Any wise old heads?

[brucey]

Ok, so keen to try and get some insight on long term zoa health…

quick background..
Long term I’ve struggled to maintain stable phosphates and it bounces around significantly. Everything else is stable

I’m now dosing sodium nitrate to help my pax Bellum work more efficiently to lower in a bid to stop running rowa. I know change and clean the reactor roughly every 2 weeks.

How does everyone achieve stability and manage to keep wild colonies, high end and low end Zoas healthy?
when my phos dips below say 0.02 mind tricks are the first to go, as are any wild colonies.
What does everyone see the behaviours of wild colonies and mid-high end Zoas when phosphates go up and down and what do you do to achieve stability?
(High end I’m talking mind tricks, AOI’s, acid reflux, day glo volcanoes etc etc - noted some of these might not be high end in US market)

And when colonies melt, leaving you with only a few left, are those ones left done for and it’s only a matter of time or do they bounce back?

who dose iron for Cheato growth and who dose iodine or avoids it like the plague?
Cheers

 

[MartinM]

I also have low PO4 issues. I see a big improvement in my Zoas when I dose Red Sea AB+.

most of these were small wild colonies when I got them, now they’re growing over everything and the sand for lack of space after about one year:

(I let my aquarium become a war zone for space just like a reef, if you couldn’t tell). It’s a 200L tank and it gets about 15mL of AB+ and 30mL of liquid photo and zooplankton per day.

 

[TankCandy]

I aim for .1 Phos and 20 nitrate. I dose 50Ml of NeoPhos per day. If i hit .03 or less Diatoms will appear overnight. Also I feed the fish very very little. Everything was grown under blue lighting. I also dont to the whole ramp up and down thing. Keeping your Phos over .05 i would say is THE most important paramater in the tank.

 

[brucey]

I aim for .1 Phos and 20 nitrate. I dose 50Ml of NeoPhos per day. If i hit .03 or less Diatoms will appear overnight. Also I feed the fish very very little. Everything was grown under blue lighting. I also dont to the whole ramp up and down thing. Keeping your Phos over .05 i would say is THE most important paramater in the tank.

nice
What are the Zoas in the centre frame at the 11 sec mark?
Orange middle, yellow/green skirt?

 

[TankCandy]

nice
What are the Zoas in the centre frame at the 11 sec mark?
Orange middle, yellow/green skirt?

Those are Hawaiian People Eater's

 

[brucey]

Those are Hawaiian People Eater's

Not those ones I think.
The orange ones to the right of the larger polyp/lash variety

 

[TankCandy]

Either KH Sunburst or Vampire in Drag

 

[MartinM]

+1 on more PO4. I struggle to keep it up because of large maxima clams in a small system!