Growth Cycle ?????????
- Thread starter MUCHO REEF
- Start date
Slakker
Premium Member
Yes, but LED's are not a cost effective lighting solution, nor have I been convinced that livestock responds well to them over long term use.
Like I said, there are dimmable ballasts for MH and T5, which HAVE been "proven" technology in the trade, and are a lot more affordable. A LOT more.
weaselslucks
New member
i have noticed since i changed my t5's from white to daylight everything swells up during the day.the acans and shrooms and lps seem larger and fuller. but with my zoas i notice that if i can just stop touching them(or letting things knock them over) they do better. also it seams that my zoas will only grow up. so if i put a frag in the middle of a rock wall they will grow up the rock faster the towards the sand.That might help people who can't seem to get zoas to cover the whole rock. If the zoas are placed lower on the rock.
Peter Eichler
New member
Sure, but that doesn't really apply much to an aquarium. At the depths of most aquariums red and yellow will have no problem penetrating to the sandbed. 420-460nm bulbs have very little par and if you were to measure the par levels from such a bulb at 24" compared to say a 6500k the light intensity wouldn't even be close. The 6500k bulb would absolutely destroy the actinics. Actinics are great for making certain proteins in corals appear to fluouresce, but there isn't a whole lot of usable light there compared to a daylight type bulb.
DML08
Member
I got these about a month ago.. click on pics!
now here they are today.. notice on the radio active dragon eye's.. in the pic that was taken about a month ago there was only 10 zoa's on that front section.. now there is about 14 with about 3 lil baby's coming out..on the fire and ice I have only got about 6 new ones and there is about 6 baby's that i just counted.. here are the newer pics
now here they are today.. notice on the radio active dragon eye's.. in the pic that was taken about a month ago there was only 10 zoa's on that front section.. now there is about 14 with about 3 lil baby's coming out..on the fire and ice I have only got about 6 new ones and there is about 6 baby's that i just counted.. here are the newer pics
Plum forgot I even posted this. Lots of great feedback here though. I have never witnessed the "critical mass" theory. I've had and seen polyps grow around a rock completely until that reached the substrate only to begin to spread across the substrate unattached to any hard surface or rock at all. There have been numerous pictures posted right here in this threads as I recall over the years.
Skeptic07, do you think it's possible that the detached polyps were from fish or inverts nipping at them and not individual polyp detachment on their own?
It might not be season related. I have a theory that once zoas reach a sort of 'critical mass' where there is no more space for them to grow, they will start to die back or detach from the rock they are on. I bought a frag of eagle eye once and the polyps were detaching. I had healthy looking polyps rolling around the tank, open, not attached to anything. I could not understand this but it was fun to have lots of single polyps to glue in stupid places like on my snails and hermits. I put the remaining ones inbetween some rocks where the current couldnt blow them away. for a couple months no new growth. Now they are actually growing again. purely speculation but food for thought.
"Has anyone noticed an annual growth spurt with their polyps at any given time of the year annually, monthly, quarterly etc ?"
I haven't noticed any seasonal growth spurts in my system. My focus has always been consistency. If I maintain that consistency, my growth in most of my colonies is slow to moderate, others are rapid to sometimes out of control. So how is this explain. It's still my belief, and my opinion only, that polyps from different regions that are grown in captivity under like natural conditions, will reproduce faster than those from other regions whose environment is vastly different than that of their regions of collection. Hence the perfect explanation of why some polyps grow faster than others in the same system.
"What about growth or expansion during a full moon?"
Does anyone have a comment on the change in gravitational pull on the earth as it relates to coral growth and polyp expansion,? Hmmmm
"What about during summer over winter months, or vice versa? "
Again, I've noticed no changes.
Mucho Reef
Skeptic_07
New member
Theres no way any nipping from fish was possible. the biggst fish i had at the time was a green clown goby. The frag i got was definitely from someone who just carved the polyps off the rock with a chisel or something and the bottoms of the stalks (which were almost 2" long) were very stiff and brittle. Over the course of 2 weeks since i bought the frag they slowly detached 1 at a time, some had detached in the bag and even more in the dip. It was really wierd because above the stiff brittle part, the polyps seemed fine. Even after they detached from the rock, they remained open and i could glue them wherever and they would survive. half my snails had polyps glued on them that week :lol:
Growth Cycle ?????????
A topic of discussion. Would love to hear from each of you.
Has anyone noticed an annual growth spurt with their polyps at any given time of the year annually, monthly, quarterly etc ?
What about growth or expansion during a full moon?
What about during summer over winter months, or vice versa?
