Zoas and Nutrients

[Lord Sevein]

Hello all,

As per Mucho Reef's suggestion I would like to discuss the subject of Zoas and their reaction to nutrient levels in a closed system aquarium. (In the effort to be more concise, am speaking about both Zoanthus and Palythoa when I speak about zoas unless otherwise noted.) I have always heard anecdotally that "Zoas love a dirty tank." What has been your experience with this?

Specifically,

-Has anyone had more success with a "clean" tank as opposed to a "dirty" tank or vise versa?

-Are there color/morph differences in tanks with higher or lower nutrient levels respectively?

-If zoas prefer a tank with higher nutrients, how does the polyp/colony use the nutrients?

-Is it possible that a Zoanthus species could not use nutrients but a Palythoa speciese will? Vise versa?

Thank you!
-Lord Sevein



(Post pics if you have them please! )

[Lord Sevein]

Ok, since no one has stepped up to the plate yet I will go first.

My system

30g (long) tank
60 watts of NO fluorescents (soon to be upgraded to 4X39w t5 HO)
1.5'' sugar sized aragonite sand, 30 lbs of live rock.
Emperor dual chamber power filter, home made fuge w/ chaetomorpha
2 Tomato Clowns, 1 Fiji Blue Devil, several hermits, snails, and a brittle star
Several types of Shrooms, Green Button Polyps, Eagle Eye Zoas, GI Joe Zoas, misc. Platys


Because my tank is fairly "new" (it's previous owner had it set up for over four years) I do not have a huge amount of experience with zoas. I was, however, fortunate enough to receive a small frag of common green button polyps very near the start of the tank. Due to monetary constraints I have not been able to purchase a skimmer for the tank or upgrade it's lighting yet. (The lighting is due around the end of august with the skimmer to soon follow.) My tank has always had slightly higher nitrate levels than what most reefers (especially sps keepers) baulk at. Nothing too hight, but always between 5 and 30 ppm. Once I replace the power filter with a skimmer I believe that the nitrates will come way down.

As such, my only experience has been with a "dirty" tank. I haven't seen any negative results as of yet. In fact, everything seems to be doing very well. My original frag of green button polyps has doubled and my Eagle Eyes and GI Joes have not shown any signs of distress since I got them. So far it seems that zoas are at least tolerant of higher nutrient levels.

-Sevein

[ct_vol]

Sevein~ Good Topic!!! IMO the high nutrient "dirty tank" is no way to propagate zoas/palys... I will say however that you can keep zoas/palys in a more nutrient rich tank than SPS... I think the reason people have success in a more nutrient rich tank is because their lighting is actually too intense to keep zoanthids and the nutrients act as a filter to the light... I have a greater volume of growth in a clean tank as opposed to a dirty one... I believe that colors morphing have more to do with the color spectrum received than to the nutrients in the tank... Zoanthids do need some proteins that are sometimes skimmed out by an overzelous "wet" skimmer, but I feel water quality is of the upmost importance to keeping a successful Zoanthid/Palythoa tank... JMO!!!!!!

[Lord Sevein]

Thanks for the info ct! I really can't wait to upgrade my lighting. I'm sure I will see some pretty fantastic color shifts when I do.

I had never thought about nutrients filtering excess light! That is a good point though. I wonder if anyone has done studies on the amount of light a "dirty" tank will filter out?

[ct_vol]

Originally posted by Lord Sevein
I had never thought about nutrients filtering excess light! That is a good point though. I wonder if anyone has done studies on the amount of light a "dirty" tank will filter out?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the brown tint to your water waste, or the increased clarity after a water change... Especially for people that don't run carbon or floss in their system... But it would be an easy test to do with a PAR meter...

[pass1over]

ive thought the same thing ct_vol
I bought some albino blizzard zoas, which were completely white when I first got them. They have since started to take on a slight dull pinkish color in the center.
The person whom I bought them from had them under MHs I believe, and now their under PCs.

makes sense that they would darken themselves or change colors to absorb the spectrum and/or amount of light they require

[Lord Sevein]

hmmm Thats interesting pass . . . Typically when someone speaks of their zoas "coloring up" they are usually referring to a switch to stronger lighting. i.e. PC to T5 or MH. This is the first instance I have heard of zoas coloring after a change from more intense lighting to less intense lighting.

What are the nutrients like in your tank?

[pass1over]

not exactly sure on nutrients atm, and not 100% sure the original person had them under MHs, it was a guess, although i'll send them a PM and verify the lighting they used to be under.

[ct_vol]

A lot of zoas/palys will bleach under stressed conditions or high light, but they'll darken under PC's... I had a frag of Pink Elephants go white on me after I cut them up... But after a few months, they were as vibrant as ever!!!

[MUCHO REEF]

Just wondering if there were any more great reefers out there who could weigh in on this topic.

Mucho

[Ace1]

yep, my setup is still new 3.5 months and i have multiple zoos, my experience is mixed in that i noticed on certain zoos my (watermelons in particular) will bleach in higher lighting, i've also noticed this with a green skirt purple with pink mouth zoo that i've had for about 2 weeks, in high light the color faded and seemed dull. Once i moved it lower and slighty under a cliff the color has popped out noticebly.
Conversly i have some beautiful Orange skirt Very Bright pink/peach center zoos that glow in higher light and have doubled its polyps in a lil over a month. As for nutrient levels i started doing water changes once per week over the last 4 weeks and noticed that one colony that was thriving and constantly open now opens about 65% there are section that havent opened in days.

*Note. I started vigorously feeding my zoos with red cyclopeze squirted directly on the colony and have noticed substantial growth and some brightning of color, they actually inhale pieces of mysis also.

Taking Anthony Calfo's anolgy.. Feeding is first, Flow is 2nd and lighting comes in a distant 3rd in terms of importance for most corals. The feeding seems to be the way to go for me. And for most corals lighting is overrated is also constitues a large portion of profits for the industry..


jus one to grow on..... ;?