how much light?

[dandoozled]

Hi! I really want to have a beautiful zoanthid collection, I am running a fluvo 13.5g tank with the stock light. Is this light enough for most zoas or will I need to upgrade?
The zoas I was thinking of adding so far were utter chaos, sunny ds, jason mango foxes etc.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Do you have any zoas currently? If so, are they stretching for the light?

 

[dandoozled]

Do you have any zoas currently? If so, are they stretching for the light?

I have 3 colonies currently, and none of them stretch for light except one that seems to be growing upwards in a steam formation rather than spreading like my others.. so I'm guessing this answers my question? lol

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Well, in my tank where zoas are shaded somewhat by other corals, they tend to bend and stretch toward areas of higher lighting. I assume that is because the shaded areas aren't bright enough. If your zoas are fully open but not stretching, you probably have enough light.

I will try to post a pic of mine stretching this evening when I get home (if I remember).

 

[Bayareareefer18]

Recently saw a video with top shelf aquatics. Was very interesting how they have observed that there is so much variance between different zoas in what makes them happy. Some wanting more light. Some wanting less.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

This is a colony of my zoas stretching from the shade

 

[dandoozled]

This is a colony of my zoas stretching from the shade

ok I have a colony that does that same thing but they're also under a shaded spot

 

[littlebigreef]

It would be best if you could rent a par meter and get in there and see what where you're currently at. Since its only 13 gal I'm guessing your zoas are no more that 12" or so from the light source. Your stock light might be getting the job done in terms of keeping them alive but you might not get the best color out of them.

I've a number of different strains and I've found there's a very wide variety in their flow and lighting preferences. I'm fortunate in that the floor of my display tank and the top of my growing racks in the sump both receive 115-145 par which has been the sweet spot in my experience. I'd add that My display is LED only and my sump/grow out is T5 (ATI blue +, purple+ and coral+ bulbs) supplemented with a LED strip. On the whole I've had the best results with T5 lighting.

Worth noting that the majority zoas are tough and able to adapt to whatever lighting you might have (going from lower light to higher light). Its only when you're dealing with the really finicky ones where you run into low light and high light demands (IMO).