How do I get my zoas to grow nice and fat?

[User1]

I didn't take offense.
I think the market is putting LEDs too high, mainly because of their monetary value. Anyone can get a halide or T5 fixture for a fraction of the price of most LEDs. We all know that halides and T5s are much easier to use and to give amazing results. Yet, in the name of "better technology" we see the majority of sales towards LEDs. Market strategy to get more $ out of the same number of sales. It works.

Or replace bulbs every 6 months.... Pick your poison.

 

[User1]

and... if anyone wants to tell me that a halide 6500K doesn't give the VERY BEST COLORATION AND GROWTH compared to ANY other bulb in the market is also disagreeing with Dr. Sanjay Joshi and Mike palleta (see video).

Not sure if you know this but Dr. Joshi's tank, or at least the 500 gallon, is using LED's. Ecotech I believe. At least the last time I looked at the video by Mr. Adams put together.

There is no LED propaganda or hidden agenda. No conspiracy theory. The products are out there be it LED or bulb. As the saying goes, Caveat Emptor...

 

[A. grandis]

Or replace bulbs every 6 months.... Pick your poison.

Replace your whole fixture every hype.... pick yours then.

 

[A. grandis]

Not sure if you know this but Dr. Joshi's tank, or at least the 500 gallon, is using LED's. Ecotech I believe. At least the last time I looked at the video by Mr. Adams put together.

There is no LED propaganda or hidden agenda. No conspiracy theory. The products are out there be it LED or bulb. As the saying goes, Caveat Emptor...

I know... and have spoke to him many times in my life...
Do you want to discuss about that video, or you want to bring more mud to the pile?
That comment from Mr. Paletta is still valid, by the way.
And... they still can't have those nice Acros he was talking about in that video, if they choose the LEDs. Do you think those Radions are any good? Even Dr. Sanjay's yellow Porites lost it's color because of those LEDs. There is more man... I just don't think is worthy to keep arguying.
Go try yourself and come back. You will thank me, like every person that tried.
I love you all.

 

[User1]

Replace your whole fixture every hype.... pick yours then.

Well, bulbs wear out. Fact of life. I experienced this when I had my 175W MH and VHO actinics. Or are you saying you the bulbs will perform the same on day 364 as they did on day 1? That would be a neat trick but alas I do not believe that is the case. Replacement is at least yearly with some doing it more frequently. Out of my scope but i do know they need to be replaced.

Another interesting fact is that one does not have to upgrade LED fixtures. There are those that will of course but those are the same people that upgrade many things be it reef equipment or cars.

Next?

 

[User1]

I know... and have spoke to him many times in my life...
Do you want to discuss about that video, or you want to bring more mud to the pile?
That comment from Mr. Paletta is still valid, by the way.
And... they still can't have those nice Acros he was talking about in that video, if they choose the LEDs. Do you think those Radions are any good? Even Dr. Sanjay's yellow Porites lost it's color because of those LEDs. There is more man... I just don't think is worthy to keep arguying.
Go try yourself and come back. You will thank me, like every person that tried.
I love you all.

Well, since you referenced it I figured you might as well know a system of theirs is using LED's. I found it rather ironic. But has I've stated several times now there is no best solution no matter how much you or I try to suggest. Successful tanks use many different lighting to include some using only natural sunlight.

Edit: we should at least both be able to agree on that, no?

Edit 2: this one may actually be more funny. Going back through this lighting debate (not really an argument) and thread it was asked how one grows nice and healthy Zoa's. Well, I have nothing really to say and I probably shouldn't have posted.

I am not able to keep any Zoa's because my Coral Beauty eats them. So...how is that? Time to go eat some crow.

Anyway - if any of my replies seemed out of bounds especially towards you @A. grandis not my intent. Accept my apology. Pretty sure I would still break bread with you should our paths meet.

 

[warlocktitan]

Thanks for the info! So nice that full spectrum+UV. They already have some UV, but that bulb must be great!!! Wild spectrum chart too! LOL! Nice!
I use to have 6000K Giesemann over my planted systems. Best bulbs I've had for plants, and the Super Flora. They are all great bulbs.
If you don't mind, what did you notice with those tropic+UV bulbs. I bet you're having a bit more growth and greater colors too. A little more algae? Please let us know.
Cheers!

Still early to tell as I only start use it for a month but as you already know from experience as mentioned, it seem growing faster and abit of algae as well that where I have to tweak the schedule a bit until thing balance out.

It does take some time for corals to adapt to the new spectrum but with your experience eyes from the graph this T5 full spectrum plus UV come very close to MH spectrum but use less power.

I find T5 HO 54W Full Spectrum + UV stimulate the growth better than the GIESEMANN 54W TROPIC T5 due to that extra UV range and deeper Actinic range with deep red of 670 nm spectrum.

It's quite wonderful to understand intimately about color theory and spectrum charts. I can differentiate from the spectrum charts of each bulb and vision what it will be like. From there you just have to balance the exposure time to get the result you want.

MH has that wonderful balance of full sun spectrum range but lots less intense, T5 full spectrum+UV has higher peak spectrum of 660-700 nm.

Even between the MH different company has slightly better spectrum among them.

I find 10K MH bulb is by far the most balance between growth and pop vs 15K or 20K with nicer pop from extra blue spectrum but less growth.

I include the Sun spectrum, MH and Led superimpose spectrum graph for comparison and educational purpose.

 

[A. grandis]

Well, since you referenced it I figured you might as well know a system of theirs is using LED's. I found it rather ironic. But has I've stated several times now there is no best solution no matter how much you or I try to suggest. Successful tanks use many different lighting to include some using only natural sunlight.

Edit: we should at least both be able to agree on that, no?

