Zoas wont Grow

[Alkomist]

so I have a 40Breeder set up. it was currently a Fish only tank for about a year. 4 months ago I started adding corals. Mainly Zoas,LPS, and a bunch of mushrooms. Needless to say I have a reef now

I want to know what I can do to make my corals grow more?

I have a few Zoa frags that iv had for about 2.5 months that haven't grown AT ALL. and its bugging me lol

is there a certain chemical or something that they like?

I've never dosed anything before. I usually end up doing 45-50% water changes at the end of every week

(10g's every 3 days). so I never thought I would have the need to dose.... my water is clean my Perams look ok ...am I doing too much cleaning?

is there anything I can do to make these thing spaz out and grow like crazy?

 

thanks

[Ruckus16]

zoas prefer "dirty" water in my experience. I dose Fuel

[Legendary Corals]

Needless to say I have a reef now

Lol... I know the feeling.

 

If your parameters are all spot on, then it's only time. What morphs do you have? I do know as a fact some morphs grow better than others and it'll help me recommend placement in your tank. What's your current system in terms of lighting and flow?

zoas prefer "dirty" water in my experience. I dose Fuel

We also noticed this too. If you got a lot of fish, they'll love you. Fuel seems to be making a difference as well after so many of our friends recommended it.

[xiaoxiy]

Lol... I know the feeling.

 

If your parameters are all spot on, then it's only time.

^This has been my experience

 

I added a bunch of corals (from various sources, including LC) to my tank about 4-5 months ago, and only experienced little-modest growth. Then within the past month, I've had an explosion in the growth of my zoas.

 

I'm talking first 4 months:

Sunny D's: 4 Polyps -> 5 Polyps

Rastas: 3 Polyps -> 5 Polyps

Demon Eyes: 2 Polyps -> 3 Polyps

LA Lakers: 2 Polyps -> 3 Polyps

Peachy Blues: 2 Polyps -> 2 Polyps

 

Then within the past month:

Sunny D's: 5 Polyps -> 9 Polyps

Rastas: 5 Polyps -> 12 Polyps

Demon Eyes: 3 Polyps -> 5 Polyps

LA Lakers: 3 Polyps -> 7 Polyps

Peachy Blues: 2 Polyps -> 5 Polyps

 

I think sometimes it's just a waiting game.

[Legendary Corals]

^This has been my experience

 

I added a bunch of corals (from various sources, including LC) to my tank about 4-5 months ago, and only experienced little-modest growth. Then within the past month, I've had an explosion in the growth of my zoas.

 

I'm talking first 4 months:

Sunny D's: 4 Polyps -> 5 Polyps

Rastas: 3 Polyps -> 5 Polyps

Demon Eyes: 2 Polyps -> 3 Polyps

LA Lakers: 2 Polyps -> 3 Polyps

Peachy Blues: 2 Polyps -> 2 Polyps

 

Then within the past month:

Sunny D's: 5 Polyps -> 9 Polyps

Rastas: 5 Polyps -> 12 Polyps

Demon Eyes: 3 Polyps -> 5 Polyps

LA Lakers: 3 Polyps -> 7 Polyps

Peachy Blues: 2 Polyps -> 5 Polyps

 

I think sometimes it's just a waiting game.

Yup! Most corals just need to settle down until they start focusing their energy on growing vs just staying alive. And I like that post mostly cuz I see them as corals from us... PICS

[Alkomist]

Lol... I know the feeling.

 

If your parameters are all spot on, then it's only time. What morphs do you have? I do know as a fact some morphs grow better than others and it'll help me recommend placement in your tank. What's your current system in terms of lighting and flow?

We also noticed this too. If you got a lot of fish, they'll love you. Fuel seems to be making a difference as well after so many of our friends recommended it.

 

 

I have a lot lol,. I have Red People eater, VDM's, Sunny D's, Tubbs Blues, Nuke Greens, cpt Americas, purple D's, King Midas, Etc. I got em all as Frags and so far the only things taking off are my King Midas. I got them as a 3 Polyp frag last week and now im counting 6.

but that's it.....

