Fastest and slowest growing zoas?

[40B Knasty]

What were your findings with your technical research? Care to pass along any tips for Rastas? I started with 5 and I'm still at 5...after four months.

Happy to help! Okay were is what I found out.
#1 T5 is the best for replicating the sun. It is what they use in tanning beds.
#2 T5 ATI True Actinic could arguably be the best possible bulb on the market. It peaks at 430nM. Chlorophyll A & B which is produced at 400nM-450nM is great for the health and growth of the coral from photosynthesis.
#3 T5 lighting is best for less shadowing. That means the whole coral's flesh covered with zooxanthellae is getting a taste of that sweet sweet 430nM.
#4 zooxanthellae has 2 peak hours of feeding of photosynthesis. 10am & 5pm. So ramp up your lights an hour before and after. Do a 9am-11am & 4pm-6pm of higher light intensity/spectrum. Keep it mid way for the day, because the zooxanthellae could really careless to feed at that mid day.
For example. I have a T5 4x39w fixture front to back Blue Plus, Coral Plus, Blue Plus, True Actinic. w/ 3xmoonlight LEDs. My time schedule is now changed to:
LED on a timer: 8:30am-9:30am & 7:15pm-8:35pm (to wake them up and put them to bed)
2 Blue Plus on a timer: 9am-7:30pm (base lighting for the day)
When I feed the fish. I manually put on the Coral Plus & True Actinic at 9:15am-11am & 4pm-6pm. Hitting those 2 peak hours. Covering them from front to back as best as possible. (Feeding lights)
#5 corals other best known source of food is phytoplankton. Reefroids! Use half the dose recommended. Broadcast it in front of a powerhead or flow area. DO NOT TARGET FEED. If you target feed. The coral closes up and goes into protection mode. Best time 5pm during its last peak feeding hour. 2-3x a week.
#6 flow is generally shown by the coral with what it wants.
#7 keep your water clean! People will argue that it likes dirty water. If your water is clean. The only 2 food sources it is getting is the light when it wants it(not when you think it wants it) and phytoplankton. Your coral is not looking to feed off anything else but what is best for it and has lived and thrived off of for many many many years in this world in our oceans CLEAN waters. I do not let my water get over 5ppm. I have 6 fish that need to live a healthy life too. I just tested the other day with the ELOS Nitrate test kit. The only test kit certified by NIST(National Institute of Standards and Technology). It was at 1ppm.
Dec 2016

Today

 

[A Toadstool Leather]

Happy to help! Okay were is what I found out.
#1 T5 is the best for replicating the sun. It is what they use in tanning beds.
#2 T5 ATI True Actinic could arguably be the best possible bulb on the market. It peaks at 430nM. Chlorophyll A & B which is produced at 400nM-450nM is great for the health and growth of the coral from photosynthesis.
#3 T5 lighting is best for less shadowing. That means the whole coral's flesh covered with zooxanthellae is getting a taste of that sweet sweet 430nM.
#4 zooxanthellae has 2 peak hours of feeding of photosynthesis. 10am & 5pm. So ramp up your lights an hour before and after. Do a 9am-11am & 4pm-6pm of higher light intensity/spectrum. Keep it mid way for the day, because the zooxanthellae could really careless to feed at that mid day.
For example. I have a T5 4x39w fixture front to back Blue Plus, Coral Plus, Blue Plus, True Actinic. w/ 3xmoonlight LEDs. My time schedule is now changed to:
LED on a timer: 8:30am-9:30am & 7:15pm-8:35pm (to wake them up and put them to bed)
2 Blue Plus on a timer: 9am-7:30pm (base lighting for the day)
When I feed the fish. I manually put on the Coral Plus & True Actinic at 9:15am-11am & 4pm-6pm. Hitting those 2 peak hours. Covering them from front to back as best as possible. (Feeding lights)
#5 corals other best known source of food is phytoplankton. Reefroids! Use half the dose recommended. Broadcast it in front of a powerhead or flow area. DO NOT TARGET FEED. If you target feed. The coral closes up and goes into protection mode. Best time 5pm during its last peak feeding hour. 2-3x a week.
#6 flow is generally shown by the coral with what it wants.
#7 keep your water clean! People will argue that it likes dirty water. If your water is clean. The only 2 food sources it is getting is the light when it wants it(not when you think it wants it) and phytoplankton. Your coral is not looking to feed off anything else but what is best for it and has lived and thrived off of for many many many years in this world in our oceans CLEAN waters. I do not let my water get over 5ppm. I have 6 fish that need to live a healthy life too. I just tested the other day with the ELOS Nitrate test kit. The only test kit certified by NIST(National Institute of Standards and Technology). It was at 1ppm.
Dec 2016

Today

What do you mean that zooxanthellae have peak hours? How do you know? A source would be interesting to look at

 

[Kessil123]

Hi all,

u have any tips for me for the jp bowser? I dont know where to put it. Its open but doesnt look healthy and no growth... after my heater crashed the baby polyp die so i got only 1 polyp. Same problem with my kazzam in 4 months 1 new polyp...

 

[DracoKat]

all my zoas grow pretty fast. Though I'd say my blowpops are the slowest.. figures, they're the cheapest ones

 

[Echidna09]

Hi all,

u have any tips for me for the jp bowser? I dont know where to put it. Its open but doesnt look healthy and no growth... after my heater crashed the baby polyp die so i got only 1 polyp. Same problem with my kazzam in 4 months 1 new polyp...

My Bowsers were really slow growers at first but now they are going crazy! I think what has helped the most is putting them lower in the tank (mine are just above the sand bed) and starting to add some food like Reef Roids and Red Sea Reef Energy. Here's a couple pics so you can at least see the color difference. Not great growth pics but they are doing awesome now!