Any correlations at all with the above?
Mucho Reef
A topic of discussion. Would love to hear from each of you.
Has anyone noticed an annual growth spurt with their polyps at any given time of the year annually, monthly, quarterly etc ?
What about growth or expansion during a full moon?
What about during summer over winter months, or vice versa?
Any correlations at all with the above?
Mucho Reef
Anyone ?????
A. Grandis
Active member
Ok, I'm sorry, but I don't believe in growth cycle in closed systems.
No to flame the thread! Just my opinion.
All of the influences are artificially/accidentally imposed to our home systems, so whatever happens will be a factor for changes in the growth/reproduction rates or death.
Seasons make differences in a system if all of the natural factors are applied, not only temperature and light cycle, if so. There is more than that to the whole picture when we compare to natural reefs.
Moon can be a factor if it really follows the real moon cycle, I guess.
I do believe that after a while the polyps kinda feel the cycle of the artificial moon light cycle, but nobody ever proved that it really makes a difference in all the cases.
I have an artificial moon light cycle in my system for many years and it is very hard to keep it with the natural cycle.
Interesting topic...
Grandis.
No to flame the thread! Just my opinion.
All of the influences are artificially/accidentally imposed to our home systems, so whatever happens will be a factor for changes in the growth/reproduction rates or death.
Seasons make differences in a system if all of the natural factors are applied, not only temperature and light cycle, if so. There is more than that to the whole picture when we compare to natural reefs.
Moon can be a factor if it really follows the real moon cycle, I guess.
I do believe that after a while the polyps kinda feel the cycle of the artificial moon light cycle, but nobody ever proved that it really makes a difference in all the cases.
I have an artificial moon light cycle in my system for many years and it is very hard to keep it with the natural cycle.
Interesting topic...
Grandis.
Wow, just noticed how my reply from 4 years ago is both confusing and misleading as I did not use quotes from others post. So I am making the appropriete corrections by reposting the same reply in BOLD TEXT
"Skeptic_07 wrote
It might not be season related. I have a theory that once zoas reach a sort of 'critical mass' where there is no more space for them to grow, they will start to die back or detach from the rock they are on. I bought a frag of eagle eye once and the polyps were detaching. I had healthy looking polyps rolling around the tank, open, not attached to anything. I could not understand this but it was fun to have lots of single polyps to glue in stupid places like on my snails and hermits. I put the remaining ones inbetween some rocks where the current couldnt blow them away. for a couple months no new growth. Now they are actually growing again. purely speculation but food for thought."
"Skeptic_07 wrote
It might not be season related. I have a theory that once zoas reach a sort of 'critical mass' where there is no more space for them to grow, they will start to die back or detach from the rock they are on. I bought a frag of eagle eye once and the polyps were detaching. I had healthy looking polyps rolling around the tank, open, not attached to anything. I could not understand this but it was fun to have lots of single polyps to glue in stupid places like on my snails and hermits. I put the remaining ones inbetween some rocks where the current couldnt blow them away. for a couple months no new growth. Now they are actually growing again. purely speculation but food for thought."
Last edited:
Jarred1
Active member
I was thinking about this last night and I was wondering if the water column has greater food density at different times of the year and if that has anything to do with growth in the wild.
A. Grandis
Active member
I'm been so busy lately!!! Hardly could come around here to check today.
Oh yes, MUCHO!!! I remember the thread!
I still would love to hear more from them also. Please let us know about the article. Very, very interesting!!! Thanks very much!About my moon cycle: it's a Lunar 500, and it's on for years... the bulb is a blue 25 watt incandescent and it's on since 1996, I believe. Old school. I've never had any spawning that I know of from any of the zoanthids in my system.
I did hear about others that had coral spawning in the past. My moon cycle is precise and looks good. Works great all the time, but still there is more to it, I believe. At least for the zoas, I guess.
Yes, keep it rolling...
Grandis.
A. Grandis
Active member
That's gonna be hard to figure out.
It would depend on so many other factors too.
Again, I really prefer to suggest a stable system than one with changes to reach some of the points in growth/reproduction. That's what I've learned all the past years. I did many changes and tried so many things to stimulate growth and many of the changes would end up in a problem for longer than I would like. Most of the problems were related to chemistry and excess growth of algae, so...
I do prefer to keep the system as stable as possible to be able to enjoy.
Still a very good topic!! I like it!!
Hopefully others will post to bring some more ideas and experiences.
I'll go back to work and be very busy this coming week.
I'll try to come here and see what people post.
Have fun!!!
Grandis.
