Zoa Placement Guidance

[Nickles]

I'm starting up this Biocube 14 with a few zoas I picked up from a local reefer and I'd like to find places to attach so they can start to grow out.  I want to avoid placing them in any spots that will be ideal for later additions.  I plan to add some Euphyllia (e.g. duncans, frogspawn, etc.) and maybe try some SPS near the top of the tank (e.g. birdsnest, montipora caps, etc.).  Here are the zoas I have:

 

 

The person who sold them to me described them from left to right as: Solar Flare, Rastas, Gatorades/Pandora, and Utter Chaos.  It seems that the larger polyps might do better in the lower flow areas and the smaller polyps might need slightly higher flow as they grow out and detritus builds up between the polyps.  The Rastas and Utter Chaos are probably the two I'd like to feature most prominently.  I wanted the Gatorade zoas but the only plug he had included the three larger Pandora polyps so I might see if I can remove the small piece of rock on the center of the frag plugs with a couple Gatorade polyps and get the two on separate plugs.  I was hoping to get some insight from more experienced reef keepers on where they would place these to get them adequate flow and leave space for future additions.  The Biocube 14 is lit by a single AI Prime 16 HD.  Here is the rock layout and an example of some locations that I've got in mind.

 

[less than bread]

I like that rock on the left (spots 1 and 2) as a dedicated zoa garden and put them all on it. These things look great when you have a few different kinds that fill in a rock around each other. It's an easy way to get bold color contrast very close together as different kinds of zoas can touch without any problems.

 

Using spots 6 & 7 would be good for this too.

[Murphs_Reef]

Rastas on zone 3, they want light. The others anywhere other than zone 2. 

[Nickles]

Thanks for the feedback @less than bread @Murphych!  I'll try to see if I can get the Gatorade polyps separated off this weekend.  I like the idea of the zoa garden with a few different types of similar sized polyps growing in one area.

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

I would think about throwing the Pandora’s out. They grow so fast, they’ll overtake the others. If you do decide to keep them, I’d definitely put them on their own rock. 

[Murphs_Reef]

6 minutes ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

I would think about throwing the Pandora’s out. They grow so fast, they’ll overtake the others. If you do decide to keep them, I’d definitely put them on their own rock. 

True story I have to use aiptasia X to kill off polyps that encroach on other coral.. they push up 3 new polyps a week on a slow week...

[Nickles]

9 hours ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

I would think about throwing the Pandora’s out. They grow so fast, they’ll overtake the others. If you do decide to keep them, I’d definitely put them on their own rock. 

I hadn't even considered that, probably how the frag plug ended up with them on it.  Thanks for the heads up.  Either way I think I'll rehome the Pandora polyps instead of the other way around.

[Murphs_Reef]

5 hours ago, Nickles said:

Either way I think I'll rehome the Pandora polyps instead of the other way around.

Sounds good. Nice tank btw 👍🏼