My Zoa Garden - Top Down

[OhDumb]

I've hit 1.5 year mark with my Fluval 13.5g nano. I've had some ups and downs, but things are looking really good right now. I just wanted to share my zoa obsession. Next steps is getting the aptasia under control.

 

[littlebigreef]

Looks really good!

 

[saintsreturn]

I love zoas. Very nice color variances

 

[Grossman90]

Gorgeous! What lighting you run?

 

[OhDumb]

Gorgeous! What lighting you run?

AI Prime HD. I really like the light. When I switched over from the Fluval light it took out some of my corals. But, that was mainly user error and not acclimating properly.

 

[ekoed]

This is beautiful.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Thats an awesome Garden! I just got an AI prime HD for my evo and would I'm planning on doing a large zoa garden as well. If you don't mind my asking, whats your schedule and settings for the prime? Also curious if you've noticed any varieties of zoa or paly that didn't seem to do well under the primes light?

Whatever your doing keep it up, its looking great!

 

[OhDumb]

I run from 8:30a to 8:30p. Ramp up to my full setting at noon until 5:30 and then ramp back down. My Green and Red I ramp up for one hour and ramp down for an hour and run at their full setting during noon - 5:30. These settings are based off a buddy's system that I really like. I tweaked them to be brighter and have a bit more white than him just out of personal preference. It still runs really blue, but it makes all my zoas really pop. Below are the peak running percentages for each spectrum.

Just a word of warning, I started at about 40% for the blues and then gradually increased over time. I still burnt some corals and the whole tank had some acclimation and didn't look so good. But, once everything was dialed in and acclimated my corals look great and lighting isn't even something I think about anymore. I was slowly increasing my percentages little by little and I stopped at the below. I know a few folks that go higher and several that are lower. But, do what is best for you and your tank.

As far as corals that don't do well, I don't know if I could ever narrow it down to the light, parameters, or just bad acclimation. But, yes I have had some bad luck with specific zoas. The Mandarins on the left are the first frag that I have had success with for that zoa. It is the third from the same system and mother colony, I had two other frags just melt. I put it on the highest spot for light and away from everything else and boom it loves it there. Side note, I honestly think if you are buying zoa frags to always buy them with a minimum of two polyps. Single polyps never do as well for me.

Peak Time:
UV 60%
V 67%
RY 67%
B 67%
G 5%
DR 5%
CW 11%

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Thank you very much!

 

[OhDumb]

Thank you very much!

Sure thing! Good luck.

 

[RtomKinMad]

Beautiful tank! Lov the garden! I would like to start one in my 93 cube but some of my zoas don’t do well. Thanks for your suggestions. I enjoyed your post!

 

[OhDumb]

Beautiful tank! Lov the garden! I would like to start one in my 93 cube but some of my zoas don’t do well. Thanks for your suggestions. I enjoyed your post!

I had originally not been having luck with zoas when I started. But, I had the SPS mindset from previous experience where I was dosing carbon and keeping a very low nutrient tank. I got a case of the dinos and allowed my nitrates and Phosphates to climb (Nitrates 10-20ppm and Po4 .1-.03ppm). I started to see a lot of new growth especially after the Dino issue was dealt with. So, I've allowed my nutrients to stay up. I have no proof and it may all be incidental, but I also started dosing Lugol's and have seen great results.

This is my weekly routine...
Sunday - water change, Dose Lugol's, Dose Cheatogro (Brightwell), feed Reef Roids
Thursday - dose Vibrant (Underwater Creations Inc), Feed Reef Roids
Everyday feed fish and dump the cloudy water into the tank, might even blow it on the Palys

I think the main thing is consistency. This is just where my tank levels out naturally and I'm not fighting it. If the nutrients where lower or higher and I wasn't having issues I would just keep it there. I also think my tank being 1.5yrs old helps a lot as it has found a balance. This is only a 13.5g tank and I just run GAC and a small refugium.

 

[RtomKinMad]

I had originally not been having luck with zoas when I started. But, I had the SPS mindset from previous experience where I was dosing carbon and keeping a very low nutrient tank. I got a case of the dinos and allowed my nitrates and Phosphates to climb (Nitrates 10-20ppm and Po4 .1-.03ppm). I started to see a lot of new growth especially after the Dino issue was dealt with. So, I've allowed my nutrients to stay up. I have no proof and it may all be incidental, but I also started dosing Lugol's and have seen great results.

This is my weekly routine...
Sunday - water change, Dose Lugol's, Dose Cheatogro (Brightwell), feed Reef Roids
Thursday - dose Vibrant (Underwater Creations Inc), Feed Reef Roids
Everyday feed fish and dump the cloudy water into the tank, might even blow it on the Palys

I think the main thing is consistency. This is just where my tank levels out naturally and I'm not fighting it. If the nutrients where lower or higher and I wasn't having issues I would just keep it there. I also think my tank being 1.5yrs old helps a lot as it has found a balance. This is only a 13.5g tank and I just run GAC and a small refugium.

Thanks for all the information! I might have to try some of those things! We did a water change a few weeks ago and all my zoas closed up and barely opened until a week later. We haven’t done a water change since and they are much more open. Guessing we didn’t have enough nutrients. We fed Reef Roids 1x per week but will increase that! We don’t have many fish in this 93 cube. When it warms up a bit will order more zoas. They don’t travel well in the cold in our experience. We live in Wi and it is very cold this week! Here’s a picture of the tank I want to turn into a zoa garden! Thanks for your help and your tank is beautiful!

 

[kingranch2003]

I had originally not been having luck with zoas when I started. But, I had the SPS mindset from previous experience where I was dosing carbon and keeping a very low nutrient tank. I got a case of the dinos and allowed my nitrates and Phosphates to climb (Nitrates 10-20ppm and Po4 .1-.03ppm). I started to see a lot of new growth especially after the Dino issue was dealt with. So, I've allowed my nutrients to stay up. I have no proof and it may all be incidental, but I also started dosing Lugol's and have seen great results.

This is my weekly routine...
Sunday - water change, Dose Lugol's, Dose Cheatogro (Brightwell), feed Reef Roids
Thursday - dose Vibrant (Underwater Creations Inc), Feed Reef Roids
Everyday feed fish and dump the cloudy water into the tank, might even blow it on the Palys

I think the main thing is consistency. This is just where my tank levels out naturally and I'm not fighting it. If the nutrients where lower or higher and I wasn't having issues I would just keep it there. I also think my tank being 1.5yrs old helps a lot as it has found a balance. This is only a 13.5g tank and I just run GAC and a small refugium.

These old threads are gold to us begginers. I've learned a lot about zoas here! I hope you and your tank is still doing so well.