Are these happy zoas?

jeffchapok · Feb 16, 2019

I'm new to the hobby and my tank is only 5 1/2 weeks old, with the cheapo Marineland LED light strip from a PetSmart combo. I had planned to wait 6 months before introducing any corals, but picked up a small frag two days ago while shopping for fish, just to see how they did.

I'm assuming that if they are open like this they are happy enough. For those of you more experienced folks, do these look happy? And if so, any suggestions for me to keep them that way?

I do of course plan to upgrade my lights before introducing any serious corals or nem population.

Poseidon03 · Feb 16, 2019

Zoas are pretty hardy, but the only way you can tell is over time. They definitely will need more light. What kind of light were you looking into? Just to let you know, I bought a tank not too long ago that didn't have a light for over 2 months, and the zoas left on the rock opened up within a week. Also your tank looks really new, so I would wait to get any other corals (especially any LPS).

Poseidon03 · Feb 16, 2019

They also do like to be fed. You can target feed them reef roids.

JustDewwit · Feb 16, 2019

Based on the appearance the look very comfortable. If you have the frag glued thats great because once you find a sweet spot just let them be. Try to focus on keeping overall stability and consistency with you parameters. Congrats on tank [emoji106]

jeffchapok · Feb 16, 2019

Here's the light I'm considering. I know it's not sufficient for SPS, but I'm not planning on any in this tank. Just softies and maybe a BTA.

Current USA 4107 48"-60" Orbit IC LED https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M5E1MS0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_FIiACbJTJ2M2V

I've been dosing phytoplankton twice a week.

jeffchapok · Feb 16, 2019

JustDewwit said:
Based on the appearance the look very comfortable. If you have the frag glued thats great because once you find a sweet spot just let them be. Try to focus on keeping overall stability and consistency with you parameters. Congrats on tank [emoji106]

I didn't glue them yet because I wanted to be able to move them easily if they failed to thrive there. But there was a hole in my rock that was perfectly sized to wedge the plug into. It's not going anywhere on it's own.

For reference, here's where I have it placed overall in the tank (it's about 3/4 the way up the rocks on the right, at 10 o'clock from the clown). I can move it up much closer to the lights if needed.

jeffchapok · Feb 18, 2019

Four days later and they still appear to be doing well. I may pick up another frag today.

Chad Chapman · Feb 25, 2019

They look just fine. I wouldn't feed them yet while the tank is still maturing. You don't want to overdo the bio load while your still cycling.

jeffchapok · Mar 2, 2019

Well, these zoas are no longer happy. The only thing I've changed is that I added a T5 fixture with one 10K and one Actinic. Over a couple of days he closed up like this. I've experimented with different locations, both higher and lower, with no change. Any suggestions?

zoso · Mar 2, 2019

IMO I have had some zoa`s that have closed up and looked bad. I did a RO dip and then placed them in a frag rack up high on the side where they got good light and left alone . Mine came right back to life ,

jeffchapok · Mar 2, 2019

zoso said:
IMO I have had some zoa`s that have closed up and looked bad. I did a RO dip and then placed them in a frag rack up high on the side where they got good light and left alone . Mine came right back to life ,

By RO, do you mean freshwater from an RO filter, or something else? Sorry, I'm new and don't have a handle on all of the acronyms yet.

BTW, Zepp is my all time favorite band if I'm interpreting your screen name correctly.

zoso · Mar 2, 2019

Yes , a fresh water dip from RO filter. Yes you have the nickname correct. My all time favorite band and the first band I ever saw. My older sister took me to see them at the Pontiac Silver Dome , Detroit 1977