 

[40B Knasty]

31 Rastas now and 2 more at half budding. In 2 days.
I watched a video about the zooxanthellae having peak hours from BRS. For the life of me I can not find it. I wish I could, because y'all are probably like me needing that kind of solid proof. I get that. I was talking to my trusted LFS guy with 27 experience. He was in agreement about it all. If I was talking all crazy. He would have been the person to call me out.
Also seen a video about feeding Week 39 BRStv that covers Reefroids and Reefchili. It seems as those are the best. All others can actually have a negative impact for the health and growth for our corals. So buyer beware! Couldn't believe pretty much all had a negative impact aside of the two mentioned. That's ridiculous!

 

[LbulletM]

Actually, as someone mentioned earlier, price can be a great indication of growth speed. If it's not a super new variant that someone is trying to milk for the high cost in the beginning, polyps that hold their value are usually slower growers. It comes down to classic supply and demand. If they grow quickly, everyone frags them and price drops due to how easy they are to come by. If they grow slowly, price stays elevated due to being harder to find someone with excess polyps to spare.

 

[rosshamsandwich]

Happy to help! Okay were is what I found out.
#1 T5 is the best for replicating the sun. It is what they use in tanning beds.
#2 T5 ATI True Actinic could arguably be the best possible bulb on the market. It peaks at 430nM. Chlorophyll A & B which is produced at 400nM-450nM is great for the health and growth of the coral from photosynthesis.
#3 T5 lighting is best for less shadowing. That means the whole coral's flesh covered with zooxanthellae is getting a taste of that sweet sweet 430nM.
#4 zooxanthellae has 2 peak hours of feeding of photosynthesis. 10am & 5pm. So ramp up your lights an hour before and after. Do a 9am-11am & 4pm-6pm of higher light intensity/spectrum. Keep it mid way for the day, because the zooxanthellae could really careless to feed at that mid day.
For example. I have a T5 4x39w fixture front to back Blue Plus, Coral Plus, Blue Plus, True Actinic. w/ 3xmoonlight LEDs. My time schedule is now changed to:
LED on a timer: 8:30am-9:30am & 7:15pm-8:35pm (to wake them up and put them to bed)
2 Blue Plus on a timer: 9am-7:30pm (base lighting for the day)
When I feed the fish. I manually put on the Coral Plus & True Actinic at 9:15am-11am & 4pm-6pm. Hitting those 2 peak hours. Covering them from front to back as best as possible. (Feeding lights)
#5 corals other best known source of food is phytoplankton. Reefroids! Use half the dose recommended. Broadcast it in front of a powerhead or flow area. DO NOT TARGET FEED. If you target feed. The coral closes up and goes into protection mode. Best time 5pm during its last peak feeding hour. 2-3x a week.
#6 flow is generally shown by the coral with what it wants.
#7 keep your water clean! People will argue that it likes dirty water. If your water is clean. The only 2 food sources it is getting is the light when it wants it(not when you think it wants it) and phytoplankton. Your coral is not looking to feed off anything else but what is best for it and has lived and thrived off of for many many many years in this world in our oceans CLEAN waters. I do not let my water get over 5ppm. I have 6 fish that need to live a healthy life too. I just tested the other day with the ELOS Nitrate test kit. The only test kit certified by NIST(National Institute of Standards and Technology). It was at 1ppm.
Dec 2016

Today

great summary

 

[Laura Rinto]

Hello, I am relatively new to the hobby & so far I've had the best luck with zoas, of anything I've tried.
My absolute fastest growers have been orange bam bams (not too pricy, I think I got 6 p for about $20) & my daisy dukes (very pricey , I paid $30 pp) are my second best growers I purchased 2p, and in about 3 months I've grown about 7 more).

 

[305Reefer]

My fastest growers are mind blowing palys, space chaos, speckled kraks and pink diamonds. Slowest are scarface, golden mauls, jf bloodshots, hallucinations

 

[littlebigreef]

Slowest growers for me have been flaming mohicans and hallucinations. Fastest growing have been super sayians, wwc lazer lemons and king midas.

 

[larangcon]

I have to agree JF Bloodshots are the slowest, Utter Chaos are one of the fastest to multiply in my tank

 

[haynesn12]

In my tank utter chaos have had the same polyp count for months but the rastas right next to them have tripled in number as have the yellow brick roads

 

[rogersb]

Fastest: devils armor/armor of God type, Sunny D, king midas, rainbow infusion, strawberry wine, and twizzlers. These types went from 1-5 polyps to well over a hundred per type in the last year in my tank.

Slowest: Fruit loops, purple people eaters, and goblins on fire. Over the same time period as others above, I went from 1 polyp to about 10.

 

[Sea Pickle]

I'm looking into some zoas, what would you guys reccomend for fast growers?

 

[AwildcatsZ]

I'm looking into some zoas, what would you guys reccomend for fast growers?

- Nirvanas
- Pink Diamonds
- ANYTHING from the "Butt" group...i.e. Buttkissers, Buttmunchers

 

[Sea Pickle]

Thks, ill look into those Nirvanas!

 

[littlebigreef]

Thks, ill look into those Nirvanas!

Palys generally grow quicker than zoas, so +1 on Nirvanas, Pink and Golds, some People Eaters, Nuclear deaths.

For zoas: Fire and Ice, Bam Bams, Super Sayians, King Midas, you really can't go wrong.

 

[Sea Pickle]

I really like Sunny Ds, and am going to get some once my tank's set up. (10 gal nano)

 

[PeterEde]

Sakura sunrise for me.