Zoa garden Goodness

Coral Passion · Jul 20, 2018

Here is the first zoa I added to my tank, bought December 2016. Since then I have fragged about 200 polyps from it. Most of the growth in may gardens has happened in the last 12 months and I believe it was when I raised the height of my leds and reduced the white spectrum. Also started to dose Kh, Ca and Mg and keep those parameters more stable.

Levels
Kh - 10
Ca - 450
Mg - 1300

RandU · Jul 20, 2018

I just started mine a few days ago. I have had the frags for a while and finally got around to attaching them. My plan it to have different zoas on all of the branches.

littlebigreef · Jul 20, 2018

Coral Passion said:
Here is the first zoa I added to my tank, bought December 2016. Since then I have fragged about 200 polyps from it. Most of the growth in may gardens has happened in the last 12 months and I believe it was when I raised the height of my leds and reduced the white spectrum. Also started to dose Kh, Ca and Mg and keep those parameters more stable.

I'm curious, did you start dosing B-ionic or another product? I'm a big fan of the product and recently incorporated the Mg supplement as well. I dose about 60ml of Kh and Ca directly into the aquarium (via auto doser) and about 10ml of Kh (net volume 330gal). I swear by B-Ionic. Have you tried Vitamin C dosing?

littlebigreef · Jul 20, 2018

RandU said:
I just started mine a few days ago. I have had the frags for a while and finally got around to attaching them. My plan it to have different zoas on all of the branches.

That Tonga rock is going to look A+ -mazing once everything starts to fill in.

mch1984 · Jul 20, 2018

This is the best picture I have, and it's a crop of a panorama shot I took of the tank. The garden sits toward the back of the tank, and I wont get a decent pic of it until I invest into a top down viewer. I have utter's, sunny d's, treehouse of horror, magicians, armor of god, devils armour, fire and ice (I think), and the green one I don't remember the name of. That's a shame too, because its the fastest growing one I have. Also put in a full tank shot. Side note, I don't have that many fire fish, I guess they moved around while I was doing the panorama shot, so it looks like I have a ton of them. Shots are taken with my iphone and one of the clip on lenses with the gel filter.

Coral Passion · Jul 20, 2018

littlebigreef said:
I'm curious, did you start dosing B-ionic or another product? I'm a big fan of the product and recently incorporated the Mg supplement as well. I dose about 60ml of Kh and Ca directly into the aquarium (via auto doser) and about 10ml of Kh (net volume 330gal). I swear by B-Ionic. Have you tried Vitamin C dosing?

For Kh I dose bicarbonate soda, Ca calcium chloride and for mg I dose Tropic Marin balling salt part C all done on dosing pumps. I add some seachem trace elements aswell by hand twice a week if I remember. Am dosing 280ml of each solution a day.

littlebigreef · Jul 20, 2018

Coral Passion said:
For Kh I dose bicarbonate soda, Ca calcium chloride and for mg I dose Tropic Marin balling salt part C all done on dosing pumps. I add some seachem trace elements aswell by hand twice a week if I remember. Am dosing 280ml of each solution a day.

Very cool. Have you been target feeding?

littlebigreef · Jul 20, 2018

mch1984 said:
This is the best picture I have, and it's a crop of a panorama shot I took of the tank. The garden sits toward the back of the tank, and I wont get a decent pic of it until I invest into a top down viewer. I have utter's, sunny d's, treehouse of horror, magicians, armor of god, devils armour, fire and ice (I think), and the green one I don't remember the name of. That's a shame too, because its the fastest growing one I have. Also put in a full tank shot. Side note, I don't have that many fire fish, I guess they moved around while I was doing the panorama shot, so it looks like I have a ton of them. Shots are taken with my iphone and one of the clip on lenses with the gel filter.

I love what you have going there. Is the zoa rock attached to something below or anchored somehow against the back wall?

Coral Passion · Jul 20, 2018

littlebigreef said:
Very cool. Have you been target feeding?