I understand the time thing, but is there anything they like Magnesium?Phyto? besides the dirty water. ill have to maybe cut back to just the 1 WC a week and see how that works.

also if it helps, or means anything I am running sumpless. just a HOB filter and a RW-8 pump(which is why I do such big WC's)

 

Thanks guys for the replies

[Alkomist]

also my lighting consist of an Evergrow 120w light fixture. my wall hammers and torch love it. and my zoas look great under it.

[Legendary Corals]

 

 

I have a lot lol,. I have Red People eater, VDM's, Sunny D's, Tubbs Blues, Nuke Greens, cpt Americas, purple D's, King Midas, Etc. I got em all as Frags and so far the only things taking off are my King Midas. I got them as a 3 Polyp frag last week and now im counting 6.

but that's it.....

I understand the time thing, but is there anything they like Magnesium?Phyto? besides the dirty water. ill have to maybe cut back to just the 1 WC a week and see how that works.

also if it helps, or means anything I am running sumpless. just a HOB filter and a RW-8 pump(which is why I do such big WC's)

 

Thanks guys for the replies

Those are all fairly fast growers and same care level. Ca, Alk, and Mag are all important elements in a reef tank. If those 3 elements are kept stable (I'm assuming Nitrates, Phosphates, Salinity are at the normal params as most tanks) then they should take off in no time! Look at a tank member's thread that you admire and try to replicate similar conditions with your tank. Make sure to choose a tank that has lots of growth, since whatever they're doing is clearly working.

 

In my experience, there is no magic number that reefers should be chasing or magical additive. There is an acceptable range for corals and as long as the parameters of your tank are stable rather than aiming for an exact number, they will take off in no time. They're living organisms after all!

 

I think "dirty water" is a bit misunderstood. By that I mean they don't like extremely clean water like SPS systems prefer. Like a skimmer rated for 400 gallons on a 200 gallon system (lol... that's what we do). I do still recommend weekly water changes since it sounds like you're not dosing. 10% should be more than enough.

 

As for using fuel, I wouldn't play around with additives until you see happy polyps and good growth already. Because corals should be happy and growing without extra additives already. That's my belief anyways. Have you tried feeding them?

[Alkomist]

Thank you guys very much for the info.

Much appreicated

[blasterman]

Most Zoanthid's like nutrient rich water and in the wild will thrive next to sewer run offs, etc. In a reef tank this creates a problem because those same high nutrient levels can cause explosive growths of nuisance algae that can actually choke zoas. Those conditions also aren't ideal for SPS.

 

We also need to distinguish zoanthids from palys. Most palys like green implosions, nuclear greens, purple deaths etc tend to be pretty aggressive about taking food swimming by and will happily gorge themselves on mysis or brine shrimp. Think of palys as prefering the same treatment as LPS like acans and feed at the same time.

 

True colonial zoas on the other hand can be trickier because they don't actively feed on big chunks of food, but there clearly is some filter feeding going on.

 

I've had a number of zoa gardens in my reefing careers and managed to get all varities to grow like weed. Even notoriously slow growing ones like purple hornets I was able to coax rapid growth rates out of by keeping strong mag levels and dkH a bit on the high side. Dosing calcium hydroxide also seemed to help, especially with deep water varities like purple hornets that are sensitive to pH shifts.

[GMay]

I have had pretty good success with zoas and other softies in my tank started last May. Here are two FTS one from last July and another from about a week ago. You can see the growth of the Miami Huricane and GSP has bee very significant. I do feed the tank once or twice a week with a mixture of Reef Roids, rehydrated powdered pellet food and Reef Frenzy. I also do a weekly 10 to 15% water change. The only other thing I do is dose calcium to keep it at about 420 ppm and alkalinity dKH 8-9. Atfirst the growth was very slow but once I began feeding things really kicked.

July 2014

 

February 2015