Polyps Galore, 70+ Colony Zoa tank

[cjvale]

Love the garded keep up the good work.

 

[Enchanted]

Very Nice! I only have a few and can't wait for my tank to one day look half as good as yours! Nice job.

 

[Sherrf1]

Your tank is awesome. Im upgrading to a 58g and Im planning on having a zoa "area". I have a few small colonies now but I definately want to add. Where did you get yours? Locally or online? You have some great colors!! Keep the pictures coming!

 

[i2as kass]

This is what I hope my tank can look like one day! Love the colonies!!

10/07/2011 01:56 AM
Enchanted Very Nice! I only have a few and can't wait for my tank to one day look half as good as yours! Nice job.

10/04/2011 11:50 PM
cjvale Love the garded keep up the good work.

10/04/2011 09:13 PM
innate1 Oh Canada! Wow! All I can say is Wow! I hope my tank grows up to be like your tank.

10/04/2011 07:22 PM
TandN tank is beautiful congrats with it

10/02/2011 01:16 PM
Dan49 After looking at this thread I'll be buying some zoa's today. Great tank!

10/01/2011 05:23 PM
Pallobi the best zoa tank i have ever seen wonderfully done

10/01/2011 02:38 PM
howze01 This is what I hope my tank can look like one day! Love the colonies!!

Thanks for the props everyone!

10/07/2011 07:32 PM
Sherrf1 Your tank is awesome. Im upgrading to a 58g and Im planning on having a zoa "area". I have a few small colonies now but I definately want to add. Where did you get yours? Locally or online? You have some great colors!! Keep the pictures coming!

Thanks! I have been collecting for about 5 years or so now so sources range from friends to shipped in from out of province LFS. Unfortunately I'm in Canada so my buying info won't help you .

Few big things have happened in the tank as of late, as I'm in point form mood I will point form it...

• Both my Velvet wrasse and Male Lyretail Anthias have committed suicide.
• I'm pretty sure I have spent more time fighting about aquascaping in the last 5 days than I have in my life, on Thanks giving I was thankful for not murdering my brother...
• I'm pretty sure I'm happy with the aquascaping, I also say that every time I finish Aquascapeing...
• The mixing of my red and green cyano bacteria made for an excellent splotched Christmas theme unfortunately cyano isn't cool. I have pretty much eliminated it from the tank as of now but there are still a few patches here and there.
• Aptasia's eat bristleworms, I watched it with my eyes!!!
• Calgary got some wicked giant zoa colonies, I nabbed a few of these and have been filling in the SPS holes of the tank.
• I have owned red planet for a year today!
• On a good note my harlequin shrimp has aggressively been attacking my starfish problem, the numbers are crashing quickly I'm very excited with the results!
• My Skimmate smelled like rotten eggs...
• 2 of the Vortechs have been repositoned to under the new arches, photos below.

Here are some actinic photos from tonight after yet another aquascape, enjoy:

FTS:


Zoas:




Others:

 

[reeftanknewbie]

Man those pics are awesome......One hell of a tank.....is there a particular type of zoa that you struggle keeping or getting to grow? I have been keeping zoas for about a year now and have had great success up until the last month. None has opened in weeks. Installed a new skimmer and they are slowly coming back to life.

 

[MyOwnGrowOp]

LOVE the new scape man. the best yet. still hands down my favorite tank. i would love to be able to see it in person some day when im out in Calgary as im sure its even more amazing in person!

 

[biecacka]

said it before and say it again........great looking tank
so you no longer are dosing the "food" that you were previously
corey

 

[Justbecause]

How often do you do water change?

 

[i2as kass]

Man those pics are awesome......One hell of a tank.....is there a particular type of zoa that you struggle keeping or getting to grow? I have been keeping zoas for about a year now and have had great success up until the last month. None has opened in weeks. Installed a new skimmer and they are slowly coming back to life.

I always find a quick 20% water change with new carbon to have an amazing effect for my zoas, the "beginner" classification that has been throw on the zoa sp. in general is very misleading as the group is extremely diverse and has some very finicky species/ morphotypes.

The problem lies with the diversity of set ups and morphs we bring into the hobby. Although generalizations about health stand each persons set up is truly unique, you could try and duplicate anyone's set up with mixed results for survival on a particular morph. Personally I can't keep Candy Apple Reds or any of the "Japanese Deep Waters" alive for the life of me (Yes I know there not actually from Japan or from deep water ironically).

