Serious Disscussion of Zoanthids Growth

I should say that the specific gravity results were estimated as well. Just a standard hydrometer reading every evening.

The temperature was set around 75.5, fluctuated throughout the 4 months due to water changes, hot apartment, lighting, etc.

I used a 36" Aquatic Life T5 4x39W fixture. 2 blue, 1 pink, 1 purple bulb, i believe made by UV Aquatics.

Tank was about 11 months old before starting the growing.

Bio load: 1 Male Hawaiian Flame Wrasse, 1 Female Hawaiian Flame Wrasse, 1 Longhorn Cowfish, 1 Cubicus Boxfish, 1 Spotted Mandarin, 1 Potters Wrasse, 1 Lawnmower Blenny, 1 Maroon Clownfish
 
Awesome. You inspired me to do something today. Oh if you are going to do this again could you measure the DKH? :beer:
 
I agree 100% and after 6 years it is still being bumped and read. It was one of my favorite discussions and back then most of our discussions were as long as this one. Good bump Jarred.


Mucho
 
SD Actuary said:
I have been conducting an experiment in this area for the past 4 months. I have always tried to break things down into the question of "what can i expect from doing this?"

A short description of the objective of my experiment is to find out several main factors of zoa/paly frag and colony growth. I really tried to capture every possible variable when documenting this experiment, although some things are impossible to keep as control variables. A detailed listing of my progress is as follows.

I purchased about 6 different no-brand-name zoa / paly frags from my LFS about 4 months ago.

Each frag was about 20 polyps for the zoas, and about 8 polyps for the palys.

I dont want to copy the entire experiment report thus far into this forum (unless you want me to) so I will summarize the details. This is all summarized in a Microsoft Excel document.

  • I took the tank parameters every night for the past 4 months.
  • I did weekly water changes of 17 gallons NSW and roughly 3 gallons top off of RODI.
  • The photo-period for this duration was 8 am 2 blue bulbs on, 10 am pink and purple come on, 5 pm pink and purple off, 9 pm blues off.
  • The fish were fed 3 times daily, Reef Cavier in morning, NLS 1mm pellets midday, Reef Mix evening.
  • The coral were spot fed twice per week, Wednesday and Sunday 1 hour before lights out, they were fed a mix of phytoplankton and cyclopeez.

Every Saturday I would inspect each frag individually, without touching in to get a polyp count.

I tried to place the frags in pairs in different areas of the tank, high flow, low flow, low light.

Z1 = Zoa frag #1
P1 = Paly frag #1

A short summary of my observations are

Z1 - green/yellow , Z2 - yellow/blue - low light, low flow
Z1 grew from 21 polyps to 35 polyps
Z2 grey from 17 polyps to 30 polyps


Z3 - red/yellow, Z4 - green - medium light, medium flow
Z3 - grew from 12 polyps to 25 polyps
Z4 - grew from 31 polyps to 65 polyps


P1 - green/blue, P2 - red/green - medium light, high flow
P1 - grew from 11 polyps to 18 polyps
P2 - grew from 14 polyps to 17 polyps

This was the extent of my experiment because my lights ended up dying and I upgraded to LEDs.

I now have a new experiment going with high end Zoa / Palys
This experiment has been running for 1 week, and i intend to do the same thing with all of them for the next 6 months.


This was my experience, I am not sure that I can officially draw any conclusions from this, as they were not the same species/color in different regions to compare although it appears that my tank showed the best results when placed in a medium light medium flow area. The new experiment will try to address how different placement of high-end Z's and P's affects the growth (and coloration) of these corals.
Click to expand...

Wow! this sounds like fun stuff and excellent growth rates... Are you really an actuarial? That would explain your fondness for statistics.
There is one thing that caught my attention and lends validity to some beliefs, and it is the growth rates of the all green ones. My radioactive green zoas grew like weeds and it seems yours did as well. Congratulations on your experiment. I wish I had the time to do something like this.
 
Great info on Zoas

Great info on Zoas

So i figured I start this awesome thread up again.
I just picked up my first zooanothinds and they came on a plug. Would it be best to keep them on the plug they came on? Also would it be best to keep them on the sand bed where i have them at now? and last...can you help identify them...Thanks!!
 

