It’s a given that when you keep a mixed reef your compromising at least some of the corals’ preferred parameters in order to keep everything together. This is especially the case with some of the more temperament zoas. Many of the common varieties can adapt to 100+ par without issue. For some, like nirvanas, it doesn’t matter in the least. I’ve got something north of 250 strains at this point. The halls, emperor v2s, wolverines, flaming Mohicans, JF kraks, speckled kraks, Illuminati, mauls, to name a few, all do better under 50par or less.
Coral run the gamut from being largely autotrophic (like Xenia) to largely heterophic like lps-bubble corals, for example. Even within zoas there’s a fairly wide range. Biology tells us ‘form follows function’ ergo the size of the zoa polyp is going to be relative to the type of organic particulate it eats. Micro zoas do better when spot fed phyto which is smaller than say reef roids. Larger polyps can capture larger organic matter. Where I’m going with this is that lighting is a ‘yes and’ sorta deal linked to food. For sustained success with some zoas it’s lower light and higher concentrations of food.