Another factor is all these 1 polyp frags running around, I prefer purchasing medium- large size colonies because these are always the pieces I have the most success with, single polyp frags tend to melt like butter in a microwave.
Thanks for posting, hope they open for you.

Today 03:04 AM
MyOwnGrowOp LOVE the new scape man. the best yet. still hands down my favorite tank. i would love to be able to see it in person some day when im out in Calgary as im sure its even more amazing in person!

Shoot me a PM if your coming to Calgary, always open to Reef talk and a beer. Thanks for the compliment!

Today 03:36 AM
biecacka said it before and say it again........great looking tank
so you no longer are dosing the "food" that you were previously
corey

Thanks! I have stopped the dosing regime for two reasons, one I don't live at the house where my tank presides and two I have to keep my SPS in mind.

The tank is still fed a copious amount of food every day (Brine Shrimp, Mysis, Home Made and nori), in addition to this about 2-3 nights a week I mix up a batch of Cycopeeze with selcon and Reef Nutrition Oyster feast. I turn my pumps to feed mode the moment the last of my actinics go off and then turkey baster it all over the zoas. So far the results have been pretty stellar, everything is looking very plump!

Today 05:17 AM
Justbecause How often do you do water change?

I'm pretty bad at keeping to the schedule but I do around a 10% every two weeks for 20% per month.

 

[i2as kass]

Red Planet Colony 1:
10-08-2010


Today (Large piece was broken off the rock so there's two colonies now):


Red Planet Colony 2:
10-09-2010


Today (Again frag to the right was accidentally snapped off)

 

[i2as kass]

FEEDING TIME:

 

[i2as kass]

Well a bit has changed with the tank since I have last posted, lost a few really nice colonies to melt and picked up a few new pieces. Also replaced my front MH/T5 fixture out with 3 Ecotech radion LED fixtures, I'm stunned with the colors but the zoas were angry to start.

All new photos are @ 20k 65% intensity.

One of my favorites:


Jasonfox Bloodshot Paly, 2 adults with 2 babies grow baby grow!

 

[i2as kass]

 

[i2as kass]

 

[i2as kass]

Sunset !

 

[brad65ford]

kass, not sure if this has been asked before but now do you mantain your mangrove/sand/refugium. It seems as though you feed your zoas a lot while they love but how do you deal with detruis and excessive bio-load/waste? Have you ever changed you substrate?

Thank you for your time and help. Your tank is amazing and surly an inspiration for us all.

 

[reeftanknewbie]

I always find a quick 20% water change with new carbon to have an amazing effect for my zoas, the "beginner" classification that has been throw on the zoa sp. in general is very misleading as the group is extremely diverse and has some very finicky species/ morphotypes.

The problem lies with the diversity of set ups and morphs we bring into the hobby. Although generalizations about health stand each persons set up is truly unique, you could try and duplicate anyone's set up with mixed results for survival on a particular morph. Personally I can't keep Candy Apple Reds or any of the "Japanese Deep Waters" alive for the life of me (Yes I know there not actually from Japan or from deep water ironically).

Another factor is all these 1 polyp frags running around, I prefer purchasing medium- large size colonies because these are always the pieces I have the most success with, single polyp frags tend to melt like butter in a microwave.
Thanks for posting, hope they open for you.



Shoot me a PM if your coming to Calgary, always open to Reef talk and a beer. Thanks for the compliment!



Thanks! I have stopped the dosing regime for two reasons, one I don't live at the house where my tank presides and two I have to keep my SPS in mind.

The tank is still fed a copious amount of food every day (Brine Shrimp, Mysis, Home Made and nori), in addition to this about 2-3 nights a week I mix up a batch of Cycopeeze with selcon and Reef Nutrition Oyster feast. I turn my pumps to feed mode the moment the last of my actinics go off and then turkey baster it all over the zoas. So far the results have been pretty stellar, everything is looking very plump!


I'm pretty bad at keeping to the schedule but I do around a 10% every two weeks for 20% per month.

thanks for the great info. I had been doing a 20% water change weekly and running carbon and they seemed unhappy. I haven't feed my zoas before either as I wasn't sure what to feed them.

 

[jumpman420]

Simply.awesome. love the mangroves as well. I used them in my dual overflows with eggcrate to give the tank more of a 3d look above the tank.

 

[dweathers]

amazing tank!

 

[Dustin0_15]

Acclimating your zoas

Acclimating your zoas

Levi, I searched the thread to see if you addresed acclimation, but returned no results, so if you've covered this I apologiize. Do you have a particular acclimation/dipping routine for your zoas. Love your tank.

Thanks.