I was visiting a local reefer to pick out some new frags this past weekend when I lucked out and left with tens of pounds of zoa colony rocks. The guy specializes in zoas and regularly frags designer morphs to sell to other hobbyists. Last weekend he happened to be in the process of reducing the height of his rockwork in his main display. The rocks he removed were sitting in a makeshift tub temporarily plumbed into one of his frag systems with almost no light. Im not sure how long they had been in there but it had been less than a week. I also don't know the flow or light that each rock was positioned in his display before removal.
But it didnt matter much because he was selling mixed colonies of dozens to hundreds of polyps for as little as 5$. I got a ~1k polyp rock that is near equal parts rastas, scrabled eggs, fruit loops, and red hornets, for 100$. Im really excited but I dont want to lose any of the growth on these colonies if i can help it.
There is room in my tank to provide any of the rocks with just about any combination of light and flow they might need.
But how do I know what they need. none of the colonies have completely opened after 4 days now. The colony rocks were ripped from the aquascape and dropped into a dark tub (that might have been plumbed into a different system) for at least a few days. then transported in an unheated 5 gallon bucket for an hour. then dipped in chemicals before being placed in my tank on the sandbed.
they've been thoroughly stressed, im sure. but how long should I wait for them to shake off the stress? when do i know if theyre closed due to needing time to recover or if theyre closed because theyre not receiving the right environment and will never adapt without intervention or new placement. Or worst case, if they simply will not accept my water chemistry as it is (and I would need to contact the guy i bought them from, learn his parameters and what he doses, and then try to dose my tank to match his alk, ph, magnesium, calcium, temp, phosphate, etc.)
But it didnt matter much because he was selling mixed colonies of dozens to hundreds of polyps for as little as 5$. I got a ~1k polyp rock that is near equal parts rastas, scrabled eggs, fruit loops, and red hornets, for 100$. Im really excited but I dont want to lose any of the growth on these colonies if i can help it.
There is room in my tank to provide any of the rocks with just about any combination of light and flow they might need.
But how do I know what they need. none of the colonies have completely opened after 4 days now. The colony rocks were ripped from the aquascape and dropped into a dark tub (that might have been plumbed into a different system) for at least a few days. then transported in an unheated 5 gallon bucket for an hour. then dipped in chemicals before being placed in my tank on the sandbed.
they've been thoroughly stressed, im sure. but how long should I wait for them to shake off the stress? when do i know if theyre closed due to needing time to recover or if theyre closed because theyre not receiving the right environment and will never adapt without intervention or new placement. Or worst case, if they simply will not accept my water chemistry as it is (and I would need to contact the guy i bought them from, learn his parameters and what he doses, and then try to dose my tank to match his alk, ph, magnesium, calcium, temp, phosphate, etc.)