Stratosphere Zoa growth

[Redbird5]

I bought two stratosphere zoa polyps for $20 a piece. I really like the design and color. Plus it was an awesome deal. I feed my corals 4x a week plus have good lighting on them. How fast do stratosphere zoas grow?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

It all depends on the tank, lighting, and flow!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...e-do-they-melt-easily-like-some-zoas.1070471/

 

[Redbird5]

It all depends on the tank, lighting, and flow!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...e-do-they-melt-easily-like-some-zoas.1070471/

PAR is one of those things I don't understand in this hobby. I can tell you about the percentage I have my lights running but other than that I don't know how PAR works. All of my corals are thriving. My nutrients are fine, maybe a tad high, but stable.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

PAR is one of those things I don't understand in this hobby. I can tell you about the percentage I have my lights running but other than that I don't know how PAR works. All of my corals are thriving. My nutrients are fine, maybe a tad high, but stable.

Are you able to rent a PAR meter from someone or borrow it?

 

[littlebigreef]

Stratospheres grow well once established and generally have a moderate feeding response. They’re less likely to grab thawed plankton and mysis but will take brine and brine mixed in a slurry with benepets and/or reefroids.

Par is a measurement of the intensity of your lighting but not the wave lengths (colors).

It’s helpful to know par - especially in mixed reefs - to make an informed decision on coral placement. (Very) generally acros will need higher par (with a few other factors) to look their best where as lps, softies and zoas can tolerate a wide range. Many zoas tolerate a wide range of par and can acclimate to higher par over time. However, some zoas (often labeled as difficult to keep) prefer lower par and have a stronger feeding response.

So say you run your lights at 50% and you’re hitting 200 at the top of your rockwork and 100-120 on the sandbed. That’s a pretty comfortable place to be. However, if you were to run them at 100% and where hitting 600par and 400 on the sand bed then your acros would probably be happy but you might experience issues with some lps, zoas, etc. I realize these are just numbers but it’s essentially another tool to help you determine that ‘sweet spot.’

I will add that it’s a measurement of strength, not wavelength. As a T5 bulb user I settled on ATI’s Blue and purple plus bulbs which give the aquarium white blue look roughly similar to an 18k metal halide bulb. With programmable LEDs you can experiment all over the wavelength.

 

[Redbird5]

Stratospheres grow well once established and generally have a moderate feeding response. They’re less likely to grab thawed plankton and mysis but will take brine and brine mixed in a slurry with benepets and/or reefroids.

Par is a measurement of the intensity of your lighting but not the wave lengths (colors).

It’s helpful to know par - especially in mixed reefs - to make an informed decision on coral placement. (Very) generally acros will need higher par (with a few other factors) to look their best where as lps, softies and zoas can tolerate a wide range. Many zoas tolerate a wide range of par and can acclimate to higher par over time. However, some zoas (often labeled as difficult to keep) prefer lower par and have a stronger feeding response.

So say you run your lights at 50% and you’re hitting 200 at the top of your rockwork and 100-120 on the sandbed. That’s a pretty comfortable place to be. However, if you were to run them at 100% and where hitting 600par and 400 on the sand bed then your acros would probably be happy but you might experience issues with some lps, zoas, etc. I realize these are just numbers but it’s essentially another tool to help you determine that ‘sweet spot.’

I will add that it’s a measurement of strength, not wavelength. As a T5 bulb user I settled on ATI’s Blue and purple plus bulbs which give the aquarium white blue look roughly similar to an 18k metal halide bulb. With programmable LEDs you can experiment all over the wavelength.

I understand what PAR is, but I've never measured for it. I go by percentage. PAR is one of those things that doesn't make sense to me. It's a measurement of light and that's all I know.

 

[DmitryB]

I bought two stratosphere zoa polyps for $20 a piece. I really like the design and color. Plus it was an awesome deal. I feed my corals 4x a week plus have good lighting on them. How fast do stratosphere zoas grow?

I'm so jealous!! I want Strato, but it's always a stupid amount $$ I can't justify paying.

 

[littlebigreef]

I understand what PAR is, but I've never measured for it. I go by percentage. PAR is one of those things that doesn't make sense to me. It's a measurement of light and that's all I know.

So how does the measurement of the intensity of light not make sense to you? Or how this information could (is) useful to you?

It’s akin to saying I understand alk/calcuim and I dose a 2 part. But I measure neither.

 

[Redbird5]

So how does the measurement of the intensity of light not make sense to you? Or how this information could (is) useful to you?

It’s akin to saying I understand alk/calcuim and I dose a 2 part. But I measure neither.

I've never measured it. I know it's a measurement of light but beyond that I have no idea what it is.

 

[Grog]

I'm so jealous!! I want Strato, but it's always a stupid amount $$ I can't justify paying.

I'd love to have some in my system.

The problem is, I can add 10 zoa frags into my system. 5 will blow up and go gang busters, the other 5 will melt away. Same tank and same lighting.

I'm not ready to take the chance for the typical prices.

I bought two stratosphere zoa polyps for $20 a piece. I really like the design and color. Plus it was an awesome deal. I feed my corals 4x a week plus have good lighting on them. How fast do stratosphere zoas grow?

$20 for those is a great price. Congrats on the score! At that price, I'd definitely buy some.

 

[slingfox]

I got two strats and they grew to a 30+ polyp colony in maybe a year or so. I am too lazy to sell so I ended up chopping the colony to 10 polyps and threw the rest out. I am back up to 25 polyps again and probably will just give away frags or dispose of the extra when the colony gets too large. .

I have found strats to be fvery easy to grow. I don’t feed them so they just do their own thing. You don’t need intense lighting—if they get too much lighting the pattern changes into a snowstorm of golden dots rather than the golden ring pattern. I therefore have my strat coolly growing under an overhand so they don’t get fried by my oigjre.