Secrets to zoa?

[dandelion]

I have been in this hobby for about 2 years now. I've had some success with SPS even in a Pico 5 gallon system, but for the love of my cats I simply cannot get my zoas to thrive. I know all the theories: lower lights, lower flow, higher nutrients, but it seems like my Zoas simply don't thrive. Their colors would get washed out. The stems turn thin. I may get a new small polyp once in a blue moon, but it never grows beyond the boundaries of a small frag plug. Despite my efforts to feed more to raise nutrients, the only thing that happens is GHA which in turn quickly garble up all said nutrients. To me it just seem easier to maintain a low nutrient system for SPS to thrive.

 

Anyways, do you guys have any recommendations on what to do to get my zoas to thrive?

[Clown79]

I have the same experience with them as you, in both my tanks.

 

Can't figure out the problem no matter low light, high light, low flow, high flow, nutrients or not. 

 

At first they will spread, look great, and then 1 by 1 just disappear.

 

I think zoas are one of those corals that some have luck with and others not so much.

 

 

 

 

[dandelion]

2 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

I have the same experience with them as you, in both my tanks.

 

Can't figure out the problem no matter low light, high light, low flow, high flow, nutrients or not. 

 

At first they will spread, look great, and then 1 by 1 just disappear.

 

I think zoas are one of those corals that some have luck with and others not so much.

 

 

 

 

Every beginners guide say zoas and mushrooms are the easiest coral. To me they're the hardest. My single mushroom from almost 2 years ago remain a single small mushroom.

[teenyreef]

I struggled a lot with mine when I started, and never really got to where they would thrive in my first tank. Even recently they've had setbacks in my 40g tank, which is the best tank I've ever had for zoas. What I've found is that for me, in my tanks, the biggest problems were pests and other irritants like fungus/bacteria. Once I got to feel comfortable dipping them regularly, even going as far as dripping hydrogen peroxide directly on them occasionally, things really turned around. 

 

Even now, some of the zoas in my 10g tank get a monthly peroxide dip. I just take the whole rock out, drip some peroxide onto the zoas, and put them back in the tank after 30-60 seconds. If I don't do this, they gradually close up and then dissolve.

 

I also found that I have a particularly irritating variety of hair worm that live in the sand around my zoas, and in the rocks that they're on. They literally killed my zoas until I started removing them.

 

Now I can put the same zoas in three different tanks, with different levels of lighting, current, and nutrients, and they thrive in all three tanks. The different conditions just result in different coloration and different lengths of skirts.

 

Post some pictures of the ones you're struggling with, macro pictures if you can. I'll be happy to tell you if it looks anything like some of the problems I've had.

[Clown79]

All of mine in both tanks.

Every single zoa I have purchased for 2.5yrs just eventually goes downhill. 

 

I have no pests. 

 no fungus either

[seabass]

Some pests are harder to spot/identify than others (could even be pods).  However, some zoanthids are simply more hardy than others.  Some are deep water zoas and might not behave the same as others.  I often hear people complain that the ugliest zoas are the most hardy.

[DaveFason]

A few things to note with zoas.

• Find out where they are collected
• Deep water or shallow
• Flow - I have found that mine tolerate most flows but prefer higher rates - This keeps junk out of them. 

To me the biggest issue is where they were collected. Small species tend to prefer LOW light.

 

Eagle Eyes? I found these can be hammered with light and flow.  These are literally 5-6" away from my light and grow a few heads every two weeks. 350 PAR

 

Unknown name - Prefer high flow and medium light 200 PAR

 

Red Zoas - These prefer MUCH lower light and less flow - ~ 120 PAR

 

Hope this helps in any way! 

 

-Dave

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, DaveFason said:

A few things to note with zoas.

• Find out where they are collected
• Deep water or shallow
• Flow - I have found that mine tolerate most flows but prefer higher rates - This keeps junk out of them. 

To me the biggest issue is where they were collected. Small species tend to prefer LOW light.

