littlebigreef
Valuable Member
Regarding the reef-flux that makes sense. Certainly algae can be an irritant. Another issue that I’ve seen reported more and more are tiny hydroids that present like fine white hairs on polyps. While these are unaffected by reef-flux swabbing with a mild peroxide mix generally tends to knock them out. Based on discussions with other zoa keepers these can spread rapidly and be pretty destructive when introduced.
One note on the chemi-clean. When it comes to dipping I’ve found repeated concentrated concentrated dips (4 days on, 1 day off, repeat as necessary) to be most effective in knocking out issues (best described as when the polyps look dirty or appear to have marbling algae on the tissue). This is obviously a pretty involved hands on approach that might be too labor intensive for a standard display. I consider the system wide dosing to be more of a back stop- though still effective- way of treating for this issue.
Based on your dosing method you can likely rule out alk as an issue.
As for par it’s worth considering further. There’s many different opinions and plenty of anecdotal evidence with less hard factual science to back it up. In short I’ve found that *many zoas do well between 100-160par. Naturally some are able to adapt to higher par without issue over the course of time. It’s been my experience that tougher strains, halls, blood shots, wolverines, poinsettias etc prefer 80-100par. Yet, par is only half of the equation. In my old system I ran these numbers in both the display and the zoa tank. However, the Ecoray Ray LEDs in display could not support all the strains the same as the T5 LED hybrid over the zoas. Now, ecorays have a simple on/off configuration for white and blue diodes. I know some of these newer LED units allow you to tinker with the wavelength. Fwiw I tend to run more blue+, purple+ and coral+ T5’s with a single reefbrite xho blue down the middle- so in my systems it skews more blue. I’m not suggesting you switch to T5’s on account of zoas, but, if you have a programmable LED unit it might be worth looking into settings other folks are running.
I don’t see any other red flags with the set up or what you’re doing. The roid dosing should offset the newness of the aquarium (IMO it’s generally 12-15 to reach tank maturity).
One last thing to consider would be the zoas themselves. Without going down a name rabbit-hole I would expect many of the commonly available zoas to do well for you. Do you find yourself struggling with a certain ‘type’ ie bam bam like zoas, sunny d like (larger) Magician like (largest)? Finally, maricultured/wild collected vs aquaculture makes a huge difference. As someone who actively works with maricultured and wild collected strains I can tell you first hand the mortality rate is generally above 50% after 9 months (when pests, diseases, Ect are addressed). As we know with the OG Krakatoa some of these just never adapt well (or long term) to captivity. So, just another avenue to consider. Where you get your zoas from and the chain of custody (if imported) factors in to your long term success.
