Why won't my zoanthid grow?

[Wayofthereef]

Everyone has their way of doing things. That being said I'll throw my 2 pennies in there.. The main 3, DKH CALCIUM AND MAG are the building blocks of your tank. So picture NITRATE AND PHOSPHATE and the fuel that keeps the egine running. Having a nano with the need to do consistent water changes simply because of the size the bulding blocks should come with the water changes. Lets say the system is a 5 gallon nano, a weekly 2.5 gallon water change is the goal.. but what fails to develop doing that kind of maintenance is the nitrate and phosphate. Neo phos at roughly .5 - 1 ml a day depending on the number of corals should keep the zoas happy and nitrate I have found B-ionic nitrate to work very well... again depending on how many inhabitants you have i would do .5 - 1ml a day and test daily for a week or 2 to make sure its not excessive and adjust accordingly. I sell many of my fragged Zoa's that i can literally put 3 on a 2in tile and its covered completely inside 3 weeks and ready to frag. This is a few from the last batch Im growing out.

 

[Dave Clark]

Edit: Sorry, forgot to respond to the part about the scrubber. I know a skimmer works because it's doing the most gas exchange of any of the ways an aquarium can do Gas exchange... I am not sure that an airpump/airstone (along with the CO2 Scrubber) would be sufficient enough. Someone with more knowledge of that end of things can chime in maybe...

Understood. I've read that some people have had success using a scrubber without a skimmer. I might try it out with the airpump/airstone and see how it works.

 

[Dave Clark]

Everyone has their way of doing things. That being said I'll throw my 2 pennies in there.. The main 3, DKH CALCIUM AND MAG are the building blocks of your tank. So picture NITRATE AND PHOSPHATE and the fuel that keeps the egine running. Having a nano with the need to do consistent water changes simply because of the size the bulding blocks should come with the water changes. Lets say the system is a 5 gallon nano, a weekly 2.5 gallon water change is the goal.. but what fails to develop doing that kind of maintenance is the nitrate and phosphate. Neo phos at roughly .5 - 1 ml a day depending on the number of corals should keep the zoas happy and nitrate I have found B-ionic nitrate to work very well... again depending on how many inhabitants you have i would do .5 - 1ml a day and test daily for a week or 2 to make sure its not excessive and adjust accordingly. I sell many of my fragged Zoa's that i can literally put 3 on a 2in tile and its covered completely inside 3 weeks and ready to frag. This is a few from the last batch Im growing out.

Thank you. At what levels do you maintain your nitrate and phosphate?

 

[twentyleagues]

Understood. I've read that some people have had success using a scrubber without a skimmer. I might try it out with the airpump/airstone and see how it works.

You dont need more tools to remove what you dont have. You need to add what is lacking not the other way around. You are lacking nutrients for the coral to grow ie nitrate and phosphate. Zoas dont really directly care about cal, and alk. You need that to keep your tank stable. If alk drops too low you can get ph swings. This is one reason that they always said small tanks are harder then bigger tanks small changes affect parameters much more then in larger water volumes.

 

[Dave Clark]

You dont need more tools to remove what you dont have. You need to add what is lacking not the other way around. You are lacking nutrients for the coral to grow ie nitrate and phosphate. Zoas dont really directly care about cal, and alk. You need that to keep your tank stable. If alk drops too low you can get ph swings. This is one reason that they always said small tanks are harder then bigger tanks small changes affect parameters much more then in larger water volumes.

My mention of a CO2 scrubber is a side-discussion from JNalley's posts. The intent of the CO2 scrubber (or the chaeto that I'm now using) is to remove CO2, which I definitely do have.

I understand the purpose of alkalinity. My tank parameters have actually been very stable since I've cycled, including alk. I just had low pH due to ambient CO2. But it seems like my alk has dropped since I added chaeto. I've read that this is not an expected side-effect of adding chaeto, but in any case, I've been dosing and have gotten my alk back up to the usual 7-9 dKH that it's always been before the chaeto.

 

[twentyleagues]

My mention of a CO2 scrubber is a side-discussion from JNalley's posts. The intent of the CO2 scrubber (or the chaeto that I'm now using) is to remove CO2, which I definitely do have.

I understand the purpose of alkalinity. My tank parameters have actually been very stable since I've cycled, including alk. I just had low pH due to ambient CO2. But it seems like my alk has dropped since I added chaeto. I've read that this is not an expected side-effect of adding chaeto, but in any case, I've been dosing and have gotten my alk back up to the usual 7-9 dKH that it's always been before the chaeto.

I thought you were talking about an algae scrubber not a co2 must have missed that, apologies.

 

[Manpeckz]

Are these the Draculas from your December post?! The right most polyp looks like what happened to the first of my moonlight zoas. Unable to close, drooping. They unfortunately have continued to deteriorate through higher feedings and now reduced feedings as well while others beside it grow new polyps..

