Zoanthids Tips & Tricks Video!

[Legendary Corals]

Hey there reefers!

I had the pleasure of making a short little video for last week's ReefBuilder's segment on aqua-culturing. In the video I cover my favorite corals, zoanthids, and a few things I've learned in my 10+ years of keeping them. Hopefully there's some information that's beneficial to anyone looking to keep these beautiful corals long term. If you have any questions or suggestions on future vids/ content related to zoanthids, let me know!



Cheers,
Darwin

 

[Peace River]

Thanks for sharing! A lot of good information about zoas if you're new and a lot of good reminders if you're not new!

 

[zoaprince]

Would you recommend running 100% blues on all types of LEDS, or only Kessil?

 

[tnewell]

Hey there reefers!

I had the pleasure of making a short little video for last week's ReefBuilder's segment on aqua-culturing. In the video I cover my favorite corals, zoanthids, and a few things I've learned in my 10+ years of keeping them. Hopefully there's some information that's beneficial to anyone looking to keep these beautiful corals long term. If you have any questions or suggestions on future vids/ content related to zoanthids, let me know!



Cheers,
Darwin

This is an amazing videos in the ins and outs of zoas, A++++

 

[Legendary Corals]

Would you recommend running 100% blues on all types of LEDS, or only Kessil?

I have personally kept Zoanthids in 100% blues, but this is mostly because I run a coral farm and focus on growth and coloration. Whites to me are mostly for aesthetics, as most lower light corals do not require it. This is my belief and from the results I've seen with other coral farmers. For a personal display, there's zero harm in running a more mixed spectrum. In fact, I prefer a mixed spectrum for personal reef tanks.

Thank you all for the positive response. If there's any other questions or feedback just let me know!

 

[ChristianReefer]

Hey there reefers!

I had the pleasure of making a short little video for last week's ReefBuilder's segment on aqua-culturing. In the video I cover my favorite corals, zoanthids, and a few things I've learned in my 10+ years of keeping them. Hopefully there's some information that's beneficial to anyone looking to keep these beautiful corals long term. If you have any questions or suggestions on future vids/ content related to zoanthids, let me know!



Cheers,
Darwin

Thanks for the video, it was vary helpful.

 

[blasterman]

I have personally kept Zoanthids in 100% blues, but this is mostly because I run a coral farm and focus on growth and coloration. Whites to me are mostly for aesthetics, as most lower light corals do not require it. This is my belief and from the results I've seen with other coral farmers. For a personal display, there's zero harm in running a more mixed spectrum. In fact, I prefer a mixed spectrum for personal reef tanks.

Thank you all for the positive response. If there's any other questions or feedback just let me know!

Running blue only doesn't make zoas or any other coral grow faster. Heavy blue obviously makes them look really cool, and even I prefer this on my own tanks. I mean, who wants to invest in a lot of Zoas or palys and run them under 5600 daylight. It would be like having a hot girlfriend and making her wear baggy clothes

However, no specific spectrum makes zoas color up more than other spectrum. It's strictly a matter of PAR. White is also not a spectrum as I keep repeating in the lighting forum. White is simply a color to our eyes. I can achieve psuedo white mixing blue and orange. White is also not full spectrum. A cool white LED is mostly blue with a smidge of green and a lesser smidge of orange. If you swim in the ocean down to areas where there is lower light corals they don't glow like they do under blue only LEDs. Longer wavelengths do penetrate that deep which is why corals in deep water look just as brown as they do in shallow water. There's plenty of green and other spectrum there.

Reason I say this is I'm seeing a lot of smaller propagators use expensive reef lighting and then pass on those costs to customers. Conventional, high performance white light lighting fixtures in the 6000k range will provide 4x-5x the PAR over a Radion per dollar and grow coral better. You could then flip on a dedicated reef fixture for taking pictures and save a lot of cash. The guys using Radions over their entire operation want $65 for a frag of GSP. The guys who wholesale big time don't use use Reef fixtures for the same reason Marijuana growers don't use Kessils.

I've grown massive zoa and paly gardens under all kinds of lighting from halide, to PC to VHO to DIY LED fixtures to CFL. Keeping stable nutrients is most critical while lighting is easy. A $420 Radion running blue only over a bland, brown paly can make it look exotic. my .02$