utter chaos conditions?

rhino56 · Dec 26, 2013

I have several colonies of zoa/paly that do amazing in my tank, ultimate chaos, rastas, darth mauls just to name a few. all of my colonies grow fast and multiply quickly except for my utter chaos. I have like 6 polyps and they seem healthy enough but just stay the same. Are they super slow growers or do they require something special? I've moved them from directly under the light to sitting on an angle with much less light and they stretch out for the light, but they dont multiply. It has been a few months and no real growth at all.:squigglemouth: I have anemones that have babies, and everything is doing great in there all except the utter chaos. Anyone have any formula for getting them to grow out?

PRomero · Dec 26, 2013

great growers for me, I don't know what the secret sauce is though sorry.

Rob&Gab · Dec 26, 2013

got mine in 2 different places. they seem to do good for me uner med/high light, with med/high flow they really got a crazy bright glowing orange when that high.

also have 1 frag under t5's 6" below the water 4blub t5 fixture hanging 21" above the water. 48x24x12

duke4130 · Dec 26, 2013

Do you feed your tank heavily??? Do you have a lot of fish?

mnat · Dec 26, 2013

Utters like light, keep them in the light.

rhino56 · Dec 27, 2013

duke4130 said:
Do you feed your tank heavily??? Do you have a lot of fish?

i have an auto feeder with fish flakes and reef chili/cyclops mixed, once per day and i feed once a day manually either a combo of food pellets and flakes or frozen brine, i feed anemones 1-2 times a week shrimp or krill, 300 gallon Rubbermaid tub total volume with sumps is about 450. I have 6 fish- 2 clowns, yellow tang, hippo tang, purple tang and achilles tang, always sheets of seaweed available. i don't run any carbon or gfo, just natural filtration, filter socks, cheato, skimmers and live rock.
I will move them into the light more, one 400 watt radium 20k over the tub. water change 50 gallons a week red sea coral pro.
They seem healthy looking just not duplicating like my others have.

duke4130 · Dec 27, 2013

High light, good flow and food

dannyab84 · Dec 27, 2013

I have over a 100 heads of utters. What is your po4 at? I always let mine go up and down. When it gets to the higher point of about .1 is where my utter will throw out about 2 or 3 heads. Also mine like to grow when I cut them. I don't recomend raising your po4 though it can be more trouble then its worth. But, mine sure do love it haha.

rhino56 · Dec 28, 2013

It may be that i have been using pickeling lime in the top off, I moved them under the light and started target feeding last night with reef chili.
I will just top off with plain water now and do larger water changes.

The po4 is 0 or not readable anyways, here is a pic of them, they are closed up more than usual due to being moved and fed.
but i believe there are 10 polyps from about 3 maybe? cant remember... in comparison to my ultimate chaos which i had 6 and now over 50 of them.

bknapp · Dec 28, 2013

I stared with three polyps of UC back in April and I've got more than 20 now. I have 4-54 watt T5's and 2-250 watt MH they're about three inches from the bottom in a 30" deep tank and they're one of the brightest corals in my tank. I feed rather heavy at 3-4 times a day (various pellets and once a day frozen) they're one of my fastest growing zoas. My Zoas seem to have been growing faster since I incorporated daily water changes.

SchnitzelReef · Dec 28, 2013

They grow crazy in my tank. I would say to keep them in medium light and medium flow.

This is a colony that morphed after placing them in really high light. The black is almost all gone. Really weird.

Luckysfrags · Dec 29, 2013

I had a single head of UC for almost a year! finally grew 2 polyps and sat at 3 heads for almost another year! then popped out 7 more heads all within 2 months. I don't know what it was but when the water was right it took off like no other. I have mine higher in my tank with indirect flow from my MP10. I have crappy CFL lights though :/

ScottyMcReefer · Jan 2, 2014

I myself have always had great growth under high lighting and high flow. They are a touchy one to frag so just let those babies grow out!!

rhino56 · Jan 11, 2014

I may have found what is causing them to not open, I found a brittle star sitting right on top of one of the polyps. I carefully removed it and about 3 hours later another one was on there. So i have been watching it very closely checking on it for one to come back. I never heard of bristle stars doing any damage to corals, and they don't seem to bother any other polyp. I hope this is the problem with them but ill update this thread if anything changes.

VicD81 · Jan 22, 2014

Ive got the same prob with my Utters! I can only seem to keep 4 Polyps at a time though. When one starts to grow one dies! All my other Zoas are spreading like crazy Specifically my Bam Bams, they've branched out like crazy! I did notice a HUGE improvement in everything when I added an Ecotech MP40.

rhino56 · Feb 2, 2014

I took them into a qt tank and treated for parasites, not sure if they needed it or not but they looked pretty bad before and during treatment. Put them back in the tank and they are finally coming back, I have no clue as to what happened or why. But i know i just need to leave them be and not touch or move them.

flowflezy · Feb 9, 2014

good growing zoa for us. Grows crazy fast and I have real high light and on the floor both get super bright and big. I think my high light grows them faster maybe more flow..

oupulino · Feb 9, 2014

they will grow anywhere from high to low but they like medium high flow and they love to eat like a pigs I have over 300 polyp right now

rhino56 · Mar 2, 2014

after many ups and down with these i believe i have discovered what the problem was. The plug they were on must have been exposed to something somewhere in a tank as i removed them and they immediately started to do much better.