 

Eagle Eyes? I found these can be hammered with light and flow.  These are literally 5-6" away from my light and grow a few heads every two weeks. 350 PAR

 

Unknown name - Prefer high flow and medium light 200 PAR

 

Red Zoas - These prefer MUCH lower light and less flow - ~ 120 PAR

 

Hope this helps in any way! 

 

-Dave

My eagle eyes died one by one.

My la packers died, my tnmnt died, various others died.

 

In my 15g- under high flow/high light

 

In my 10g- under moderate

 

It's the one coral I just have no luck with no matter which I get.

 

My 10g has a few that are surviving and spread but not much

[dandelion]

Mine aren't dying yet, but they are obviously not doing too well. Stalks turning thin, colors getting washed out. They are still on frag racks because I'm not planning on keeping them in this tank. But I guess my colonista snails don't like the frag racks too much I keep getting hair algae grow amongst the polyps. I sometimes squirt peroxide directly at them with an insulin syringe to kill the algae. Seems more bandaid than cure.

 

 

[Weetabix7]

9 hours ago, teenyreef said:

I struggled a lot with mine when I started, and never really got to where they would thrive in my first tank. Even recently they've had setbacks in my 40g tank, which is the best tank I've ever had for zoas. What I've found is that for me, in my tanks, the biggest problems were pests and other irritants like fungus/bacteria. Once I got to feel comfortable dipping them regularly, even going as far as dripping hydrogen peroxide directly on them occasionally, things really turned around. 

 

Even now, some of the zoas in my 10g tank get a monthly peroxide dip. I just take the whole rock out, drip some peroxide onto the zoas, and put them back in the tank after 30-60 seconds. If I don't do this, they gradually close up and then dissolve.

 

I also found that I have a particularly irritating variety of hair worm that live in the sand around my zoas, and in the rocks that they're on. They literally killed my zoas until I started removing them.

 

Now I can put the same zoas in three different tanks, with different levels of lighting, current, and nutrients, and they thrive in all three tanks. The different conditions just result in different coloration and different lengths of skirts.

 

Post some pictures of the ones you're struggling with, macro pictures if you can. I'll be happy to tell you if it looks anything like some of the problems I've had.

 

This is very interesting to me, and certainly sounds like something worth trying. 

I have also found that Zoas don't like low Mg levels. 

[dandelion]

1 minute ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

This is very interesting to me, and certainly sounds like something worth trying. 

I have also found that Zoas don't like low Mg levels. 

I'll trying lowering my lights further and see if that helps. I never really test my Mg levels. I tested it a handful of times it's always been high so I just forgot about it.

[Weetabix7]

2 minutes ago, dandelion said:

I'll trying lowering my lights further and see if that helps. I never really test my Mg levels. I tested it a handful of times it's always been high so I just forgot about it.

 

If it's high, then I wouldn't worry about it. 

 

I have to say, I do really like @teenyreef's idea to do regular preventative dips. 

My first experience with pest & disease treatment was with Zoa colonies and boy are they prone to some doozies!!

For myself, I tend to stick to Paly's just cause I know they're hardier.

[Thrassian Atoll]

I could never get my zoas to thrive either.  The only ones that ever did really well were my vivid rainbows.  

[twowilldo]

Oh geeez, just got a shipment of zoas yesterday, still closed up tight as a drum right now.

 

Only ever had a few in past tanks, they seemed to do fine until we had a heater malfunction. Lost many coral (and fish) from that... all the zoas I had melted within a week after that disaster.

 

I hope I am not making a big mistake trying to cultivate a zoa garden...

[Minmay]

I lost 1 polyp of my fruitloops. I was sad but the other zoas seem to be doing good and multiplying but just very slowly. Its crazy cuz they say its suppose to be an easy coral? 

[seabass]

A couple of resources:

• http://zoaid.org/gmedia-gallery/zoanthid_predators_irritators/
• http://zoaid.org/zoapox-zoa-pox-the-search-for-the-cause-and-cure/

 

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

If it's high, then I wouldn't worry about it. 

 

I have to say, I do really like @teenyreef's idea to do regular preventative dips. 

