Overgrown zoas

[Antuan Daniel]

Awesome problem to have I wish I had the same one lok

 

[ou12004]

Depending on how hard the rock is you can cut the rock under the zoas with bone cutters then use a chisel to pop them off.

 

[Daniel Waters]

Any help appreciated!

Lesson learned, zoas are pretty but the get their own island.

Just throwing out other ideas that may or may not have been mentioned. You can definitely chisel under them, but I'm sure that would be a pain. I suspect there has to be some type of solution you could inject with a small needle directly into each head that would kill them (maybe lemon juice or kalk or?). However, I'm not sure if the zoas would release any harmful toxins and you would want to be careful how much chemical you inject into the tank. Run carbon and water changes.

My off the wall solution would be to cover the zoas up with like black plastic (maybe zip tie black plastic bag material around the area). I imagine after several days of no flow and no light getting to the zoas they would die off. Or they will shrink up enough that you could then melt the remaining parts left with a proper solution or scrape them off easier. Once again, not sure how that might affect your water chemistry. And I'm not sure if adding a black plastic into the tank would create an issue.

 

[ReefJunky]

I have tried zooanthids and they don't seem to flourish very well for me. What type of lighting and schedule do you run your lights on a regular basis? What is the water flow like where the zooanthids are located?

 

[Maggie321]

I have tried zooanthids and they don't seem to flourish very well for me. What type of lighting and schedule do you run your lights on a regular basis? What is the water flow like where the zooanthids are located?

I have an sb reef light basic 16" I run 35%ish whites and 50%ish blues for about 8 hours a day. No ramping. Medium flow 1/2 way up my rock. I have 2 of the sun sun powerheads off Amazon, I have backups so when they break I will use the backups and order better ones for replacing the backups. But they work! One pointed at the surface and one pointed toward the back. There's a whole tank pic. I use IO reef crystals and do a 4 gallon weekly water change on a 39 gallon tank. My ato has 1tsp of Kalkwasser powder per gallon.

 

[Dragon52]

@Tahoe61, if you can tell me how I can get them off the rock without having to remove the entire structure, I'll ship some to you

I've seen where some people have used ice cubes to make anemones move, you could try that. if it works i'll take some off your hands.

 

[Dragon52]

I have an sb reef light basic 16" I run 35%ish whites and 50%ish blues for about 8 hours a day. No ramping. Medium flow 1/2 way up my rock. I have 2 of the sun sun powerheads off Amazon, I have backups so when they break I will use the backups and order better ones for replacing the backups. But they work! One pointed at the surface and one pointed toward the back. There's a whole tank pic. I use IO reef crystals and do a 4 gallon weekly water change on a 39 gallon tank. My ato has 1tsp of Kalkwasser powder per gallon.

Is that 1 solid rock or multiples glued together. If it's 1 rock that is pretty cool & I would love to have something like that for my tank.

 

[Maggie321]

Is that 1 solid rock or multiples glued together. If it's 1 rock that is pretty cool & I would love to have something like that for my tank.

It is 5 rocks glued together we put it together ourselves though. You could do something like it very easily.

 

[Maggie321]

I've seen where some people have used ice cubes to make anemones move, you could try that. if it works i'll take some off your hands.

I ripped some back from where I don't want them. I think I am going to glue a sea shell barrier in place and when they grow up the shells, just cut them and replace the shells.

 

[Just_Pete]

I’m in the same boat. I have a weed like colony of zoas I’m trying to get rid of. They are and have covered other corals in my tank to the point where I think they’ve killed them. Tonight I started ripping 3-4 heads off with tweezers. I noticed some fluid bleed out in the water so I stopped.

Not realy sure what kind mine are but lesson learned no more zoas for me!

 

[Dragon52]

It is 5 rocks glued together we put it together ourselves though. You could do something like it very easily.

Nice job, I'm still working on my artistic eye for this kind of stuff. LOL

 

[125gSW]

Ask your LFS if they can help frag, and let them have a small little piece for their good efforts haha, the rest you can sell easily on here, craigslist and even to the LFS for store credit!

 

[Maggie321]

Nice job, I'm still working on my artistic eye for this kind of stuff. LOL

Rule of 3rds! Use triangles and odd numbers. 3,5,7,9... nature usually does it too. Nothing linear. Nothing perfectly horizontal or vertical.

 

[Maggie321]

I’m in the same boat. I have a weed like colony of zoas I’m trying to get rid of. They are and have covered other corals in my tank to the point where I think they’ve killed them. Tonight I started ripping 3-4 heads off with tweezers. I noticed some fluid bleed out in the water so I stopped.

Not realy sure what kind mine are but lesson learned no more zoas for me!

I've ripped a few heads off now and had no adverse effects on the tank thus far. I don't think I'll be doing more than a few at a time though. I think it's the zooanthelle coming out. Not 100% sure though.

 

[Dragon52]

Rule of 3rds! Use triangles and odd numbers. 3,5,7,9... nature usually does it too. Nothing linear. Nothing perfectly horizontal or vertical.

I'll Have to think on that some. I plan on getting some more rock for the tank, would like to get some True Live rock but to expensive to buy & ship, LFS in my area don't carry it anymore so not sure what I'll do. have Real Reef & Life Rock in it now but I can't seem to get any algae to grow anywhere.

 

[John3]

Best part is that once your colony gets huge they spread even faster. I have a patch of sunny D that started as 3 heads and 8 months later I now probably have 150-200 heads. I was just considering what this tank is going to look like a year from now if I don’t start trimming........