zoo growth under actinic

[EMBRYOGUY]

for the past 6 months ive been growing zoos under a 65 wt pure actinic bulb. i shut down the 65 white light to control algae for a couple weeks but to my surprise my zoos never looked better.

since than, ive had better growth than ever. ALL my zoos are fully opend all the time with there tentacles fully stretched. ive seen doubling of my zoos frags per month. so ive decided to keep them under there until i see any signs of stress. but as stated earlier, its been 6 months and they are growing vigourously.

please comment. anyone else with this experience?
neg/pos. comments welcomed.

[alexinfla]

very interesting, thanks for the input....I'm running to yank a white light off one of my tanks. Never thought of trying that!

[EMBRYOGUY]

please keep in mind, i dont necessarily advocat this. a full spectrum light makes more sense, but i cant hide the fact that ALL my zoo colonies look and are growing really well. most do not like the bluish look of the actinic only tank but if your into zoos mostly. the colors are amazing under it

ill post as they progress.

[ullnvrguess77]

I have had a lot of success in my 26 bowfront with 2x96W 50/50 quad bulbs and 1x55W actinic (151W actinic and 96W 10K total).

[EMBRYOGUY]

yeah ullnvr. thats typical lighting. and thats the combo i would expect to achieve max. growth also, thats why im perplexed why mine are growing so well under full actinic.

ws hoping someoe else had same exp.

[bigreddog]

That's pretty interesting. I'm setting up a prop tank for zoos so I might give it a shot and see what happens. The colors definitly look better under straight actinics.

[sr71]

correct me if i am wrong but to my understanding if your polyp/tentacles are stretched it's not getting enough light. are you feeding your zoos DT or something?

[EMBRYOGUY]

im not feeding them DT. i have a refugium connected to the propagation tank. and i feed the pair of clowns in there, frozen mysis occasionally, but the mostly get pellets.

so i do not directly feed the zoos. keep in mind when i say stretched out , they do not look stressed at all. when i had my full 5050 lighting, my zoos looked ok. they did not open up as much and there was always atleast one colony that didnt open at all. i even lost a few zoo colonies during this time.

since full actinic, ive lost NO colonies at all. they are growing very well. almost doubling the polyp number each month. ALL the polyps on ALL colonies are always open.. and colors are full.

keep in mind, i DO NOT advocate others doing this. despite my success so far, i still belive in a good spectrum lighting 5050. and i would not recommend anyone to do this.

the point of this thread is to document what im experincing. and hoping that someone else has experinced it also.

i would feel guilty if someone lost some zoos bec of using actinic only.

i jsut know that my zoos are growing very well. better than ive ever had them. and this includes over 15-20 colonies from all over the world.

w/ respect to the stretching, ive seen zoos that stretch but the tentacles look thin/unhealthy. mine are stretched but very thick. they look like the zoos in the pics of most of the reefers on here. very healthy.

anyway it doesnt make sense to me, but i cant ignore the fact they are growing very well under these unsualy conditions.

[Lionfan]

Any chance of a full tank shot and maybe a shot of 3 colonies together?

[EMBRYOGUY]

lionfan im really sorry ive tried to take pics of the zoos but under actinic i cant seem to get the colors right. i will try to take some more pics though tonight .to show everyone

[EMBRYOGUY]

here are pics i just took today. sorry for the poor quality. i used flash so this is what they look like under pure 50/50 pc.

notice the how spread out the zoos are and all are fully opend all the time.

[EMBRYOGUY]

sorry lets see if this works

[EMBRYOGUY]

ok sorry if the pics dont show up , click onto my gallery and you ll see the first two pics. the most current ones. are the zoos pics.

[Lionfan]

Thanks for the pics, but I was under the impression that they would be pics of just actinic with no flash.

[EMBRYOGUY]

the point is not the color of the actinic but the fact that they are very healthy under actinic. i cant get the colors when i dont use flash . thats why.

when i try to take pics w.o flash under full actinic all get are all blue zoos.

[Andys29]

i ran only a 65w actinic on my 29g just because i liked the color..but then i was told it wasnt good for the corals so i have since turned my 50/50 bulb back on. but i wont say that the corals didnt look like they were doing good when i had only the actinic on. I think the zoas like it

[EMBRYOGUY]

andy, i dont recommend anyon doing this at all. esp for other corals besides zoos.

i just like the look personally and they are growing well so ive since than added an additional 65 wts for a total of 130. and they are still growing very well.

[exoticaquatix]

i had only actinic on one half of my octo tank due to a PC socket short and the zoo's seemed to like it alot more than the mushrooms i had in there.mi cant say they grew or multiplied very quick because it was only about a month. we'll see how they like 20k MH in a week or so.

[furforfour]

Those orange zoas in the lower right side of this picture


are incredible. Where did you get them?

[wds21921]

Just a guess on my part but I believe they're looking like they're in full bloom because they aren't getting enough of the light spectrum. To fix this they are opening up to get as much of the actinic as they can to compensate for the lack of white light.

I would further guess that the effect your seeing is perhaps going to be temporary at best which may last for several weeks or even months before they begin to digress.

For some zoos this MIGHT actually enhance them TO A POINT but for overall tank health I would not try this as a new solution and expect rapid coral propogation.

[EMBRYOGUY]

good point wds.

ive been growing them under full actinic for over 8 months now atleast. i DO NOT recommend this or advocate this to anyone. i m just documenting my exp. i like the actinic look of my zoos and based on that reason im keeping them under it for now until i see signs of stress, but as i stated they are growing faster than ive had them under 50/50,

despite this, everything your staying makes complete sense. and i agree with it. but i cant dismiss what i see in my zoos.

thanks your input.

the orange zoos, i got them at a local fish store., they grow very easily. i jsut gave away a frag of them. pm me in a couple months and ill be more than hapy to give you some.

[ficklefins]

Not sure if anyone has moonlights in their tank, but if you shine a blue LED on zoas they will not close at night. Not sure if it made a difference in their growth or anything.

[EMBRYOGUY]

good point, fickle.

ive noticed that also.........

yes yes yes i wonder what the affect of them are on moonlights.

everyone says it promotes coral. stimulation but ...........

[wds21921]

The only stimulation I've noticed so far after 2 weeks of regular intervals is my zoa's do appear more healthy and have grown and opened fully.
Nothing so far to ricordia though.

[tarhull87]

awesome