My Zoanthid Saga

ZoWhat

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I've been a zoanthid / paly dominated reef for about 3 years.

First year, things were a struggle as I fought and fought GHA. Lost hundreds of dollars worth of live sale zoas bc I was just learning about the true needs of zoas. Like <150 PAR lighting, liw, gentle flow ..... and most importantly how to deal with no3 and po4 while keeping zoas palys fed.

Second year was my best year. Bought many zoas/palys as 2-3 head frags and grew out things quite successfully. turning 2-3 heads into dozens. I believe my success was bc I stayed on top of my no3 and po4 by fine tuning a vodka dosing regiment. Had a good system of feeding a lot if meaty food to fish that in turn pooped on all the zoas/palys, feeding the zoss/palys well.... whike I maintained no3 po4 inside good ranges with vodka dosing.

Then came my 3rd year in which I got on this phytoplankton kick. Thinking zoas/palys must really like having phyto. Not exactly. Growth slowed way down and never really went searching for "why". I got lazy and didn't really test for no3 nor po4. Phyto kept GHA away bc it outcompeted the GHA. In my.mind this was a success... so kept brewing and brewing phyto. but Found out that I dosed way to much phyto that was loaded with no3 and po4 still inside the culture Come to find out the Fertilizer I was using to feed and brew the phyto was chalk full of straight up nitrates and Phosphates. Just 3mos ago started testing again and found no3 well north of 50ppm. PO4 in the 2-3ppm range. A direct result of the Fertilizer I was using to feed and brew the phyto. The constant nightly feeding drove my no3/po4 sky high. Meanwhile the zoas/palys were not.liking the high no3 po4. I thought the phyto was doing its job bc all GHA was being outcompeted and GHA was non existence in my tank. Didn't realize that the high no3 and po4 numbers were slowing down my zoa/paly growth. Just thought they may have just hit a peak in year 2.

Things I realize now is to go BACK to feeding my fish lots of meat to poop on the zoas/palys WHILE vodka dosing to keep nitrates at around 10ppm. I have now learned how to slow drip LaCl thru a 5micron sock to keep po4 below 0.5

This heavy laden no3 po4 phyto I was using turned about 25% of my zoas into tiny heads whike barely staying alive. Yikes.... Now that im.dropping no3 po4 to much more acceptable ranges,, tiny zoas starting to reappear now that my no3 dropped from 50ppm to 10. And my po4 dropped from 3ppm to 0.5 or less.

I DO NOT BUY the "Ole Adage" that zoas like dirty water with lots of no3. Hogwash.... any no3 above 20ppm in MY tank just makes my zoas struggle.

My 3 years with zoas has definitely been a saga... but im learning more with each turn.


.
 
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Bleigh

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Interesting! How big is your tank? I have a small AIO zoa only tank that I don't pay attention to as much as I should lots of GHA too. I've been thinking about adding some dragon's breath or something into the display to help with the nitrates.
 

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I try to stick with nitrates around 10ppm and phosphates hovering around 0.10ppm. I recently had to start dosing phosphates because the were undetectable on my Hanna checker (NOT the ULR version) and things started taking off again. Oddly enough, it was angry hammer corals that clued me in to the phosphate issue.

I dose aminos (AB+) every day and broadcast Reef Chili 3x a week. I feed my fish pretty well (plenty of food) every day, but phosphates still disappear, even with no algae to speak of. I guess my CuC might be too efficient. :D
 

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When people say that zoas like ‘dirty water’ they mean nitrates around 15ppm and phosphates around 0.1ppm. Generally the people who say this are coming from the low nutrient school of thought. No coral ‘likes’ nitrates at 30+ppm, they might adapt and even thrive, but it’s not an ideal range for any coral.
 
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ZoWhat

ZoWhat

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Interesting! How big is your tank? I have a small AIO zoa only tank that I don't pay attention to as much as I should lots of GHA too. I've been thinking about adding some dragon's breath or something into the display to help with the nitrates.
6ft 180g.... total volume around 240ish

Water volume that size is like steering a 500 yards long cruiseship.... takes a long time to turnaround things that slowly got out of control... unless you want to blow thru a bucket of salt everytime things are wrong with no3 po4 :rolleyes:

@Bleigh

I would aim for:

Calc low 400s
Alk around 7-8
Mag around 1400
* Achieved with 25% WC monthy. WC a must. RODI a must.

Things to dose but TEST weekly
Iodide around .08 to .1
Potassium around 380 but < 460. Anything in the high 200s range, blues are drab. Anything > 460, coral stress

NO3 10-15ppm but no more than 20
* Managed by ethanol carbon dosing, 1ml 80proof vodka per 20gals)

PO4 less than .05 but not zeroed out
* Managed by slow drip LaCl (pool phosphate remover) thru a 5micron sock. Constant flow of around 200gph with LaCl mix slowly dripping over the course of 4 days. LaCl mix: 1ml LaCl per 2 gallons slowly dripped over 3-4 days. Watch Tangs for any rapid breathing from LaCl getting in their gills. They'll rebound quickly if you catch it early and stop LaCl for a few days

I prefer the vodka (ethanol) carbon dosing method. But with this method you MUST:

* have a strong skimmer to skim out bounded no3
* have lots of aeration oxygenation. Good bacteria blooms as a result of ethanol dosing will rapidly deplete O2 to where your fish will rapid breath and possibly suffocate. Tangs are the first to suffocate, clowns probably last

.
 
