Zoa growth question

[Dummyforclownfi]

Hey all. So I have never been a huge zoa fan but I have taken a more recent interest in them. I do have a few different zoas in my sps dominant tank. I have a question regarding their growth. Most of the local reefers here will say that they will grow 3-5 new polyps a month on their zoas and that it is super easy for them to replicate. Well mine really don't seem to be replicating for me at all with the exception of one: watermelon zoa. I seem to get 2-3 polyps a month from that one. But for instance, I have had a red people eater (my favorite) since January that I bought with 6 polyps on a piece of rubble. 8 months later, I do not have a single new polyp on that thing yet. I did cut the rubble to a small stub and placed it on a frag plug just to try something different but I am curious as to whether or not they just will not thrive in certain environments. My parameters are as follow:
SG-1.025
Ca-430ppm
Alk-8.7dKH
Temp-80 (due to lack of a chiller)
NO4-.04ppm
NO3-`5ppm
Current-High (2 WP25's one set on else mode on one end and another on W1 on high speed)
Lighting-High(Photon 48 with a peak of 90% blue and 75% white for 2 hours a day)
Tank size-75 gallon - 29 gallon sump
Tank was setup in March of this year but it was an upgrade to a 6 month old 29 gallon.
a couple of months ago I had a problem with some acro's due to having no phosphates in the tank. I took the GFO and skimmer offline for 2 months and let my phosphate climb. Everything looks great since then. My zoas do look good but just do not reproduce for me. I know they don't like high lighting so they are kept at the bottom of my tank. Any comments?

 

[Tim Cannon]

Some of my zoas grow polyps really well and some don't. I have tried strategically placing frags from my mother colonies in different environments,ie. More/less flow and light, with little difference. Your numbers look good to me including temp. The few things I have learned from some of the hardcore zoa addicts around me is..... They like lots of fish poop, and use iodine. I feed reef chili and reef energy for vitamins. If they are staying alive and look colorful to me.....I figure they will grow eventually!

 

[Dummyforclownfi]

Well put. They do look healthy and colorful so I should be happy about that much. I have two tangs in my 75 so I am on the higher stocked end and I know those guys poop a lot. Wonder if I should poop in there too?

 

[Tim Cannon]

Tangs are very good poop factories! I have 3 tangs,2 clowns,4 anthius, 2 mandarins,5 wrasses and my buddy's still say I'm about 20 fish short In my 180!

 

[reefwars]

Get them into the light , you'd be surprised how much lighting most zoanthids can handle. My coral beds are 12" tall and corals are about 5" below waters surface and pounded with lights and flow.

I get great colors you can see them in my zoo pics thread and growth is as good as its getting.

My system is quite a bit older but all in all if your system is set up and doing well for sps then with a few tweaks here and there you'll be there

 

[Dummyforclownfi]

I have pretty intense lighting in my tank. I was even scared they would die if I placed them higher. But I can try to raise them a bit. I do have very high flow. Could that be it?