Help with Zoas

[JayM]

I bought a frag plug with 5 Rasta Zoa heads on it that took nearly a month to open up after I put it in my tank. Less than a month after that it's got 11 heads (they're tiny, but growing well). Be patient and get your nitrates and phosphates up.

 

[blecki]

If having zero phosphate and zero nitrate really starved zoas then my tank would be barren. The measured number isn't the important part, the supply is. So how many fish are in the tank? Algae anywhere?

 

[deathdealerdelta]

What are some pests that will eat/kill zoas that run around like amphipods?

I have another frag plug that is doing better but I see little bugs running around the base of the plug and it looks like it cause one of the zoas to start to close.

 

[deathdealerdelta]

If having zero phosphate and zero nitrate really starved zoas then my tank would be barren. The measured number isn't the important part, the supply is. So how many fish are in the tank? Algae anywhere?

No fish, algae is just starting to grow on the glass but I have good algae built up on the live rock.

 

[blecki]

No fish, algae is just starting to grow on the glass but I have good algae built up on the live rock.

Tank probably wasn't ready for corals of any kind. You're going to be stuck dosing to maintain it.

There are three sources of coral food in a mature tank -
1) Macro Algae die off. As some grows in your refugium, some also dies. Ironically the dreaded GHA is pretty great at this as long as you keep is confined to the refugium.
2) Microfauna - both directly, and through their waste & corpses. Copepods, worms, brittle stars, etc.
3) Fish poop. Can't be overstated. Fish poop is far more effective a coral food than fish food is.

You don't have any of these. If the tank is old enough to have all three then measuring 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate is no big deal; there's still plenty of it around it just is being used as quickly as it's released.

 

[deathdealerdelta]

Tank probably wasn't ready for corals of any kind. You're going to be stuck dosing to maintain it.

There are three sources of coral food in a mature tank -
1) Macro Algae die off. As some grows in your refugium, some also dies. Ironically the dreaded GHA is pretty great at this as long as you keep is confined to the refugium.
2) Microfauna - both directly, and through their waste & corpses. Copepods, worms, brittle stars, etc.
3) Fish poop. Can't be overstated. Fish poop is far more effective a coral food than fish food is.

You don't have any of these. If the tank is old enough to have all three then measuring 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate is no big deal; there's still plenty of it around it just is being used as quickly as it's released.

Yeah its a fairly new tank and I got small plugs to make sure everything was good before investing is other plugs but I added tigger pods to it and I've been adding phytoplankton to it so I was hoping I had a decent amount of food built up but I guess not.

I've maintained planted aquariums for a very long time but this is my first venture into the sw scene.