Zoa lost its color

westreef · Feb 25, 2012

I had a group of zoa with very bright red color. However, after a year or so, the red color is faded to greyish color. They have multiplied quit a bit. Anyone of you have similar experience?

weaponsofmassdesign · Feb 25, 2012

What kind of lighting do you have?

westreef · Feb 25, 2012

I have a hybrid of 3 58W T5 and also a DIY 24 3W Cree LEDs.
BTW all my SPS have good color.

Steven R · Feb 25, 2012

what kelvin range are the t5's

westreef · Feb 25, 2012

2 ATI blue plus
1 ATI Purple plus

18 Cree Royal Blue leds
2 Cree cool white
2 Cree natural white

Steven R · Feb 25, 2012

I don't know man you should have great color with that combo. Maybe swap out one of your one of your blue plus or purples for a coral plus.

KJAG · Feb 25, 2012

The Coral Plus will completely overpower your other t5's if youre only running three bulbs imo

westreef · Feb 26, 2012

Steven R said:
I don't know man you should have great color with that combo. Maybe swap out one of your one of your blue plus or purples for a coral plus.

I do have great colors for my sps. I have just acquired a few new zoa. One of them is Eagle Eyes which has red rings. I will keep an eye on it. So far the red color stays.
In fact in a month or so, I will be changing one of the blue +. I might switch that with coral plus. If it overpowered the other T5 and the leds, I would just switch back. It should be a neat experiment.

Btw, my light period is:
Leds 7:30am to 9:00pm with ramp up and down
T5s 10:00am to 4:00pm

tropicaltrav · Feb 26, 2012

ur tank may also be to clean due to the fact of ur sps.. i know of some people this has happened to and they think thats why... hard to get nutrition unless u spot feed em..

westreef · Feb 26, 2012

I have posted these pictures in this site for other reasons.

This picture is taken on Dec. 2010. The zoa are nice and red.

After a little more than a year, the Pink Lemonade grows into a nice colony. However, the same zoa lost its red color.:squigglemouth:

ray72484 · Feb 26, 2012

They looked really good before. I hope you can find the cause and maybe get back to the way they were.

Steven R · Feb 26, 2012

westreef said:
I do have great colors for my sps. I have just acquired a few new zoa. One of them is Eagle Eyes which has red rings. I will keep an eye on it. So far the red color stays.
In fact in a month or so, I will be changing one of the blue +. I might switch that with coral plus. If it overpowered the other T5 and the leds, I would just switch back. It should be a neat experiment.

Btw, my light period is:
Leds 7:30am to 9:00pm with ramp up and down
T5s 10:00am to 4:00pm

Yea that should be fun to figure out how the coral plus performs and its strength. I have been doing as much reading as possible on that particular bulb but not to much on line yet since it is a new bulb and has not been out long enough to get reviews on it. It is suppose to be a nice well rounded bulb though it can be used as a stand alone or as a supplement bulb to go along with the blueplus, the purpleplus or any other t5 bulbs according to ATI and is suppose to support great growth and color rendition. I am actually getting ready to start another system consisting of 3x coralplus 3x aquablue specials and 2xpurple plus if you want i can let you know how it works out for me in the next month or so. Nice looking system by the way I hope you get the color back in your zoas.

westreef · Feb 26, 2012

Steven R said:
Yea that should be fun to figure out how the coral plus performs and its strength. I have been doing as much reading as possible on that particular bulb but not to much on line yet since it is a new bulb and has not been out long enough to get reviews on it. It is suppose to be a nice well rounded bulb though it can be used as a stand alone or as a supplement bulb to go along with the blueplus, the purpleplus or any other t5 bulbs according to ATI and is suppose to support great growth and color rendition. I am actually getting ready to start another system consisting of 3x coralplus 3x aquablue specials and 2xpurple plus if you want i can let you know how it works out for me in the next month or so. Nice looking system by the way I hope you get the color back in your zoas.

Your new system looks good. Apparently you don't like too much blue (in the absence of Blue plus). I will love to see how the Coral plus impact the overall color of the corals.
I don't hold too much hope in getting back the bright red color. I think once it is done, it is done.

udency: