zoa/paly growth shots

[greg1786]

i have had these zoas for about 4 months, they were all in pretty bad shape when i got them and i just wanted to share some before and after photos of them. before is from the day i got them and the afters are from this week.

Before 1 polyp..

After about 25 polyps ...

before 1 polyp....

after 17 polyps ...

before 4 polyps

after, 14 polyps...

before these stayed closed for three months

this shot is from yesterday they've been open for about a month (maybe emeralds on fire?? )

before about 30 polyps severely damaged

after at least 90 polyps

i know they are not the rarest zoas but i enjoy them and was pretty proud of the growth and color they've gotten since i began taking care of them. Hope you enjoyed!

 

[MUCHO REEF]

Hello greg1786, thanks for sharing. I normally don't reply to picture threads, but I felt compelled to reply to yours. You my friend have done an excellent job thus far. What you've done is what reefing is truly about. Don't even/ever worry about rarity and what's rare. Most people who think they have something rare, really don't. Just continue to dedicate yourself to learning, growing and sharing and I can assure you that your longevity in this hobby will surpass that of many others. In short, what I'm saying is this, great job man, great job.

Don't worry about buying the best cameras, photoshopping to impressed anyone, just be a reefer, and those polyps will continue to mature into mother colonies that will truly be even more impressive. Again, great job my friend.

MUCHO REEF
TOTM - August 2003

 

[Guss]

What did you do for them in terms of special care to get them going so nicely?

 

[ibtigr33]

+1 with Guss! That is very impressive and I would love to know what you're doing. Lighting cycle, flow, parameters, feeding...heck all of it.

 

[A. Grandis]

Great job! :thumbsup:
Yep, please let us know.

Grandis.

 

[fishmanstan]

Nice growth. You should get some colorful ones to start growing!

 

[greg1786]

Hello greg1786, thanks for sharing. I normally don't reply to picture threads, but I felt compelled to reply to yours. You my friend have done an excellent job thus far. What you've done is what reefing is truly about. Don't even/ever worry about rarity and what's rare. Most people who think they have something rare, really don't. Just continue to dedicate yourself to learning, growing and sharing and I can assure you that your longevity in this hobby will surpass that of many others. In short, what I'm saying is this, great job man, great job.

Don't worry about buying the best cameras, photoshopping to impressed anyone, just be a reefer, and those polyps will continue to mature into mother colonies that will truly be even more impressive. Again, great job my friend.

MUCHO REEF
TOTM - August 2003

mucho reef,
thank you so much for the kind words. I know you are highly respected in this hobby and community so it means a lot coming from you. I got into this hobby a little more than a year and half ago and instantly fell in love!! I work about 60 hours a week and when I'm not working I'm either in front of the fish tank, at the lfs, or researching everything I can about this hobby. I spend so much time making sure I provide the best possible environment I can for the fish and corals I have, and often I wonder, if I am having the success I should be having. Then when I find original pictures that I can compare to current day, it is very reassuring. I am currently working on fragging a few polyps from each colony to attach to a good size rock in hopes one day they will cover it and create a garden. Though I have learned so much over the last year or so about my "obsession" lol, I know I haven't even scratched the surface and look forward to all that I still have to learn. Again thanks for the kind words it made me feel very proud of my success and hard work!!!


Posted from ReefCentral.com App for Android

 

[greg1786]

Hello greg1786, thanks for sharing. I normally don't reply to picture threads, but I felt compelled to reply to yours. You my friend have done an excellent job thus far. What you've done is what reefing is truly about. Don't even/ever worry about rarity and what's rare. Most people who think they have something rare, really don't. Just continue to dedicate yourself to learning, growing and sharing and I can assure you that your longevity in this hobby will surpass that of many others. In short, what I'm saying is this, great job man, great job.

Don't worry about buying the best cameras, photoshopping to impressed anyone, just be a reefer, and those polyps will continue to mature into mother colonies that will truly be even more impressive. Again, great job my friend.

MUCHO REEF
TOTM - August 2003

mucho reef,
thank you so much for the kind words. I know you are highly respected in this hobby and community so it means a lot coming from you. I got into this hobby a little more than a year and half ago and instantly fell in love!! I work about 60 hours a week and when I'm not working I'm either in front of the fish tank, at the lfs, or researching everything I can about this hobby. I spend so much time making sure I provide the best possible environment I can for the fish and corals I have, and often I wonder, if I am having the success I should be having. Then when I find original pictures that I can compare to current day, it is very reassuring. I am currently working on fragging a few polyps from each colony to attach to a good size rock in hopes one day they will cover it and create a garden. Though I have learned so much over the last year or so about my "obsession" lol, I know I haven't even scratched the surface and look forward to all that I still have to learn. Again thanks for the kind words it made me feel very proud of my success and hard work!!!


Posted from ReefCentral.com App for Android

 

[greg1786]

Hello greg1786, thanks for sharing. I normally don't reply to picture threads, but I felt compelled to reply to yours. You my friend have done an excellent job thus far. What you've done is what reefing is truly about. Don't even/ever worry about rarity and what's rare. Most people who think they have something rare, really don't. Just continue to dedicate yourself to learning, growing and sharing and I can assure you that your longevity in this hobby will surpass that of many others. In short, what I'm saying is this, great job man, great job.