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Great thread, this was a very good read! Just my 2 cents, I have about 15 different colonies in my tank and I tend to get the best results when my Zoas are placed higher in the tank (under MH lighting) and are hit with at least moderate flow. I have tried moving colonies all over the tank and I tend to get the best results with this type of placement.

Also, the more expensive the Zoa, the slower it seems to grow regardless of the conditions :)
 
This is a really good thread! I have a question: even thought all those parameters are included with growth. What the average growth of PPE, blue/purple hornets, captain america and rainbows because the few what I got a few months back are growing slowly.
 
chiromike78 said:
So i figured I start this awesome thread up again.
I just picked up my first zooanothinds and they came on a plug. Would it be best to keep them on the plug they came on? Also would it be best to keep them on the sand bed where i have them at now? and last...can you help identify them...Thanks!!
Click to expand...

I would move the plug to a rock where they can spread.
 
SD Actuary said:
I have been conducting an experiment in this area for the past 4 months. I have always tried to break things down into the question of "what can i expect from doing this?"

A short description of the objective of my experiment is to find out several main factors of zoa/paly frag and colony growth. I really tried to capture every possible variable when documenting this experiment, although some things are impossible to keep as control variables. A detailed listing of my progress is as follows.

I purchased about 6 different no-brand-name zoa / paly frags from my LFS about 4 months ago.

Each frag was about 20 polyps for the zoas, and about 8 polyps for the palys.

I dont want to copy the entire experiment report thus far into this forum (unless you want me to) so I will summarize the details. This is all summarized in a Microsoft Excel document.

  • I took the tank parameters every night for the past 4 months.
  • I did weekly water changes of 17 gallons NSW and roughly 3 gallons top off of RODI.
  • The photo-period for this duration was 8 am 2 blue bulbs on, 10 am pink and purple come on, 5 pm pink and purple off, 9 pm blues off.
  • The fish were fed 3 times daily, Reef Cavier in morning, NLS 1mm pellets midday, Reef Mix evening.
  • The coral were spot fed twice per week, Wednesday and Sunday 1 hour before lights out, they were fed a mix of phytoplankton and cyclopeez.

Every Saturday I would inspect each frag individually, without touching in to get a polyp count.

I tried to place the frags in pairs in different areas of the tank, high flow, low flow, low light.

Z1 = Zoa frag #1
P1 = Paly frag #1

A short summary of my observations are

Z1 - green/yellow , Z2 - yellow/blue - low light, low flow
Z1 grew from 21 polyps to 35 polyps
Z2 grey from 17 polyps to 30 polyps


Z3 - red/yellow, Z4 - green - medium light, medium flow
Z3 - grew from 12 polyps to 25 polyps
Z4 - grew from 31 polyps to 65 polyps


P1 - green/blue, P2 - red/green - medium light, high flow
P1 - grew from 11 polyps to 18 polyps
P2 - grew from 14 polyps to 17 polyps

This was the extent of my experiment because my lights ended up dying and I upgraded to LEDs.

I now have a new experiment going with high end Zoa / Palys
This experiment has been running for 1 week, and i intend to do the same thing with all of them for the next 6 months.


This was my experience, I am not sure that I can officially draw any conclusions from this, as they were not the same species/color in different regions to compare although it appears that my tank showed the best results when placed in a medium light medium flow area. The new experiment will try to address how different placement of high-end Z's and P's affects the growth (and coloration) of these corals.
Click to expand...

Would really like to see more experiments like this from you! :beer:
 
Here is my timeline:

Dec 2010: one 6 polyp frag
Mar 2011: one 18
April: one 37 switched to a par 38 7 led light
June: one 60 polyp frag - 10 new frags
Aug: 124 total
Nov: 380
Dec: 481 (one year's of growth with one frag session so 6 months left alone)
Jan 2012: 623
Feb: 884
Mar 2: 889 had to make new frags
Mar 23: 1001

I had planned on fragging at certain points but figured I would destroy my rock work in the process.

I get the best growth from the frags that are closest to the center of the tank with the most light and flow. These are on horizontal surfaces. I have some frags that are growing vertically too but those are on the edge.

It has taken a long period of time but these and a few others are beginning to grow. I do move my light swing arm from center to right side to center to left side throughout the evening to help with those and to give the tank a different look.

