Are my zoas helathy?

[cnjcpb]

The skirts on these Zoas are crimped looking. Is this normal? What could cause this?

 

[crazyfishmom]

They look good to me but zoas are great water quality indicators. Can you please post your parameters including lighting, flow, source of water, nutrients, and if you have the information PAR?

 

[cnjcpb]

They look good to me but zoas are great water quality indicators. Can you please post your parameters including lighting, flow, source of water, nutrients, and if you have the information PAR?

See parameters below. I need to buy a mag test. As for par, I don’t have a way to test. I do have the par chart from the manufacturer. See below. Zoas are about 18” from the light. Mainly running blues at 100% UV @ 85% whites at 10%.

 

[cnjcpb]

See parameters below. I need to buy a mag test. As for par, I don’t have a way to test. I do have the par chart from the manufacturer. See below. Zoas are about 18” from the light. Mainly running blues at 100% UV @ 85% whites at 10%.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

They look good to me! As another said, they are indeed good water quality indicators. If you don’t mind me asking, what app is that you are using? I like the looks of it

 

[crazyfishmom]

See parameters below. I need to buy a mag test. As for par, I don’t have a way to test. I do have the par chart from the manufacturer. See below. Zoas are about 18” from the light. Mainly running blues at 100% UV @ 85% whites at 10%.

I may be reading the chart wrong but zoas are generally a lower light coral and tend to do well between 50-200 depending on the variety. I might encourage you to move them a bit lower in the tank to see whether the skirt widens for you.

Also, zoas don’t care much about this but your calcium is a tad low which may become an issues for your stony corals over time so try to bring it up to around 420 ppm. Do you dose at all?

 

[cnjcpb]

I may be reading the chart wrong but zoas are generally a lower light coral and tend to do well between 50-200 depending on the variety. I might encourage you to move them a bit lower in the tank to see whether the skirt widens for you.

Also, zoas don’t care much about this but your calcium is a tad low which may become an issues for your stony corals over time so try to bring it up to around 420 ppm. Do you dose at all?

Not yet. I am buying salt water from lfs. I changed stores to a store that sells premium water with elements etc… I recently did my first water change with the premium and it’s slowly going up. Should I wait until I do more water changes to see if it continues to climb or dose?

 

[crazyfishmom]

Not yet. I am buying salt water from lfs. I changed stores to a store that sells premium water with elements etc… I recently did my first water change with the premium and it’s slowly going up. Should I wait until I do more water changes to see if it continues to climb or dose?

I think if everything in your tank is normal that water changes are the best way to go. That said, if there’s consumption happening it’ll continue to go down unless you do lots of water changes in a short period of time or dose to get it up to the desired range and then maintain by water changes.

 

[cnjcpb]

I think if everything in your tank is normal that water changes are the best way to go. That said, if there’s consumption happening it’ll continue to go down unless you do lots of water changes in a short period of time or dose to get it up to the desired range and then maintain by water changes.

What is the best product to dose with?

 

[crazyfishmom]

What is the best product to dose with?

There are many. For your situation where your alkalinity is in a good range, I think something like Reef Foundation A would be what I would think about. Be careful as you raise calcium as it might lead to a drop in alkalinity unless done slowly. Your other option would be to dose a supplement that is calcium carbonate based which would raise both calcium and alkalinity. But always dose to only target a 10 ppm increase of calcium per day to make sure that your system doesn’t swing and then maintain with water changes once you get to your target value.