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.
.
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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