I’m about to try some trace dosing to see if it will turn around.

 

[NotReefsafe]

I had zoas that didn't grow for the first year and a half they were in my tank. They were closed for several months. Now they are thriving.

I started feeding reef roids, using GFO, doing more frequent but smaller water changes, and checking parameters.

 

[Dave Clark]

I thought you were talking about an algae scrubber not a co2 must have missed that, apologies.

No problem! I appreciate your input.

 

[Wayofthereef]

Thank you. At what levels do you maintain your nitrate and phosphate?

Normally I keep my P04 from .05 - .1 and nitrate around 5 - 10 but I've been experimenting with elevated nutrient levels. So currently my p04 is between .2 and .3 and my nitrate 20-30 and I wouldn't suggest that if youve been keeping very low levels.. but the explosion of growth especially euphillia and basically every sps in my system has been exploding with growth. But its definitely a thin line

 

[Dave Clark]

I had zoas that didn't grow for the first year and a half they were in my tank. They were closed for several months. Now they are thriving.

I started feeding reef roids, using GFO, doing more frequent but smaller water changes, and checking parameters.

Interesting, I thought GFO binded to phosphates ... what's your phosphate level?

 

[Dave Clark]

Normally I keep my P04 from .05 - .1 and nitrate around 5 - 10 but I've been experimenting with elevated nutrient levels. So currently my p04 is between .2 and .3 and my nitrate 20-30 and I wouldn't suggest that if youve been keeping very low levels.. but the explosion of growth especially euphillia and basically every sps in my system has been exploding with growth. But its definitely a thin line

Stupid question but I'm a newbie and I gotta ask ... when you say PO4 of 0.1, you're talking 0.1 ppm, right? As in 100 ppb? Thanks.

 

[JNalley]

Stupid question but I'm a newbie and I gotta ask ... when you say PO4 of 0.1, you're talking 0.1 ppm, right? As in 100 ppb? Thanks.

Correct 100 ppb = 0.1 ppm which is usually people's target PO4 reading

 

[Seansea]

Dont forget iodine is critical to zoa health as well. Your phos and nit being low is the forst thing ibwoukd solve but i ran consistently low iodine on my icp tests because of my scrubber and once i started dosing iodine my zoas exploded. But first get that nit and phos corrected.

 

[Dave Clark]

Dont forget iodine is critical to zoa health as well. Your phos and nit being low is the forst thing ibwoukd solve but i ran consistently low iodine on my icp tests because of my scrubber and once i started dosing iodine my zoas exploded. But first get that nit and phos corrected.

Thanks.

I started adding Reef Roids to my tank, that definitely helps the phosphates. Dosing NeoNitro. Will measure both levels daily.

 

[Wayofthereef]

Stupid question but I'm a newbie and I gotta ask ... when you say PO4 of 0.1, you're talking 0.1 ppm, right? As in 100 ppb? Thanks.

Yes PPM and thats usually on the high end.. ideally you want to try to maintain .03 to .08.... I've been experimenting though with elevated everything which is a very thin line to try and walk. So here's my crazy levels right now.

Salinity 1.025 which is the norm
Ph 8.1 to 8.4
DKH 10 to 11
Cal 400 to 450
Mag 1400 to 1450
Nitrate 20 to 30
Phosphate .2 to .3

So when I reached this I got an explosion of growth on everything in my tank. Now Im not recommending this for everyone. And many would say acropora would die in a heartbeat in these conditions but the opposite has happened.. Ive never had the tips of my acros plump up. But they are crazy plumped up and I can say that I had one branch that was within an inch of another coral and I swear that within a week they grew into eachother, it was that fast.. then my algea in the tank that would have to be cleaned off the glass daily went almost a week without cleaning.. at this time i didnt realize the level of phosphate and nitrate reached .32ppm and 28ppm. I freaked but thought ok everything looks good, so Ill just stop dosing. Thats the key in alot of overdosing situations... if it was built to that point over weeks simply stop dosing and let the levels fall naturally. So I did, then 3 days or so later i started noticing the algea come back, then I had dyno's hit my tank outside which I was always proud to say I never experienced that in 4 years of this system running.. so I retested and my nitrates were 22 and my phosphate was .1.... so now im at a cross roads do I maintain the elevated levels or bring everything back to normal levels.. well I said screw it and started dosing again. If at the end of the day the levels rose in balance and decreased in balance i simply need to make sure I dont exceed the higher levels that produced good outcomes.. in my opinion it was as if I shot my corals with steriods... but again if your new to this go with the basics, get your barings and schedules in order.. and as far as the basic 3, DKH CAL AND MAG... test weekly and if you can afford it an apex was a game changer knowing those levels consistently is amazing