My first experience with pest & disease treatment was with Zoa colonies and boy are they prone to some doozies!!

For myself, I tend to stick to Paly's just cause I know they're hardier.

Ya I got a few paly's not only hardy but they spread.

[GregEmmitte]

I've never had problems with Zoas. But I really don't care so hats probably why they grow. It's called spite.

[Kellie in CA]

Zoas are the most aggravating thing I've got in my tank.  One kind will flourish, while the kind right next to it will refuse to open for months at a time. 

I have one colony that has added at least 100 new polyps in the last year, while another still only has the original 4 I started with.  I had a vision of a pretty garden of different colors, but one type has just taken off and grown circles around all the rest, and of course they are the least interesting looking ones I have!

[I'm Batman]

I'll probably get some s*%# for this...

 

Here's some shots from today of my nano I didn't change the water since February and changed 50% water with water from another tank last weekend. 

 

You can see how much these have overgrown their frag plug...

 

 

I pissed off the green zoa's in the background when I moved some codium out of the way for this shot... don't know how these clove polyps are still alive...

 

This is was one of 6 splits from a single mushroom I tossed in back in November... 

 

 

Maybe your water is too clean?

 

the water in this tank is 76.7 degrees...

[Csalt]

Zoas do not grow in my tank. They actually did the best when the tank was new and not matured. 

[dandelion]

It's comforting to know I'm not the only one having trouble. Thanks @DaveFason for the advice on collection sites. I honestly don't know where they're collected. Some of them I don't even know the names. Another problem is I don't really want to get a PAR meter, so a lot of times for me light intensity is trial and error.

 

once my other tank is back up I will try putting the zoas back in there and raise nitrate slowly to see if that helps. My phosphate is almost always at 0.04 not matter what I do. I'm afraid increasing nitrate will just feed GHA.

[TheBig053]

Mine seem to grow in spurts that I haven't been able to find any correlation with certain parameters changing, etc.  I bought some Rastas and Fire and Ice as my first corals in my tank and when I added them almost immediately (within two days) half the polyps melted away.  They then began to rebound slowly and new polyps began sprouting over the next several weeks.  Since then it seems like they experience a week or two of growth (2-3 new polyps of Fire and Ice and one Rasta) and then nothing for a month. This cycle has repeated itself since adding them. However, the Bam Bam's I added in early June have grown at a fairly steady pace of about one polyp per week since adding them. Since I can't seem to figure it out and they aren't dying, I just don't worry about them.  Although my GSP mat is encroaching on my purple fusions and they aren't happy about it.  I need to bust out the razor blade and perform some GSP lawn maintenance soon! 

[dandelion]

2 hours ago, TheBig053 said:

Mine seem to grow in spurts that I haven't been able to find any correlation with certain parameters changing, etc.  I bought some Rastas and Fire and Ice as my first corals in my tank and when I added them almost immediately (within two days) half the polyps melted away.  They then began to rebound slowly and new polyps began sprouting over the next several weeks.  Since then it seems like they experience a week or two of growth (2-3 new polyps of Fire and Ice and one Rasta) and then nothing for a month. This cycle has repeated itself since adding them. However, the Bam Bam's I added in early June have grown at a fairly steady pace of about one polyp per week since adding them. Since I can't seem to figure it out and they aren't dying, I just don't worry about them.  Although my GSP mat is encroaching on my purple fusions and they aren't happy about it.  I need to bust out the razor blade and perform some GSP lawn maintenance soon! 

Can I ask you what your nitrate and phosphate is? Do you feed your corals?

[TheBig053]

Nitrate has been between 5-10 on the Red Sea Marine kit recently.  I'd like to keep it lower since I have SPS in there now, under 5 preferably. Working on addressing that now. Phosphate has been reading 0.0 on the Salifert kit I, but I know its not true zero because film algae grows on my glass during the week between water changes. Yes, I usually feed reef roids to everything once a week and mysis to my LPS and RFA once a week. Fish get fed pellets daily, but not a whole lot at each feeding.