? for ppl with awesome zoas

[Perthreefer]

1 hour ago, sadie said:

I don't mind the wait.  I get nervous that while I'm waiting, my coral is actually dying and I should have been doing something about it.  As long as I know all is good, I've done all I can, THEN I don't mind waiting.  ☺️

If you can keep a sun coral alive you definitely have the ability to keep Zoas!!

[Tired]

If it's not actively melting away or turning pale and unpleasant-looking, it's probably not dying. Just be sure no algae grows on it, and turkey baste them (gently) if you see algae. 

 

Heck, even paleness isn't a certain death sentence. I have a colony of Rastas where I smashed several polyps in transit pretty badly. Those polyps went milky-clear for a bit, then half of each one sloughed off, but there's healthy flesh underneath. I swear they're starting to regrow at this point. And the rest of the colony is open and happy. 

[MrObscura]

I don't think salinity matters all that much as long as its within typical reef range(1.024-1.027). 

 

More importantly is keeping them well feed imo. Whenever my nutrients get low my zoas struggle. 

 

That goes for all Corals in my experience, from shrooms to acros.

[Tamberav]

My zoas seem to like some nitrate and phosphate...when I slack and don't do a water change nitrate creeps to 30s and PO4 to .1 but they seem to just grow faster. I do finally get some cyano when I let it go that long....then I do a water change and the cyano is gone until I slack again. 10-15 nitrate and 0.08ish PO4 seems to be the sweet spot for me where everything looks happy but no cyano.

 

I keep a tuxedo urchin so something like green hair algae doesn't stand a chance to grow.

[jservedio]

In the wild, zoas and palys grow in tidal pools, so they can naturally survive dirty water with tons of silt, can survive in wildly off salinity and temperatures, and in all different levels of light and flow. However, they can be some of the most baffling and finicky corals we keep in our tanks. You can split up a colony into two pieces  and put them in two different places in your tank that appear about the same and have one entirely melt away and the other grow like a weed and be the nicest looking thing in your tank.

 

I generally start mine where I want them to be and hope for the best. If they start looking really bad after a month or two, I move them into the next best spot and repeat until I find a great spot for them. Eventually they find a place they love and take off. Or, on occasion, just melt away...