Zoo spacing

[nterry]

Hi,

I just went to a frag swap and saw some nice colonies of zoos, so I got them. There were quite a few nice colors. Some I've seen before, but some that I haven't. One reason zoos are so great is that there are tons of color morphs.

Anyway, I was wondering how far apart I should space the colonies. I've put them all at the top of my tank, within about six inches of the top. I have a 120 gallon tank with 4x96 PC bulbs, two 10K and 2 actinic. I'm guessing that my light isn't so bright that they will multiply excessively and that I can put them relatively close together, but I was hoping for a little advice.

Thanks in advance.

 

[InADream]

Zoos wil grow under any light... I have a few zoos that are extremely close... The worst thing that will happen is they will begin to grow together and then be a pain to frag... If you want them to stay on individual rocks just keep any eye on them and gradually move them away...

Dream

 

[dc_909]

I like to give lots of room and just fill the spaces later with new zoas.

 

[MUCHO REEF]

Below are two pictures of my old system before I broke it down to perform a complete makeover. To prevent my zoas, palys and rics from growing into and onto each other, I chose to start them all out of solitary large rocks and I kept them spaced. This way, as they all grew, they grew around each individual rock until they reach the bottom/base of the rock and stopped growing due to a lack of lighting at the base of those rock. Or they simply grew onto the substrate which made it even easier to harvest them. NOTE, in the pictures, there aren't any mixing of colors, palys and zoas on any one rock. If I allowed all the rocks to touch, it would been a visual mess in my opinion. By keeping them apart and on individual rocks, the aesthetic appeal was increased due to the isolation of each rock.

With a 120, wow, you have a great advantage here my friend. I would purchase some very elite looking top layer rock that will showcase you labor. Attach your frags to rocks with great eye appeal which will display them nicely once they reach maturity in a few years. With a 120, you're going to need a lot of rock anyway, so I would space the rocks a couple of inches and once they began to cover the rocks, you can move them in a position as close as an inch. By this time, the polyps will have grown over, down and around the rock, thereby preventing any growth across the top to a rock onto another rock that is touching the mother colony. That is exactly what I did many times and it worked for me.

I know you didn't ask, but I would definitely upgrade to maybe all T5's and I bet that will be one stunning tank you have my friend.

Best of luck.


Mucho Reef