Reef regulars: Do you think zoas are THE bread-and-butter coral?

[SchrutesReefs]

Mushrooms

Question was about zoas, not weekend hobbies jkjk

 

[ZoWhat]

MUSHROOMS are the go-to coral for extreme beginners

15yrs of Zoa experience and any zoa with any color other than green REQUIRES; exacting flow, exacting PAR, iodine supplementation.

By "exacting" I'm talking within a certain range that fits more of an intermediate husbandry level

PRO TIP: ZOAS PREFER CONTINOUS FLOW COMING STRAIGHT DOWN ON THEM. a constant flow of nutrients and debris removal. The LEVEL of flow is mild. Too much will irritate them. You MUST start with gentle flow straight down and slowly bump the flow up each day until you see irritation THEN back off a tad. You do straight down mild flow, they'll grow like gangbusters

My Different flow described as
WHISPER > GENTLE > MILD > MEDIUM > STRONG > FAST


.

 

[Mrtakeoff53]

I think I’m the only person who can get these buggers to grow. Haha. I have had 6 different frags and only 1 is growing. The others have all melted. SPS on the other hand do wonderfully in my tank. Just one of those things I guess. Good think I’m a stick head.

 

[Borat]

There is one option that's missing - they are a PITA (to get rid of)!

Never put zoas on anything other than island rock surrounded by sand.. they will spread and they are also so difficult to nuke even with the death juice.. I would say they are exciting at the beginning - when your tank is a bit young and they are also a challenge. Once your tank is stable and established - they will multiply like water rabbits spreading everywhere and suffocating SPS corals..

 

[ZoWhat]

I think I’m the only person who can get these buggers to grow. Haha. I have had 6 different frags and only 1 is growing. The others have all melted. SPS on the other hand do wonderfully in my tank. Just one of those things I guess. Good think I’m a stick head.

Melted prob bc the flow or PAR or water chemistry was off

 

[chiroboy126]

I thought they were awesome, and they have some cool colors, but there are better looking corals for beginners with nice colors that add movement and won't take over your tank.

Can you share some examples of beginner alternatives to zoas? I'm coming up to the point where I'm about to start adding some hardy beginners soon.

I was thinking about adding zoas on their own little island/garden I had set up to try to control the spread some.

 

[Hooknit]

The more they cost the harder they are to keep. The more common ones will live and thrive in a toilet. I do not really see the infatuation with Zoas like others have said "there are better options even for beginners".

 

[threebuoys]

Love em but can't get them to grow. For a long time, I couldn't keep them alive. I think a bicolor angel was chewing on them. Removed him. I have better luck growing various LPS.

 

[BiocubeGuy]

I love, love, love my zoas...they are beautiful, typically hardy, come in great colors, and really make me feel like I'm succeeding in my tank when they start to grow.

 

[NkSde]

They are cool and plenty of options available. Concern w teaching my kids how to frag certain species present but by no means a stopper for me.

i intend to get at least rock covered in my tank.

 

[Dave-T]

I love zoas, and have two zoa gardens in my tank. I agree with others about the risk of them taking over, but if you put them on their own rocks in the sandbed, you won’t have that issue.

 

[FitLabb]

I may be guilty of buying too many zoas for my tank early-on, but I also tried to focus on getting ones that grow slower and also keeping any of the moderate to faster growing types on their own islands so they don't overrun other corals and take over. If I could do it all over again, I still would have bought zoas, but probably less than half of the ones that I got as I'd rather give the real estate to other LPS corals that I want to have more of in the tank. Having said that, I think that every tank could benefit from a beautiful zoa garden on it's own island or branching rock that's apart from other corals, as they add some beautiful pop of color for not a lot of effort.

 

[reefsaver]

GSP is unbeatable. I've never seen a frag of GSP completely die, they always bounce back.

 

[BraindeadBiologist]

Can you share some examples of beginner alternatives to zoas? I'm coming up to the point where I'm about to start adding some hardy beginners soon.

I was thinking about adding zoas on their own little island/garden I had set up to try to control the spread some.

You can absolutely do that and I've seen som beautiful zoa islands! Personally I went with a green duncan, purple wall hammer, and a Monti. The monti didn't make it so I stayed away form hards for almost a year. Still have the purple wall and the green duncan just XXXL size now 2 years later

 

[FitLabb]

One more point is that for many who mention that their zoas randomly close up and melt away, I've noticed that if they don't get enough flow on them regularly, or if you don't use something like a turkey baster to periodically clean them by giving them a light "blast" of water to clean any detritus away from around the polyps, they tend to develop infections over time like Zoa Pox or other issues that can certainly take a toll on the health of your zoa colonies and will likely kill them. So while they're definitely an easy coral to take care of in terms of their lighting, flow, and water parameter requirements (and the fact that they don't really remove any calcium or magnesium from your water since they don't have a hard skeleton), they still do have some basic care requirements like I mentioned above that most people either don't know about or fail to ever do, which is one of the biggest reasons they probably had their zoas die off if it wasn't due to some other pest that was somehow introduced to their tank.

 

[steveschuerger]

I had some when I first started out. Then after some got damaged with a rock falling on them with ensuing palytoxin in tank that killed several other corals, surprisingly nothing else. Stopped keeping them for about year or so . Now I’ve started again after getting some in a mystery box I won . Now I’m going in and setting up a couple Zoa Rock Gardens. Here the first one I’ve started

working on.

 

[Kristopher Conlin]

I love zoas!! They were one of the first corals I loved when I got into the hobby 12 years ago and I still do to this day. The seemingly infinite variety of colors and patterns available keeps me hooked.

 

[Nman]

There a explosion of colour and that many different ones . You’ve got to love a zoa

 

[ZoWhat]

They are cool and plenty of options available. Concern w teaching my kids how to frag certain species present but by no means a stopper for me.

i intend to get at least rock covered in my tank.

Quit being the bubble wrapped kids generation. Lol

I've frag'ed every type of zoa and paly out there barehanded.

Two rules:
1) don't touch your eyes nor mouth after touching slime
2) wash your hand with soap after you're done

Never had a whisper of a problem... and were talking me handling palygrandis palys dozens and dozens of time

 

[merkmerk73]

Zoas are held back by the looming threat of palytoxin