at all, but most of my sps grow fairly well,
my zoas on the other hand, grow like weeds, turned a sunny d colony of 5 into 25-30 in 8 months

 

[Boga]

my lps doesnt grow that fast at all, but most of my sps grow fairly well,
my zoas on the other hand, grow like weeds, turned a sunny d colony of 5 into 25-30 in 8 months

do you feed SPS? Wondering if zoas can use some of their food, too.

 

[Pistol]

I dose strontium, have read a lot of threads that see improvements in zoas when doing so, I use socks, have no SPS, feed corals once a week, DIY LED w/no UV, NO3 < 1ppm, PO4 0.03, alk 8dkh, SG 1.026, I keep my tank pretty clean, skim heavy, weekly WC 10%, my zoas do well but have had a few colonies waste away, they are weird that way, when wasting I tried moving them around the tank but it didn't matter where I put them.

 

[Poseidon]

[quote author=Poseidon link=topic=7182.msg73333#msg73333 date=1387083651]
my lps doesnt grow that fast at all, but most of my sps grow fairly well,
my zoas on the other hand, grow like weeds, turned a sunny d colony of 5 into 25-30 in 8 months

do you feed SPS? Wondering if zoas can use some of their food, too.
[/quote]


No I don't feed my corals, just pellets and sea weed to my fish.
I do want to start feeding though, it's just my po4 is to damn high lol

 

[Reef Hero]

First, where did the zoas come from? Many colonies that are not proven in captivity and even those that are, seem to have a notion to just melt away sometimes. The Sunny D's mentioned above seem to grow great for me and others....mine are lineaged back to darrylv.
I find that if I feed my tank, and spot feed my lps, everything does better. I am picky in which foods I use and I always monitor my po4 and nitrates. In order to keep feeding and not experience algae blooms, I find it necessary for me to keep my rodi media up to date and also change out my GFO regularly. I also skim very heavy and wet.
I have been thinking about trying some food specific for zoas and palys.....not sure though yet what to try.


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[Poseidon]

First, where did the zoas come from? Many colonies that are not proven in captivity and even those that are, seem to have a notion to just melt away sometimes. The Sunny D's mentioned above seem to grow great for me and others....mine are lineaged back to darrylv.
I find that if I feed my tank, and spot feed my lps, everything does better. I am picky in which foods I use and I always monitor my po4 and nitrates. In order to keep feeding and not experience algae blooms, I find it necessary for me to keep my rodi media up to date and also change out my GFO regularly. I also skim very heavy and wet.
I have been thinking about trying some food specific for zoas and palys.....not sure though yet what to try.


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Got them from Darryl at London frag fest

 

[Reef Hero]

My question was more directed towards the OP...MikeB.
But good to know Brandon..... I got some GOW from Darryl at London fragfest and they are growing and looking great.
I've had some melt away.....my utter chaos, Bloodshots, redneck zombies, and couple others melted away....my Rastas went from 4p down to 1 but now they are back to 4 again....


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[spyd]

Zoos and palys can be one of the harder things to grow in a reef tank. I had very little success in my first tank. I could grow SPS and LPS but zoos were all most impossible. Now, I have been having great success. My Utter chaos went from one big head and 1 baby to 8 large heads now in just over a month. Even zoos are growing for me. My Rastas have added about 5 heads in just weeks.

I think zoos and palys all most do better in cleaner systems with higher flow. My LPS growth is slower in my system but that's just because I don't manually feed them enough as of late. If your LPS are growing fast, without directly feeding them a lot, typically that means your system is running a little "dirtier" as there is lots of nutrients for them to feed on. I don't think zoos and palys like that too much but that's just from what I have seen with my tanks.

 

[MikeB]

I do feed my lps weekly.