Edit 2: this one may actually be more funny. Going back through this lighting debate (not really an argument) and thread it was asked how one grows nice and healthy Zoa's. Well, I have nothing really to say and I probably shouldn't have posted.

I am not able to keep any Zoa's because my Coral Beauty eats them. So...how is that? Time to go eat some crow.

Anyway - if any of my replies seemed out of bounds especially towards you @A. grandis not my intent. Accept my apology. Pretty sure I would still break bread with you should our paths meet.

You don't need to apologize. His new LED tank is great! It's all over the internet. My point is that they are simply different. He will never have that Porites coral back to bright yellow again if he keeps those Radions over his tank, that's for sure! LEDs have limits in comparison to halides. That's just an example. Hey, I would have to be blind to say his tank isn't good.
Hope this time you get what I'm trying to say.

I have a solution for you to keep zoas... get a fish only tank tank with live rock for the Coral Beauty.

 

[A. grandis]

So... Other than lighting has anyone noticed anything. I am going to make an executive decision and call the LED/T5/MH debate dead in this thread. Any further posts should be placed elsewhere. Create your own thread.

I think I'm going to try "sprinkling" my zoa's with Reef Roids with the flow off. I've just squirted them in the past, but I think that may have just made them angry.

Reef Roids won't do much if your lights aren't good enough...
Nah, just kidding!!

 

[Matthijs]

Most important for zoa to keep them healthy is to be sure there are no predators threatening them.
The smallest pest or algae will have them closed and eventually melt.
They say theyre one of the easiest corals to keep but in my opinion thats not true at all because they are collected from different places and all have their own requirements + they sometimes melt without an obvious reason.
Allso palythoa are much easier to keep/breed then the smaller zoanthus.
I had ALOT of zoa in the past years in different tanks, some had a very nice growth rate, closed one day and melted away with next to them another colony who did fine.
At this point every single polyp is doing fine. I dose AquaForest A,B,C. I have a dastaco with measurements of the KH director to keep it at 7.5 constantly.
Nitrates and phosphate are high at this point (10-20ppm and 0.10) as I'm dosing phosphates to lower nitrates.
I didn't do any waterchange the past 8 months and dose from time to time some coral food (RedSea reef energy, fauna marin zoa&rico food, h2o ocean lps and some reef roids), carbondose vinegar&sugar and some vitC.
I usually feed the fish freezed mysis, different kinds of flakes, sometimes freezed artemia and freezed lobster eggs and phytoplankton.
I don't know if this might help you as there's no magical potion/combo I'm using to have some healthy zoa.
For me stability is the key..

Grtz,
Matthijs

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Silly me. I clicked on this thread expecting to see some useful info on getting Zoas to grow fat and healthy. Instead, all I see are lighting wars from the usual suspects. I left Reef Central because the signal to noise had become so low that useful discussion was hard to come by. Let's not allow R2R to go down the same path.

Dennis

 

[Ponraj A]

Increased my T5 photo period to 4:30hrs and Zia’s getting bit better will gradually increase to max 6hrs in three weeks

 

[A. grandis]

Silly me. I clicked on this thread expecting to see some useful info on getting Zoas to grow fat and healthy. Instead, all I see are lighting wars from the usual suspects. I left Reef Central because the signal to noise had become so low that useful discussion was hard to come by. Let's not allow R2R to go down the same path.

Dennis

Yes, silly you.
Light is one of the most important subjects in coral healthy.
I think you are the suspect. Silly you!
Let the thread take it's clean course, please. We already stopped talking bout the differences of light.

 

[Ice]

Now that we should be done beating the light debate into the ground I have a serious question. I've seen some people use additives in their ato unit to dose the tank when water top off is activated. Curious to if anyone does that here for growth and health and what they use?

 

[A. grandis]

Now that we should be done beating the light debate into the ground I have a serious question. I've seen some people use additives in their ato unit to dose the tank when water top off is activated. Curious to if anyone does that here for growth and health and what they use?

What are the additives are you referring to? What do they add?

 

[Ice]

I've seen a few add iodine drops into their ro/di water in their ato reservoir and claim it was a key to maintaining great color and growth, I've personally never tired it.

 

[Matthijs]

I've seen a few add iodine drops into their ro/di water in their ato reservoir and claim it was a key to maintaining great color and growth, I've personally never tired it.

That depends if u do weekly waterchanges or not.
I don't do any waterchanges and dose iodine and strontium everyday.

Grtz,
Matthijs

 

[rogersb]

Now that we should be done beating the light debate into the ground I have a serious question. I've seen some people use additives in their ato unit to dose the tank when water top off is activated. Curious to if anyone does that here for growth and health and what they use?

I put Mrs. Wages in my ATO. Helps replenish alk and ca plus keep pH up. I know zoas don't use ca, but they do want steady alk. I don't do iodine or anything else because I don't test for it.

I feed my fish only frozen food and try to feed lots of it. I do a water change once a week and hit a few pieces with reef roids, but not much.

Been doing this about 10 years and used several different types of lighting. I ran straight t-5's for several years and was happy with the growth and colors. I had led's for several years but was never happy with growth. Colors can pop with led, but growth was poor. I am now using MH + t-5 and have super growth and color.

 

[rogersb]

This tank has been running 1 year 8 months. Zoas started as frags. IMO these zoas are large/plump for their type.

 

[A. grandis]

I've seen a few add iodine drops into their ro/di water in their ato reservoir and claim it was a key to maintaining great color and growth, I've personally never tired it.

My advice is to measure before you add anything to the system in the first place. That said, one would have to know how much iodine that particular system actually needs at the period of time in order to offer the right amount daily through ATO. Even though, I would prefer and suggest to set a separated dosing pump if they wish to go automatically. That way you could stop adding if anything comes up.