My Zoa Garden
- Thread starter slin1977
- Start date
Rob in Puyallup
New member
Okay. Gotta say it...
I want that!
I want that!
slin1977
New member
Okay. Gotta say it...
I want that!
Cheers for the kind words, there are so many great tanks on this forum and I am pleased you like mine.
Here is my zoa puzzle
A. Grandis
Active member
That picture is a good example of Zoanthus spp. and Palythoa spp. living "happy" together.
Normally we recommend to separate those green Palythoa spp. in a rock by themselves.
I've had those together for many years with Z. gigantus and after a while they began to sting the Zoanthus and suffocate them. They were nice for many years before that. Today I keep them separated in a small rock. They grow fast and many times take over, if you allow.
Nice shot!
Grandis.
Normally we recommend to separate those green Palythoa spp. in a rock by themselves.
I've had those together for many years with Z. gigantus and after a while they began to sting the Zoanthus and suffocate them. They were nice for many years before that. Today I keep them separated in a small rock. They grow fast and many times take over, if you allow.
Nice shot!
Grandis.
noobofthereef
New member
Do you ever frag your zoas? If you do, how do you do that, since they are all on huge rocks?
slin1977
New member
Hello noobofthereef.
I never frag my zoas as I have better results by doing this method that I learnt by reading an article written by GARF , if I wish to share them I let them grow onto a tiny rock that was placed on the edge of the colony and carefully cut them off from the colony once a polyp or two has grown.
When I had the bare bottom tank the zoas would grow so fast on the glass that I simply put frag plugs down and soon they were colonies on fresh plugs.
Some people swear by live rock.... Well I think by using dead base rock to start my tank gave me a huge head start in my quest for a lush zoa garden.
noobofthereef
New member
What if one type started taking over another type?
slin1977
New member
I don't really have favourites so it doesn't bother me too much.
I think there are 25 different sp. in the tank.
As Grandis mentioned yes some zoas / palys do take over each other. There are plenty examples in my tank of that taking place. Sometimes I have had say ten polyps of a type, to be reduced to about three when a more dominant type shadows over. I can't tell if one type is going to grow faster than others, something might trigger fast growth of one type whilst others have remained almost dormant over the life of this tank. I know with SPS , damage to a part or say fragging sets off a healing or growth reaction.
I was speaking to a diver / collector the other day and he said out on the reef , he simply breaks off a few pieces , scatters them in the area and harvests the fragments on a return trip a few months later....
noobofthereef
New member
Alright cool. At the beginning did you just epoxy the frags onto the rock?
slin1977
New member
Yes exactly, then it's best to cut the new growth off from the mother colony if you wish to remove the frag... usually the epoxy breaks off the base rock/ live rock easily and the new growth spreads like wildfire. Wildfire being a relative term.... Taken me two years to get this far
noobofthereef
New member
I just had a sudden thought, doesn't your hammer sting the other corals? And how is your xenia not completely over running the tank? And none of the sps are blocking the light for anything?
slin1977
New member
Certainly does, let me get some pics up for you soon to show what happens.
noobofthereef
New member
That actually looks pretty cool haha. Sorry for all the questions, but I just love your tank- it's so different from all those other rock wall looks. Is the flow really high throughout the tank?
slin1977
New member
I don't mind the questions:thumbsup: cheers for liking my "not rock wall" so much.
I have 4 inches behind the bommie so I can clean the back glass and enough room everywhere else to clean the glass. Sometimes I stick coral / frags on the gravel behind the bommie, out of view as these random bits can be distracting to my eye.
Yes there is a lot of free flow through the bommie for both fish and water current. The fish use many routes to swim through the bommie.
When viewing the tank from the side there is surface current that goes down the front of the glass and rolls back upward benefiting the reef, excess current wraps around the sides and goes to the back. The flow in the tank is awesome.
Recently I turned a nozzle away from the red seratipora , already there is many new growth points, won't be long until it fills in the gaps.
slin1977
New member
BTW I trim the Xenia a lot to prevent it shadowing the other coral.
The red seratipora has grown over the yellow table coral , for now they seem ok. The green seratipora has grown into the pocilopora.
It's a constant battle for space on the reef but I seem to get away without allopathy or any wars. Can be done by carefully selecting species I guess.
The red seratipora has grown over the yellow table coral , for now they seem ok. The green seratipora has grown into the pocilopora.
It's a constant battle for space on the reef but I seem to get away without allopathy or any wars. Can be done by carefully selecting species I guess.
noobofthereef
New member
What are your fastest growing sps?
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