Zoas/Palys morphs and proximity from lighting...

[MarvinsReef]

Hello... I wanted to start a thread about zoas/palys morphs and their proximity from lighting in our tanks.. I read a paragraph on Blane Perun's site about palys and found it interesting.. anybody else want to chime in their experience with both zoas and palys?

"While Most Zoanthids will do very well in bright light, the Palythoa counterparts will not. As a rule of thumb as darker colored specimens in this Zoanthids family light green and below need to be placed in a less intense lighting situation. While orange to red Zoanthids will color up in bright light, Purple Blue and the darker specimens will just suffer and perhaps melt."

http://www.farms-of-thesea.com/catalog/category/Zoanthids.html

I hope this to be a good discussion..

Marvin

 

[Reef Gardener]

Marvin,
Good topic - can you all add thoughts on the relationship of light to length of the polyp stalk as well. Its something I've heard alot of debate about.

Tracey

 

[MarvinsReef]

any input?!??!? Bueller?!??!?

 

[Raptor]

I dunno about all that, I believe that to a point with blue zoa's, But not purple. Look at PD's mine do well under alot of light. Go figure. JMO

 

[Azurel]

I would think that the closer you are under VHOs would be bright light....The big difference is that VHOs and all fluorescents are diffused lighting. The light is cast evenly across the bulb and that is why you don't get the glitter lines, intensity of spectrum and such. Where as MH is not diffused and is a point dispersal which gives off the glitter lines. It is also more intense in it spectrum and the par is higher because of that also. That's not the most scientific explanation but you get what I mean....

 

[twon8]

ive had blue zoas grow like gangbusters a foot under a 400w mh, so i think there are many ways to make them grow.

this pic taken under a 14k ham, i was getting a new polyp a week from the blues.

and i went from 4 rpe polyps in january to more than 15 in may, also a foot under a 400 w, this time a 20k xm on magnetic, so even brighter bulb

i think with proper acclimation or magic one can grow any paly in nearly any light.

 

[MarvinsReef]

i think with proper acclimation or magic one can grow any paly in nearly any light.

I agree with twon8 on this one.. as long as they're acclimated properly, I thik they will do okay..

Marvin

 

[kpax]

I've noticed it a lot between the PC lighting I have on the Aquapod vs the VHO's. I also noticed that the zoa's are tending to grow out quicker in the Aquapod but it's still too early to know that for sure.

Some day I will have MH but that's down the road. I will wait for Coralnutz to try it out and learn from him. He's the one who helped me get the VHO's in the first place. :wink:

 

[ficklefins]

Here is a In My Opinion post.

Of all the Zoa/Paly type corals I find that Palys have the strongest will to survive. They love being in high light and will show crazy colors while bathing in it. This high light environment "seems" to negatively effect growth. I don't think I can prove that statement, but IMO my palys grow faster in lower light. They also have a tendency to spread their roots further before sprouting a new polyp. Perhaps the higher light has the affect of overfeeding the polyp so that instead of trying spread to a higher light they just plop themselves down and enjoy.

Have you ever placed a frag high up in your tank only to notice that it started to spread away from the light? A lot of my zoas do this aswell. A frag placed in the middle of the plug will spread (on a plug) away from the center of the light faster than they spread towards it.

So in my opinion, if you have enough light then placing your zoa/paly frag on the sand bed will produce faster growth, but show less color. Frags placed higher will show the best color but seem to be stunted in their growth.