The key to the perfect zoa tank

[OrlandoReefer]

Alright zoa addicts I need to know what are they key pieces to having a zoa dominated tank. There is so much debate on what lighting is best and what water quality is best what do you guys think?

 

[Oscaror]

fish poop

 

[Macdaddynick1]

The key is .... Are you ready? The key is ... High end zoas

 

[joshporksandwich]

Steady parameters

 

[Oscaror]

The key is .... Are you ready? The key is ... High end zoas

Yep, sorry people but your eagle eyes aren't impressive, they're pretty, yes they are, but not very impressive.

 

[mfinn]

Yep, sorry people but your eagle eyes aren't impressive, they're pretty, yes they are, but not impressive.

so you think you can only have a nice zoanthid tank with only $100 per polyp zoanthids?

 

[Oscaror]

so you think you can only have a nice zoanthid tank with only $100 per polyp zoanthids?

Not necessarily, but the most common zoas only come in like 3 colours, which doesn't blend well, not enough diversity, so the eye doesn't wander. It's a simple artistic law. However a tank full of $100+ zoas will probably impress me a lot, not just because it's pretty, but because I know this person probably also owns a lambourghini veneno. What I'm saying is that the run of the mill zoas like eagle eyes, dragon eyes, and radioactive dragon eyes are pretty (and I still like them), but once you've been in the hobby for a while you've seen more than your fair share of them, and it's not exactly impressive to see, like a green slimer acro, everyone likes it, but you'll be more impressed to see an orange passion than a green slimer, it's just everywhere. However if I saw a huge colony of eagle eyes, that'd impress me, because that takes some dedication to get a colony that size. When I see a zoa dominant tank, what stands out more to me are zoas like fruit loops and rastas and hornets. They're not $100 pp but are more impressive than any RDE I've seen, and re considered by some to be "high end"

 

[mfinn]

I still like common zoanthids like eagle eyes and such. Even though I've been in the hobby for 30+ years and have been a zoanthid fan for more than 20 years.
Personally I think some of the newer "high end" stuff is pretty blah, and the prices on them make them not even worth considering as far as I'm concerned.
If you have to take a macro shot of them to make them look cool is just not what I consider worth keeping.
Then the whole buy them now and frag them to make money has never been part of my hobby.

 

[mfinn]

You know what they say about each to his own,,,, is very true in this hobby

 

[tnyr5]

-interesting rockwork
-lack of pests & algae
-lack of pests & algae
-larger colonies of zoas you don't often see in larger colonies
-lack of pests & algae
-thoughtful arrangement of sizes & colors
-flattering lighting
-lack of pests & algae
-open sandy areas free of corals to give the eye a break
...did I mention lack of pests & algae?

 

[Oscaror]

I still like common zoanthids like eagle eyes and such. Even though I've been in the hobby for 30+ years and have been a zoanthid fan for more than 20 years.
Personally I think some of the newer "high end" stuff is pretty blah, and the prices on them make them not even worth considering as far as I'm concerned.
If you have to take a macro shot of them to make them look cool is just not what I consider worth keeping.
Then the whole buy them now and frag them to make money has never been part of my hobby.

Makes sense, IMO some of the stuff people have been obsessing over is pretty mediocre (I'm not a big fan of the donatellos) but I don't think anyone will hype over a colony of eagle eyes as they will over a colony of blondies, even though both are nice polyps, you see one of them very often. I agree with what you say about the macro shot thingy, that's why I prefer high end palys over zoas, and if you ever see me hype over a polyp, it'll rarely be a microzoa.

Then the whole buy them now and frag them to make money has never been part of my hobby.

And put krakatoa at the end of it's name to triple the price lol

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Alright zoa addicts I need to know what are they key pieces to having a zoa dominated tank. There is so much debate on what lighting is best and what water quality is best what do you guys think?

Are you starting out your collection? What kind do you have?

 

[OrlandoReefer]

Are you starting out your collection? What kind do you have?

Right now I have
Green apple reds
Blue hornets
Red hornets
Green PE
Red PE
Hawaiian PE
Purple PE
Goblins on fire
Strawberry fields
WWC Pink Rhinos
Rastas
Electric oompaloompas
Pink dancers
Dragon eyes
Eagle eyes
Neon eyes
Wobbagongs
Gobstoppers
And a couple others I can't think of right now haha

 

[that Reef Guy]

so you think you can only have a nice zoanthid tank with only $100 per polyp zoanthids?

No but you do get bragging rights!

There are Plenty of Zoanthids that look Nicer than the $2,500 a Polyp Krakatoa though for sure!

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Right now I have
Green apple reds
Blue hornets
Red hornets
Green PE
Red PE
Hawaiian PE
Purple PE
Goblins on fire
Strawberry fields
WWC Pink Rhinos
Rastas
Electric oompaloompas
Pink dancers
Dragon eyes
Eagle eyes
Neon eyes
Wobbagongs
Gobstoppers
And a couple others I can't think of right now haha

That's a nice list. How do the wwc pink rhinos look?

 

[ReefTankRebel]

Sometimes You have to yell at your Zoas, tell them "you better grow or else. " usually works for me cuz they seem to pop a new polyp in the following weeks

 

[twilliard]

Weeds IMO

 

[Spacframe]

DIP ALL NEW ZOA ADDITIONS - you do not want to introduce pox, or nudi's

low flow - I've tried bumping flow up to "medium" and some liked it more but some really disliked it. Nothing seems to dislike the low flow though.

low-med light - I'm using a kessil, but I have it turned way down and very heavy on the actinic. Looks fantastic and things are growing well. t5's work great, polyps tend to expand to massive sizes on t5's I'm assuming to expose themselves to as much of the light as possible since it has a lower intensity than LED's

Water clarity medium - ultra clean SPS parameters aren't optimal for these guys. I don't keep any fish with my zoa garden, so the water stays pretty clean. But I don't run carbon or anything fancy with that tank either, the rockwork does it all. I do have a LOT of rockwork though.

Some things do fantastic, some things not so much. Things will randomly melt and you may never find out or understand why. I lost a 30+ polyp blue hornet colony a month ago (along with several other colonies receeding) before I figured out the culprit was the bucket or Red Sea Coral Pro I had recently purchased. Went and bought a couple boxes of ocean water which is expensive, but after a 70% water change everything bounced back and is doing great. Minus the blue hornets =(

 

[Jizu Puentes]

I figured out the culprit was the bucket or Red Sea Coral Pro I had recently purchased. Went and bought a couple boxes of ocean water which is expensive, but after a 70% water change everything bounced back and is doing great. Minus the blue hornets =(

How did the Red Sea Pro cause the recession? I currently use that salt and recently one of my colonies of Kig Midas have started to have some of the polyps shrink up.

 

[Spacframe]

My mag and calc had dropped significantly, but I'm not sure if that was the killing problem. I suspect some form of contaminant or spike in something that I don't test for.