New to zoas and need advice

[jpmazzone]

Hi there! I am starting a new tank, an innovative marine 50 gallon AIO Lagoon. It is being fishless cycled right now and I plan to do an entire tank of only Zoa's. I've mapped out my PAR with the pumps running and it ranges from 180 just below the surface to 60 at the absolute bottom of the tank. The light diffuses nicely with the AI Blade 44 grow so I do not seem to have any hot spots.

My plan is as follows:
Top of rockwork - Utter Chaos, Blue Hornet, Sunny D's, and Rastas
Mid rockwork - Daisy Cutters, Armor of God, and Lemon Twist paly's
Low base rockwork - Radio Active Dragon Eyes, Eagle Eyes, and Fire and Ice

My question is, are any of these corals ones that an experienced zoa reef keeper would say, "keep that out of your tank!"? I am interested to know if any of these corals will grow so aggressively that they will overtake the more slow growing collector type morps.

I'm grateful for any advice.

 

[IceNein]

I don't know if it's an Armor of God, but it is a near morph if it isn't, like Devil's Armor. Really it looks like any number of Zoas people call armor of or xxx's armor. But that thing is a weed. I have a rock that is absolutely covered in it and I am considering pulling it out and cutting it off the rock. Maybe just chucking the rock altogether and buying another one.

 

[jpmazzone]

I don't know if it's an Armor of God, but it is a near morph if it isn't, like Devil's Armor. Really it looks like any number of Zoas people call armor of or xxx's armor. But that thing is a weed. I have a rock that is absolutely covered in it and I am considering pulling it out and cutting it off the rock. Maybe just chucking the rock altogether and buying another one.

Wow. That is good to know. All of my corals are going to come from TopshelfAquatics so I am using all their terminology. Also, my entire plan was derived from ChatGPT. It will either be wildly successful or a complete flop!

 

[Tahoe61]

Sunny D's were a favorite of mine, but they did become invasive. I am inclined to classify them as palys.

 

[Mark82]

Hey brother. When I first started reefing I had the same idea, I wanted a big zoa garden with tons of different colors all growing together. At first it looked awesome with all the contrast and variety.
But over time I learned that one morph will almost always outcompete the others and eventually take over the rock.Now I still collect zoas, but I keep them on separate mini islands so each morph has its own space to grow without overrunning the others. In my previous tank my Bam Bams ended up taking over the entire rock where several other zoa colonies were growing. Mixed zoa gardens look great in the beginning, but long term I’ve found isolating them makes things much easier to manage.

 

[jpmazzone]

Hey brother. When I first started reefing I had the same idea, I wanted a big zoa garden with tons of different colors all growing together. At first it looked awesome with all the contrast and variety.
But over time I learned that one morph will almost always outcompete the others and eventually take over the rock.Now I still collect zoas, but I keep them on separate mini islands so each morph has its own space to grow without overrunning the others. In my previous tank my Bam Bams ended up taking over the entire rock where several other zoa colonies were growing. Mixed zoa gardens look great in the beginning, but long term I’ve found isolating them makes things much easier to manage.

I suspected that. I just didn’t want to hear it! I think I will try a combination of isolation and slow growers together.

 

[Ice]

I feel like any of the bigger poly zoas can be aggressive like that, amor of God, gobbstopper, sunny d are three off the top of my head that grow fast and condensed. I just recently put all three of them on the same rock to see what they do.

 

[littlebigreef]

I’d avoid the lemon twist palys (and anything like capt jerk, America or the death ones - they all grow fast, Coke stuff out, and can be problematic to remove.

Your idea is the best way to keep zoas in a display. I’d suggest keeping rockwork separated if you’re worried about them growing into each other (which will happen any way).

Best to group larger and smaller polyped zoas with like strains.