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Bleigh

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6ft 180g.... total volume around 240ish

Water volume that size is like steering a 500 yards long cruiseship.... takes a long time to turnaround things that slowly got out of control... unless you want to blow thru a bucket of salt everytime things are wrong with no3 po4 :rolleyes:

@Bleigh

I would aim for:

Calc low 400s
Alk around 7-8
Mag around 1400
* Achieved with 25% WC monthy. WC a must. RODI a must.

Things to dose but TEST weekly
Iodide around .08 to .1
Potassium around 380 but < 460. Anything in the high 200s range, blues are drab. Anything > 460, coral stress

NO3 10-15ppm but no more than 20
* Managed by ethanol carbon dosing, 1ml 80proof vodka per 20gals)

PO4 less than .05 but not zeroed out
* Managed by slow drip LaCl (pool phosphate remover) thru a 5micron sock. Constant flow of around 200gph with LaCl mix slowly dripping over the course of 4 days. LaCl mix: 1ml LaCl per 2 gallons slowly dripped over 3-4 days. Watch Tangs for any rapid breathing from LaCl getting in their gills. They'll rebound quickly if you catch it early and stop LaCl for a few days

I prefer the vodka (ethanol) carbon dosing method. But with this method you MUST:

* have a strong skimmer to skim out bounded no3
* have lots of aeration oxygenation. Good bacteria blooms as a result of ethanol dosing will rapidly deplete O2 to where your fish will rapid breath and possibly suffocate. Tangs are the first to suffocate, clowns probably last

.
Good info!!!

I have a 180 gallon tank also. My small zoa tank is 15 gallon. The plan was to manage through water changes, but I tend to neglect it and work on the bigger tank more often.

Marian Wright Edelman Feminism GIF by Women's History
 

Just John

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6ft 180g.... total volume around 240ish

Water volume that size is like steering a 500 yards long cruiseship.... takes a long time to turnaround things that slowly got out of control... unless you want to blow thru a bucket of salt everytime things are wrong with no3 po4 :rolleyes:

@Bleigh

I would aim for:

Calc low 400s
Alk around 7-8
Mag around 1400
* Achieved with 25% WC monthy. WC a must. RODI a must.

Things to dose but TEST weekly
Iodide around .08 to .1
Potassium around 380 but < 460. Anything in the high 200s range, blues are drab. Anything > 460, coral stress

NO3 10-15ppm but no more than 20
* Managed by ethanol carbon dosing, 1ml 80proof vodka per 20gals)

PO4 less than .05 but not zeroed out
* Managed by slow drip LaCl (pool phosphate remover) thru a 5micron sock. Constant flow of around 200gph with LaCl mix slowly dripping over the course of 4 days. LaCl mix: 1ml LaCl per 2 gallons slowly dripped over 3-4 days. Watch Tangs for any rapid breathing from LaCl getting in their gills. They'll rebound quickly if you catch it early and stop LaCl for a few days

I prefer the vodka (ethanol) carbon dosing method. But with this method you MUST:

* have a strong skimmer to skim out bounded no3
* have lots of aeration oxygenation. Good bacteria blooms as a result of ethanol dosing will rapidly deplete O2 to where your fish will rapid breath and possibly suffocate. Tangs are the first to suffocate, clowns probably last

.
It's been years - we need to se a picture of that famous tank! :)
 
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ZoWhat

ZoWhat

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which test kits do you prefer for these?
Iodine/Iodide = seachem seems to be the most accurate if you are ready to read results within the first 30secs. After 1min the color continues to get darker giving false readings. I trust the color within the 15-30sec range

Potassium = salifert
 

Fishinabarrel

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Thank you for sharing your adventures!
I am 30 days into making a zoa garden nano and your experiences are helpful to know.

I already dose ethanol (on other main tank) and was going to start that on this zoa garden.
But I do not have a skimmer on this tank.
Don't really have a good strategy for long term filtering beyond heavy water changes, carbon filtering.

For the iodide and K+ dosing, what effects did these have? And can water changes suffice to replace these elements?
 

Chrisv.

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Iodine/Iodide = seachem seems to be the most accurate if you are ready to read results within the first 30secs. After 1min the color continues to get darker giving false readings. I trust the color within the 15-30sec range

Potassium = salifert
Well, based on this I ordered the kit, which through the magic of Amazon, arrived today. I was so glad that they included a standard with the kit. I tested two tanks, both with ZERO iodine.

I do small water changes weekly or every other week with tropic Marin salt and I dose a4r in the tank that has stony corals. Last week I bought red sea color supplements, and dosed assuming low iodine in both tanks. So, suffice it to say I was stunned to see it zeroed out. Thank goodness for the positive control.

The zoa-only tank has an undersized chemipure blue pouch. The stony coral tank has gfo and carbon. I wonder if my carbon is stripping it out, or if my corals are gobbling it up. Wow.
 
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ZoWhat

ZoWhat

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Salifert potassium comes tomorrow.
Betcha a dollar-a-donut your potassium tests low bc ALL dry salt mix companies make sure their product is low in potassium.... bc potassium in excess of 500ppm can make corals super stressed out and brown out. A liability they don't want nor the bad word-of-mouth....and salt sales plummet

To nail potassium at 400ppm you gotta dose and test for it.

Corals use potassium at a slow rate so once you nail 400ppm you can rest on that number fir a good 60 days before it goes into depletion into the low low 300s.

Key is to NOT overdose potassium. You nail 400ish your blues in your corals will sparkle. Too little, blues are drab, too high, brown out
 
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Chrisv.

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I will say that the first time I dosed iodine was after two or three zoa frags had been closed up. After blindly dosing, they all opened 100%
 

Chrisv.

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So after testing iodine last night, I dosed to bring it back up. Some of the mushrooms are 2x their normal size...in a matter of like 15 hours.
 

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