coral growth question

[new2saltyfish]

to start off i have a 125 gallon tank with 3 175 watt halides. I know people say sps is supposed to be hard but for some reason my sps is growing at a pretty good rate as well as the sps ( trying not to jinks myself). But the zoanthids seem to be at a standstill....anyone know why this might be?? Mushrooms are also growing like crazy

 

[JohnK]

Happy SPS tends to grow like a weed. Your probably doing something right.

 

[Joel A]

my SPS grow well typically, but my zoos don't do anything either. IDN , zoas suck.

SPS aren't hard because they grow slow (although some do grow painfully slow) they are considered hard because if you mess something up they're the first to die .

 

[frank180reef]

Dont SPS do well in clean water and zoos dont

my zoos live no that I moved them out of my MH lights , you might try the same......

 

[TomD]

All I know is I can keep SPS and LPS GREAT, but can't keep leathers to save my life. Frank, the toadstool I got from you hasn't opened in a week. I don't know if it's a chemical thing or what! Never had too many problems with zoos though, more leathers and toadstools.

 

[Joel A]

I've heard that about zoanthids as well, that they like "dirtier" water. The only thing i could see that logically makes that seem true is maybe they catch and eat things out of the water column like a filter feeder does, but they don't contract like a filter feeder does?

Maybe the clean water makes the light shine on them more intensely and they don't like that??

I don't know, it seems like a blanket statement, and i'm not sure it make sense.. zoas grow like crazy in the wild, and the wild has very clean and pollutant free water???

 

[frank180reef]

hmmm.....btw my leathers go though cycles where they dont come out......Move it to more flow

i dont have many sps

 

[TomD]

hmmm.....btw my leathers go though cycles where they dont come out......Move it to more flow

i dont have many sps

How long have you seen them closed at a time before they open again?

Sorry to hijack the thread...I was trying to link the two where they are softys being kept with hard corals to see if there is a correlation. I have had zoos die for no reason to but it is far and few. I would like to keep a smaller tank with just zoos/softies and see how it does.

 

[new2saltyfish]

maybe the clean water thing does have something to do with it. I have a colony of zoo's that i had in my 55 with t-5's and it grew from 5 to 200 polyps in under 2 months. Now those 200 are probably at 205 in a little over a year. My nitrates in the other take were always around 10-20 though and this tank has basically 0 nitrate

 

[stingythingy45]

I would love to set up 2 exact tanks, same water/salt mixture and lighting.One with a skimmer,one without.Also would like to see how vitamin C works for zoas.

 

[frank180reef]

maybe the clean water thing does have something to do with it. I have a colony of zoo's that i had in my 55 with t-5's and it grew from 5 to 200 polyps in under 2 months. Now those 200 are probably at 205 in a little over a year. My nitrates in the other take were always around 10-20 though and this tank has basically 0 nitrate

5 to 200 polps in 2 months , are u sure?

 

[new2saltyfish]

well maybe 5 to 50 lol but it was definitely to the point of not being able to count within 6 months. Still they don't seem to grow at all

 

[jayman10134]

I have MH lights and my zoas grow great. However all i am running for filtration is my skimmer for 1 day a week and a refugium. No filter media, carbon or anything. I also have not done a water change in 2 - 3 months. Also, when I do a water change it is only filtered by a 30 micron filter and carbon.

In the wild zoas grow in lagoons and coastal regions where there is run off. I assume that the runoff carries nitrogen and phosphates into the water as it does in every other ecosystem. So I assume they like clear water, but nutrient rich.

 

[MofoCorals]

My zoas were growing fine when I did not have a skimmer and did water changes to make up for it. I added a skimmer and now they seem to have stoped growing. Im starting to get into sps now and they seem to be growing well.

 

[dcforester1]

I would hate to have problems like that. I have all good parm, and I cant get SPS to grow, well at least acros. I have no troubles with zoos, they grow nonstop. One frag I have must have grow over 100heads in 6mos. I think they were LoonyTunes?

My sons 14gal cube, and not the cleanest water. His Acans, and zoos do great. I was actually having a hard time with an Acan frag and he suggested(Hes 7)putting them in his tank, and it worked. They colored right up, and looked great.