Beginner Zoanthid Health and Growth Expectations

[EricR]

Beginner with first 2 corals — 2 zoas from LFS:

• Early January (1 month ago) — $15 — top/left (in rock pic) — seems like 5+ new heads since purchase and some of the original heads look a little more expanded (I think)
• 1/25/2022 (2 weeks ago) — $35 — bottom/right (on rock) — frag plug was mostly covered on top when purchased but now it’s pretty overgrown. (Just moved off frag rack to rock a couple of days ago)

Both went through same intro process (a couple weeks apart):

1. Dipped in Coral Rx for 10 minutes with random blasting from turkey baster,,, plus 2 rinses/soaks in different containers of DT water
2. About 2 weeks on frag rack on side of tank near current rock — 1 week low + 1 week higher

Questions:

• Do these look normal/healthy (based on timelines above)?
• Should I expect the heads to get bigger/wider and roughly how long does that normally take for noticeable growth?
• How long to grow over the stupid, round, frag plug and conceal it? (Top/left one)
• If they look “iffy”, suggestions (more or less light and/or flow, or other)?

***absolutely hate the synthetic look of frag plugs but too afraid I’ll kill the zoas if I try to get them off — tempted to just cut the unpopulated edges of the plug (on the obvious one) … maybe at least get less showing and leave jagged edges for more natural look???


Both seemed like they might be stretching (for light, I assume) to me until recently:

• Top/left one has gotten really short so hope I’m not over-lighting it.
• Right/front one I was going to put higher and more to the right but urchin has been on a rampage lately to carve the coralline off that side of the rock for some reason (in case not obvious from the orange-filtered rock pic)

Pics aren’t great — don’t know what I’m doing,,, playing with/without orange filter,,, holding a flashlight,,, trying to adjust my lame Nicrew LED with the other hand,,, etc.

*you may safely assume that COLORS are NOT very ACCURATE in the pics,,, sorry…

Top/left one is green with yellow accents
Bottom/right one is actually purple with brownish tentacles


Orange-filtered rock pic just to show coral placement:

Comparison of first coral from about 3 weeks ago to today:

Top-down pic attempt to at least show the second coral (on left in pic):

Sorry about the long post but even more details below just for those that care or might ask…


Equipment specifics:

• 40 gallon breeder at 4 months since tank transfer.
• Most rocks and livestock transferred from 6-8 month old 37 gallon tank.
• 2 HOB power filters with NO sump — all equipment is inside the tank. (No room for anything below)
• 1 AI Nero 5 with anemone guard pointed above the zoa rock from the opposite side of the tank:
  • “Random” flow mode at 40-60% for 8 hours
  • 20-40% random before/after for total 8 hours
  • Constant 10% for 8 hours over night.
  • Flow was LOWER (roughly 2/3 current) but just upped it about a week ago
• Nicrew HyperReef 50w LED over the zoa rock:
  • Blue = 40%, White = 20% peak for 7 hours
  • Additional 1 hour ramp up and 3 hour ramp down
• Other half of tank (no corals) has Kessil A80 but this is probably irrelevant.

…and, finally:

Since every beginner post (like mine) seems to invoke questions about water parameters…

I honestly test very rarely any more (a couple/few parameters every couple of weeks) but used to be pretty religious about it.

Here’s my current parameters (which are pretty consistent with my logs over the last 6 months):

• Salinity = 1.025 SG (Hanna digital + 2 different hydrometers)
• Temp = 77.8 F (InkBird) … has hit 80 a couple of times during summer heat (months ago)
• Alk = 6.0 dKH (Red Sea) … low but living with it. (Might start dosing baking soda to bring it up SLOWLY)
• pH = 8.0 (Red Sea) … has hit 7.8 in summer with windows closed for AC for days but not lately
• Nitrates = 10 ppm (API — no comments on API please,,, already seen tons,,, will be buying Hanna Nitrate HR soon-ish)

*never tested for phosphate/calcium/magnesium but will be buying Hanna Phosphate ULR soon


...if you made it this far,,, my sincerest apologize,,, DOH!

 

[Bribo12]

They look good to me. I’d lose the chocolate chip star though as they aren’t reef safe. The only thing that is off is alk at 6. Slowly raise that and growth will probably pickup. But the fact that they’re growing is a good sign!

 

[EricR]

They look good to me. I’d lose the chocolate chip star though as they aren’t reef safe. The only thing that is off is alk at 6. Slowly raise that and growth will probably pickup. But the fact that they’re growing is a good sign!

Thanks...
Lose the starfish? But he was the first invert I bought (after jellyfish) -- had him over a year.

I know,,, not reef safe but just watching for now.
My urchin is more of a pest to the corals (so far),,, crawling over the corals when no one's looking.

Alk at 6 I'm probably going to take some action soon but waiting for Hanna alk dKH checker that supposed to be showing up this Friday.

 

[EricR]

I rambled way too long in my initial post, so…

Questions:

1. What are the symptoms of too much light? (I get that they stretch in too little light)
2. Rough guess — how long might I expect zoa to cover the ugly frag plug. (Lots of factors, just looking for very rough guess — weeks, months, years?)

*see progression pic below


Progression pic of first zoa at 1 week, 4 weeks, 5 weeks (today) since purchase:

Here's my insanely-massive collection of zoas (2 little frags so far) -- I think they're doing fine but what do I know?

 

[mdb_talon]

Zoas look good to me. In my experience if i give too much light to zoas the colors usually get pale and they may close up entirely for long periods of time. (However i also find they may turn pale with too little light or nutrients so not sure how helpful that is lol). Having said that i find most zoas/palys will adjust to quite high light levels.

The timing to cover plug is just an almost impossible question to answer. I mean i could frag a pandora paly in the morning and i think by evening the plug may be covered . On average i would say a couple months, but in many cases the growth direction is not steady. You might have one direction be 2" off the plug yet still have a different direction where plug is still showing just cause they decided they did not want to grow that way.

 

[EricR]

Thanks,,, that helps.
I'm really tempted to cut off the exposed parts of the frag plug the green w/yellow zoas are on,,, leave less of the plug showing and jagged edges,,, but afraid I might just jack up the whole thing.

*also think I might see one "bubble" of bubble algae just under the heads of the purple w/brown zoas but not sure,,, might just be an unhealthy polyp -- when they're closed, I feel like I might be able to pick it out. (Barely visible at middle/right in pic above)