zoas and phosphates

icemountain · May 6, 2013

I know zoas are much easier to keep then SPS because they don't demand the pristine water requirements that sps do. I do have some sps in my tank which is zoa dominated. I am however thinking of going all sps. Do zoas tolerate phosphates well compared to sps or do they also require a low amount of phosphates to thrive? I can't keep my phosphates below .1 and I am changing out gfo every 2 weeks. Its getting very costly to buy gfo so was thinking of just converting to all zoas if they can tolerate high phosphates. My zoas are growing/doing just fine with with the amount of phosphates and even do fine when the phosphates shoot up to .5 but the sps not so much. What do you guys think?

ZoaCollector · May 6, 2013

Phosphates aren't good for Zoas either. RODI should be helping unless its time to change your filters.

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icemountain · May 6, 2013

I buy my RODI water from my LFS. So do zoas also need near 0 phosphates like sps? mine seem to do just fine and grow with phosphates ranging from .1-.5. Its usually stable at .15 but shoots up .3-.4 when I get lazy with changing the gfo.

kuansreef · May 6, 2013

Hard to keep sps and zoas in same tank. My experience is that when one is doing well, the other one is going down hill. I finally got my sps going with full coloration and grows and zoas start to act funny, bleaching, melting.

joshporksandwich · May 6, 2013

I keep my phosphates around .15 and sps, montis and zoas do very good. I think if you try to keep it stable you should be ok. I used to feed a lot more before and couldn't keep the phosphates under .25 and new sps would take a like 2 months to color after browning. I have a few friends with low nutrient systems that can only keep a few z/p.

icemountain · May 6, 2013

Thanks Josh. Definitely helps me out a lot knowing you have almost nothing but zoas lol

I do try to keep stable and it usually is. It just shoots up when I start to get lazy and I worry that maybe one of these days, my laziness in changing the gfo will catch up to me with a zoa fatality. Not too worried about sps since I have a lot more invested in zoas.

amppdx · May 6, 2013

Maybe consider carbon dosing or an algae turf scrubber instead of all that GFO?

joshporksandwich · May 6, 2013

icemountain said:
Thanks Josh. Definitely helps me out a lot knowing you have almost nothing but zoas lol

I do try to keep stable and it usually is. It just shoots up when I start to get lazy and I worry that maybe one of these days, my laziness in changing the gfo will catch up to me with a zoa fatality. Not too worried about sps since I have a lot more invested in zoas.

I change my gfo every 3 months lol

icemountain · May 6, 2013

amppdx said:
Maybe consider carbon dosing or an algae turf scrubber instead of all that GFO?

I don't hink carbon dosing does anything for phosphates. i was dosing vinegar but that only brought nitrates down and did almost nothing for phosphates. I am currently vit c dosing. Going to try to setup a ATS in a couple of months.

icemountain · May 6, 2013

joshporksandwic said:
I change my gfo every 3 months lol

Lucky you! My gfo gets clogged up really fast, almost a week before the sponge filter on the bottom starts to push up. I am not sure if it gets exhausted when its clogged up or not since I never check the output of the gfo. I just end up changing it completely. I don't have any mechanical filtration in the tank so whatever crap is floating around gets sucked into the mj that is going into the gfo reactor. I just recently put a sponge filter around the intake of the mj and then a mesh sock over that sponge to help stop the reactor from clogging up.

joshporksandwich · May 6, 2013

icemountain said:
Lucky you! My gfo gets clogged up really fast, almost a week before the sponge filter on the bottom starts to push up. I am not sure if it gets exhausted when its clogged up or not since I never check the output of the gfo. I just end up changing it completely. I don't have any mechanical filtration in the tank so whatever crap is floating around gets sucked into the mj that is going into the gfo reactor. I just recently put a sponge filter around the intake of the mj and then a mesh sock over that sponge to help stop the reactor from clogging up.

I put my gfo at the end of my sump after its gone through 1 floss and 1 sponge. Right before the return.

PaulKreider · May 6, 2013

Both my zoas and sps are doing great!

I think i'm just lucky... I dont even check my phosphates?

ZoaCollector · May 7, 2013

Stability is key but both sps and Zoas benefit from nutrients. It just shouldn't sit around in a tank and start converting to bad things elements.

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joshporksandwich · May 7, 2013

ZoaCollector said:
Stability is key but both sps and Zoas benefit from nutrients. It just shouldn't sit around in a tank and start converting to bad things elements.

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+1 agree

bocomo · May 7, 2013

All mine are in ULNS with 0 phosphates in the water column. Still fighting phosphates leaching from the pukani though :\

Willz · May 7, 2013

icemountain said:
Lucky you! My gfo gets clogged up really fast, almost a week before the sponge filter on the bottom starts to push up. I am not sure if it gets exhausted when its clogged up or not since I never check the output of the gfo. I just end up changing it completely. I don't have any mechanical filtration in the tank so whatever crap is floating around gets sucked into the mj that is going into the gfo reactor. I just recently put a sponge filter around the intake of the mj and then a mesh sock over that sponge to help stop the reactor from clogging up.

I had the same problem with GFO and GAC getting gunked up and losing flow. I put both the pumps for the reactors into a big filter sock. Now I can go as long as I need to. It really extends the life of the media to keep particulates out of it. I try to change the GAC biweekly and the GFO when the phosphates creep up.