No. Used to but find no difference for me as I have high nutrients in the tank.

littlebigreef · Jul 20, 2018

LadyMac said:
Here is two of mine, the only two who seem to be happiest. I’m still fighting hair algae and pull it off daily around the other zoas.

Getting that hair algae under control would be clutch in order to grow out your garden. Are you nutrients high? Do you happen to run a Phosphate reactor? Skimmer?

LadyMac · Jul 20, 2018

I have a skimmer, yes. It’s the Hydor Slim Skim, in tank though since I now have a sump I’ve placed it in there. No reactor.

As for my levels I’ll have to test though I warn you it’s just the basic fw api kit. I do have a Red Sea kit in transit, with phosphate and nitrate tests. Hoping no later than Monday. In the meantime I can give ammonia nitrite nitrate salinity calcium and ph. Lol.

mch1984 · Jul 20, 2018

littlebigreef said:
I love what you have going there. Is the zoa rock attached to something below or anchored somehow against the back wall?

No It's one big piece that cemented together. That piece a friend of mine actually built. He likes to scape and build structures, so when I was doing mine he asked if he could have some fun. I've seen what he can do so I took him some rock and some cement and said go for it. Here is a little better shot of it right after I turned the tank on. It's got a big base rock then a kind of spine and then the top section.

littlebigreef · Jul 20, 2018

mch1984 said:
No It's one big piece that cemented together. That piece a friend of mine actually built. He likes to scape and build structures, so when I was doing mine he asked if he could have some fun. I've seen what he can do so I took him some rock and some cement and said go for it. Here is a little better shot of it right after I turned the tank on. It's got a big base rock then a kind of spine and then the top section.

It's the perfect balance between artsy and consistent with the rest of your scape. I have two major structures I built years ago and while I'd like to make one more piece I have been unable to come up with anything I really love.

Here's a FTS of mine

mch1984 · Jul 20, 2018

littlebigreef said:
It's the perfect balance between artsy and consistent with the rest of your scape. I have two major structures I built years ago and while I'd like to make one more piece I have been unable to come up with anything I really love.

Here's a FTS of mine

Yeah it worked out, I had no idea what he was going to do but he had something in mind when he started. He asked if I cared and I said no, its whatever. He kept me updated while he did it and I could see where he was going. Between the two of us we spent about 3 weeks slowly putting it together. The other pieces are cemented as well, with the exception of the small piece with rock flowers, it's just one big rock.

I like your tank and I feel you on adding some. The area on the left of mine has some sand bed hidden and kind of useless for displaying any coral. So I want to had some rock back there just can't seem to get the look I have pictured in my head.

question, is your rock cemented? When it comes time to propagate some Zoa, what is your plan?

littlebigreef · Jul 20, 2018

Below are two pics of my rock structure circa 2012 (my 130 gal at apartment in the city) and 2015 (my 75 at my first apartment with my wife). It goes without saying the coral has not been in a static state all these years.

RandU · Jul 20, 2018

littlebigreef said:
That Tonga rock is going to look A+ -mazing once everything starts to fill in.

Thanks. I have a couple other branch’s left I was considering adding to the top of the structure. Any input? One is just a stick branch and one is a curved stick that splits right at the end. Thanks

littlebigreef · Jul 20, 2018

RandU said:
Thanks. I have a couple other branch’s left I was considering adding to the top of the structure. Any input? One is just a stick branch and one is a curved stick that splits right at the end. Thanks

I think Tonga rock might be the most difficult to work with. Its very easy to put something together only to have it look overly contrived after the fact. I'm actually struggling with the same thing right now. In the full tank shot above I have a pile of tonga rock towards the right between the two structures. The rub is that if the rock is oriented too vertically the zoas will only grow up and you'll have to add another frag to the base in time. Additionally, the stuff growing up will compete with any zoas above it. Orienting the pieces horizontally gives you a better foundation but it can cast shadows and you might not be able to use the rock as creatively. If you can work them in at 50° to 60° angle that's probably your best bet.