Do You Need a Calcium Reactor for Raising Zoas??

[Ericm1205]

I built a frag tank to grow out all the zoas i have been buying in hoping to do some trading with them to get more. right now i got like 30 frags of zoas and some sps as well.
i was dosing 2 part but i was tired of my specs bouncing all over the place. plus i have a nano as well and it was a pain to dose 2 tanks every few days.
so i bought a octopus skimmer set it up and its running fine. my parameters have been fine now (Alk, Ca, Mg i was having alk swings that would close up my zoas).

I am currently getting in 30 more nice high end frags of zoas and i did try some sps and they all didnt make it cause of the swings, but i am gonna get back into sps soon. but with a tank mostly dominated with zoas am i going a little overboard with a Ca Reactor with a tank with mostly zoas?

 

[revhtree]

You don't need a calcium reactor to keep any corals! I use one and it sure makes life eaiser for my sps, but if I just were doing zoas I would not use one.

 

[Blackhawk Fan]

I don't even think zoa's/paly's use calcium.

 

[Ericm1205]

well, i got it so i didnt have to dose all the time. and when i did dose i would make the tank have an alk swing or my Ca would drop really low. i grew tired of not baing able to get the tank stable. i killed some nice sps and zoas by not keeping my parameters stable. so this is why i wanted a Ca reactor.
i do plan on getting some sps soon for my collection so i thought that since i had the money to spend on the reactor, i bought one to have. if i didnt get it, i would have blown that money on more zoas and sps and i still would have been mad by having to dose over and over and still having my spec out of whack and pulling my hair out.

 

[110reef]

Make sure your mag is in the right range. If not, cal and alk can get out of wack and its hard to keep your parameters straight. You really shouldn't have to dose either Ca or alk with zoas, but coraline algae will suck up a lot of cal and alk. But if I were you, I wouldn't mess with additives or a ca reactor, just do partial water changes every couple of weeks and you should be fine, IMO.

 

[Russellaqua]

I agree. I kept a ton of zoas in a tank and never once dosed anything, just did water changes every couple of weeks.

 

[benny z]

do you need a calcium reactor? NO!

do you need to maintain alkalinity one way or another? YES!

water changes will likely get you by for a long, long time if you are just keeping softies.

 

[650-IS350]

As long as you keep up with weekly/bi-weekly WC's and keep parameters on spot, good lighting and flow... polyps should grow well for you.

 

[nayrgaijin]

Personally, I dose iodide, ever since my polyps have started growing quite well

 

[BlazinNano]

+1 on th Iodine just test for it to so you dot go crazy on in. Zoas do not use calcium. I dose 2-part everyday. But I use the amount to maintain my levels. I also check them every Friday before I do a WC to see if they need to be bumped as they are being used up.

 

[Dasani]

You don't need a calcium reactor period, just dose with liquid calcium once a week

 

[jcom]

I have a reef doser for Ca, Alk, and Mag. My levels have been rock solid. I have it dose Alk every 6 hours and any swings are less than 0.1 dKh, but usually it just tests at 8.8 day in / day out.

 

[Bodacious]

I just do a weekly water changes with tropic marin

 

[Bodacious]

Zoa's really like more of high nitrates, in my opinion