(Sorry, this thread became long as I tend to ramble. I've bolded lines to create cliffnotes so you can skip the boring crap if you wish.)
Hi folks.. I'm a newb in every respect, but I like zoas! I have a 5.5 gallon nano that I created and it's hosting a few nice zoanthid frags along with all the other coral I managed to fit in there. I have 64W (2 x 32) of PC lighting over this little tank, and this brings me to my topic.. (I did run a search first. Lovely having one that actually functions.)
What is known about zoanthids and their tendancy to morph colors? When I first started setting up this tank I thought 64W of light would be more than enough for the softies, zoas, and LPS I wanted to keep. This turned out to be true, but not exactly spectacular on the zoa front.
I've got blues, pinks, purples, yellows, oranges. The blues are the most upsetting as they're slowly fading to brown, but the other zoas are definately becoming less and less stunning as well. Now I knew when I bought these from Dr. Mac and looking at them under his 400W 20k MH that they wouldn't look quite as nice under my PCs. I didn't, however, expect them to continually fade over time until they weren't even the same zoos I bought.
It's to the point that I'm very serious about upgrading my lighting to MH already. I figure the investment is worth the value that I'll otherwise lose out of my zoas if I don't upgrade. So after much rambling (sorry) the reason for this thread is that I want to know what is known about zoanthids and how they morph and why. I figured it could be a good discussion for you zoa experts.
I know they have zooxanthellae which give them their colors, and that they will expell these zooxanthellae occasionally and if stressed, etc... and that's about it.
If I upgrade to MH, will they regain the beautiful colors they once had?
How long will it take?
Do different colored zoas (such as blues) have higher lighting requirements to retain their colors?
Hi folks.. I'm a newb in every respect, but I like zoas! I have a 5.5 gallon nano that I created and it's hosting a few nice zoanthid frags along with all the other coral I managed to fit in there. I have 64W (2 x 32) of PC lighting over this little tank, and this brings me to my topic.. (I did run a search first. Lovely having one that actually functions.)
What is known about zoanthids and their tendancy to morph colors? When I first started setting up this tank I thought 64W of light would be more than enough for the softies, zoas, and LPS I wanted to keep. This turned out to be true, but not exactly spectacular on the zoa front.
I've got blues, pinks, purples, yellows, oranges. The blues are the most upsetting as they're slowly fading to brown, but the other zoas are definately becoming less and less stunning as well. Now I knew when I bought these from Dr. Mac and looking at them under his 400W 20k MH that they wouldn't look quite as nice under my PCs. I didn't, however, expect them to continually fade over time until they weren't even the same zoos I bought.
It's to the point that I'm very serious about upgrading my lighting to MH already. I figure the investment is worth the value that I'll otherwise lose out of my zoas if I don't upgrade. So after much rambling (sorry) the reason for this thread is that I want to know what is known about zoanthids and how they morph and why. I figured it could be a good discussion for you zoa experts.
I know they have zooxanthellae which give them their colors, and that they will expell these zooxanthellae occasionally and if stressed, etc... and that's about it.
If I upgrade to MH, will they regain the beautiful colors they once had?
How long will it take?
Do different colored zoas (such as blues) have higher lighting requirements to retain their colors?