Why is the general consensus that Zoas are easy beginner corals?

[ZoWhat]

Good to hear they are doing befintter! If you really want to make them happy, spot feed each polyp with reef roids. Many will grow rapidly if you do that 2-3 times a week.

I find that nearly impossible with Tangs and clowns swooping in to steal food off the discs

 

[GHOSTLY]

I find zoas just do good everywhere and in any spot but that nust be me

 

[LeftyReefer]

I've never had a single zoa die or melt away. Every zoa I've placed into my tank has grown like crazy. I don't find them difficult at all.

 

[ZoWhat]

I've never had a single zoa die or melt away. Every zoa I've placed into my tank has grown like crazy. I don't find them difficult at all.

Where's the DISLIKE button?

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

My nitrates have been at 1ppm fir for weeks. I just doses potassium nitrate powder to where no3 jumped to 9.4 and my zoas have perked up noticeably. No3 10 is my limit though

They need nitrates to grow. Mine flourish around 20-40 ppm.

 

[Just John]

They need nitrates to grow. Mine flourish around 20-40 ppm.

Wow. Any problems at all caused by that level of nitrates?

 

[elcapitan1993]

I have 2 zoa gardens in my system and they are the most neglected coral in my tank and they are thriving, I have even had a few tank crashes and they made it through both times

 

[Clown2020]

Only have a couple of types of zoa so far in my system on there than broadcast feeding they get no special care. The fire and ice zoa did really well from day 1 and is growing fast. The yellow skirt zoa took a week to open and then 6 or 8 heads died leaving around 4 heads and now a month later has started growing back new heads

so for me easy yes but depends on the zoa I also have acan and yes it is easy but much slower growing and therefore if something were to go wrong I suspect it would take longer to recover and possibly why it could be perceived to be harder to keep

in a way I think it’s true of all types of coral soft Kos and spa that there are easy and hard varieties of most species or at least that has been my experience so far.

 

[StewL6]

Most of my Zoey grow great but i just can't grow Magician's. A couple months ago i got a frag (my fourth) of Magicians there were loads of polyps and they were huge. The first four or five days they opened great man they were pretty. In the next three weeks i literally watched them melt away like they were being eaten. I tried everything but they just withered away like the previous three frags.

 

[zoaprince]

Most of my Zoey grow great but i just can't grow Magician's. A couple months ago i got a frag (my fourth) of Magicians there were loads of polyps and they were huge. The first four or five days they opened great man they were pretty. In the next three weeks i literally watched them melt away like they were being eaten. I tried everything but they just withered away like the previous three frags.

I also cannot grow people eaters (magicians fall under this category). I've tried 3 seperate frags and all have melted less than a month after purchasing them. I guess my water isn't PE friendly ;Dead

 

[dk2nt9]

Why is the general consensus that Zoas are easy beginner corals?

Anything but this, in my experience with practically all kinds of corals. The same for mushrooms and xenia, they grow in some tanks, but not in others. No or too low nutrients, flow or light off their tolerance, alkalinity changes that even some sps can take, make zoas go static or decline. Meaty chalices are close to that.

LPS as beginners corals worked for me much better, reliable with feeding, even with rescue corals.

What helped to overcome this in my case:

• for fishless ULNS dosing nitrates and phosphates in detectable range, knowing tank consumption rate and keeping up with it,
• mine did better at slightly elevated alkalinity (8-9 dKH) than at 7-7.5 dKH
• increasing tank biodiversity: making sterile water live water, pods, other microorganisms and feeding them, starting from beginning of the food chain, live phytoplankton
• more blue light and low to moderate flow, if still a problem, weaker diffused light,
• placing frags on racks and watching their reaction on the light and flow as described in Zoanthids section: flat and expanded for just right amount, umbrella or long stalks are asking for more light, move rack up a bit and let them adapt to the new lighting. Regroup them on low, medium and high light racks
• then watch for the speed of growth, keeping fast growing and tall kinds away from slow growing and short varieties.

Once this was done, they grow fairly fast, needing strict control or they expand at alarming rate. Large polyps varieties (Pandora, Interstellar, pink rings - except Green Magicians - and People Eaters fall in between) seem to be more tolerant than small polyps kinds.