Don't worry about buying the best cameras, photoshopping to impressed anyone, just be a reefer, and those polyps will continue to mature into mother colonies that will truly be even more impressive. Again, great job my friend.

MUCHO REEF
TOTM - August 2003

mucho reef,
thank you so much for the kind words. I know you are highly respected in this hobby and community so it means a lot coming from you. I got into this hobby a little more than a year and half ago and instantly fell in love!! I work about 60 hours a week and when I'm not working I'm either in front of the fish tank, at the lfs, or researching everything I can about this hobby. I spend so much time making sure I provide the best possible environment I can for the fish and corals I have, and often I wonder, if I am having the success I should be having. Then when I find original pictures that I can compare to current day, it is very reassuring. I am currently working on fragging a few polyps from each colony to attach to a good size rock in hopes one day they will cover it and create a garden. Though I have learned so much over the last year or so about my "obsession" lol, I know I haven't even scratched the surface and look forward to all that I still have to learn. Again thanks for the kind words it made me feel very proud of my success and hard work!!!


Posted from ReefCentral.com App for Android

 

[greg1786]

As far as what special care i do to keep my zoanthids doing so well, i dont really think its anything special but i am happy to share. My tank is a standard 55gallong 4 ft tank. It is not drilled and actually doesnt even have a sump yet im still in the process of setting up hob overflow and putting a sump in. Right now i use a hob DIY refugium with a large ball of chaeto and rubble, a hob skimmer, and a large hob powerfilter for surface water flow. Using the hob filter also gives me somewhere to put my media bags. In one side of the filter i run one cup and 1 tablespoon of gfo from brs which i change every four water changes. And in the other side of the filter i run a bag of chemi pure elite and a bag of granular activated carbon. I do 10% water changes every week. I use reef crystals io salt for higher trace element levels because i also keep sps corals and some softies. I run two maxijet 600 circulation pumps for flow, they each produce 750gph. That plus the total of 1000 gph between the protien skimmer, hob fuge, and power filter gives me ALOT of good randon flow at right around 35 times turnover rate. I pretty much spent the first month that i had all the zoas moving them around into different areas of light and flow, giving each colony 4 days at their new location to see how well they responded before making the decision the move them again or leave them be. this way i got each colony in their optimal are for growth and color because in my experience every type of zoa and paly has different lighting and flow reqiurements. I run a 4 bulb 4 x 54 t5 ho nova extreme with all geisemann bulbs. The bulbs are, 15k blue plus, actinic plus, pink plus, actinic plus. This has been the best bulb combo i have had so far. My photo period is one hour lead in of actinic only, followed by 9 hours of all four bulbs, folllowed by one hour lead out of actinic only, and finally moonlights. I keep my water temperature at 80 degrees during the day and allow it to drop to 78 over night. My params are usually rock solid at nitrite 0, amonia 0, nitrate 0, cal 480, mg 1320, alk 9, ph 8.2, phosphate .009-.010. I use seachem reef complete in my DIY auto top off to keep calcium up and it helps magnesium and strontium stay stable however Since my reef has exploded with growth over the last month or so ive notice i may need to start using a two part because its begining to become harder to keep up with the calcium, magnesium, and alk depletion. I have a relatively large cuc to keep the tank as clean as possible i have very very little algae now and the water is always crystal clear. In my personal opinion i think the most important things for your zoas or all corals is to first figure out the best position in the tank for them. Once you have done this focus on keeping your parameters rock solid, if they fluctuate too much corals dont respond well. Also i like to keep my calcium higher than recommended around 480 to 500 and it seems to be great for my corals. Flow is also very important for keeping a clean happy tank and i think regardless of what you keep in your tank you should have at least 20 times turnover. Im sure what i have posted is not what everyone would recommend and im sure some would even disagree with me about some of it but I am just sharing what works for me. I hope this helps if you want to know anything else please feel free to ask im sure i left something out. Thanks again for the good words everyone. Greg

 

[fishmanstan]

Set up a zoa tank!

 

[dread4life]

nice work

 

[MUCHO REEF]

Hello greg1786, seems like you covered just about everything in your reply.

Do you harvest your Chaeto? If so, how much and how often?

Do you aerate your water and set your parameters before adding it to your tank?

Is your target always 0 for your nitrates? There's a good reason I ask.

I would be very careful not to upset the balance you have. Just an FYI, I wouldn't go making a lot of changes all at once. Take your time, document everything and I am sure you will have much continued success. Thanks again for sharing.

MUCHO REEF
TOTM - August 2003

 

[debincalif]

That is awesome! It's so nice to see the growth and improved health of those zoas... you've done a great job! I agree that it doesn't matter what fancy names do or don't come attached to them - as long as you enjoy them, that's what matters. Some of my favorites are no-named varieties that I've picked up different places (like the ones in my avatar). Keep up the great work!