When I was just doing a stationary light I was doing 9 hrs. on but now I am up to 12 to allow for those on the two sides some additional light. This still maybe not enough since I see the stalks extend and retract throughout the light cycle. Also I have been getting some hair algae in the tank due to the boost in light period but I can take care of that pretty easily.

For this one color morph the growth pattern seems to be that the mat extends outward in a straight line and with new polyps in a single row then I get a ring of polyps followed by the original line meeting up with that new one.

I turned my one rock and within a few days I got that extact growth pattern and before that part of the rock was completely shaded out by other rock work.
 
KafudaFish said:
Here is my timeline:

Dec 2010: one 6 polyp frag
Mar 2011: one 18
April: one 37 switched to a par 38 7 led light
June: one 60 polyp frag - 10 new frags
Aug: 124 total
Nov: 380
Dec: 481 (one year's of growth with one frag session so 6 months left alone)
Jan 2012: 623
Feb: 884
Mar 2: 889 had to make new frags
Mar 23: 1001

I had planned on fragging at certain points but figured I would destroy my rock work in the process.

I get the best growth from the frags that are closest to the center of the tank with the most light and flow. These are on horizontal surfaces. I have some frags that are growing vertically too but those are on the edge.

It has taken a long period of time but these and a few others are beginning to grow. I do move my light swing arm from center to right side to center to left side throughout the evening to help with those and to give the tank a different look.

When I was just doing a stationary light I was doing 9 hrs. on but now I am up to 12 to allow for those on the two sides some additional light. This still maybe not enough since I see the stalks extend and retract throughout the light cycle. Also I have been getting some hair algae in the tank due to the boost in light period but I can take care of that pretty easily.

For this one color morph the growth pattern seems to be that the mat extends outward in a straight line and with new polyps in a single row then I get a ring of polyps followed by the original line meeting up with that new one.

I turned my one rock and within a few days I got that extact growth pattern and before that part of the rock was completely shaded out by other rock work.
Click to expand...

Nice! Great work dude.
Only further proves the LAW (yes I am calling it a law because it is fact 100%of the time), that you should never frag frags. It slows the growth drastically. Let your corals grow out before you frag them boys and girls.
 
KafudaFish said:
Here is my timeline:

Dec 2010: one 6 polyp frag
Mar 2011: one 18
April: one 37 switched to a par 38 7 led light
June: one 60 polyp frag - 10 new frags
Aug: 124 total
Nov: 380
Dec: 481 (one year's of growth with one frag session so 6 months left alone)
Jan 2012: 623
Feb: 884
Mar 2: 889 had to make new frags
Mar 23: 1001

I had planned on fragging at certain points but figured I would destroy my rock work in the process.

I get the best growth from the frags that are closest to the center of the tank with the most light and flow. These are on horizontal surfaces. I have some frags that are growing vertically too but those are on the edge.

It has taken a long period of time but these and a few others are beginning to grow. I do move my light swing arm from center to right side to center to left side throughout the evening to help with those and to give the tank a different look.

When I was just doing a stationary light I was doing 9 hrs. on but now I am up to 12 to allow for those on the two sides some additional light. This still maybe not enough since I see the stalks extend and retract throughout the light cycle. Also I have been getting some hair algae in the tank due to the boost in light period but I can take care of that pretty easily.

For this one color morph the growth pattern seems to be that the mat extends outward in a straight line and with new polyps in a single row then I get a ring of polyps followed by the original line meeting up with that new one.

I turned my one rock and within a few days I got that extact growth pattern and before that part of the rock was completely shaded out by other rock work.
Click to expand...


Have you considered not removing them to make your counts, since doing so slows or stunts growth? You could be achieving even better results than now. Not telling you what to do, just a thought. What do you think boss?

Mucho Reef
 
Honestly I don't have a good answer but it sounds like a reason to set up another tank huh?

On one side of the discussion by removing them out of the water each month they are being "stressed" to a certain degree but they all open up as normal later on in the day so I don't think the level is too high.

Usually I do the counts during a complete WC and now algae treatments if necessary. I would estimate the time of air exposure to be around 10 minutes which would be within the range of fragging a colony.

Because I have been doing this all along I would think these would be more use to it than a new frag that was just placed into the system.

If I ever did a reef tank with a low tide I would keep my low tide period to a minimum and increase it slowly over time just like light acclimation.

Kind of off tangent there but again something to think about.

Would you care to expand on your opinion?
 
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