Zoanthids in a 30g with X lighting?

[Gordonious]

I am hoping to grow some zoanthids in a 30g breeder with my frog fish. I am thinking currently that I am going to just fill the tank with zoas and nothing else. Currently I have a 24" 130W coralife Double Compact Fluorescent fixture with a 10,000k and a 50/50 in it. I was wondering if this would be suffictient until I can afford an upgrade. I would of course keep the zoas directly under the light in the tank, which is 36" long. I am really hoping just to buy a few small frags and have them spread.

Jon

 

[Curtswearing]

Jon,

Zoanthids don't require as much lighting as a number of species of corals that many keep. You should be in good shape IMO.

 

[steven11]

IMO - zoos dont need a ton of light to survive, but I noticed a huge increase in zoo population when i upgraded to MH from my PC.

 

[JasonD]

I have 40 gallon breeder with one 175 20k metal halide light, no skimmer, lots of live rock, and regular water changes. The tank is absolutely stuffed with zoanthids. The bulb is centered. The zoanthids directly under the bulb grow larger and grow faster. They also received more flow as well. Most of my smaller frags that are low in the tank and to the sides have tiny polyps and grow really slow.

Your setup sounds fine. I would give them direct light and plenty of current. You could do mushrooms in the area that does not receive as much light.

 

[drummereef]

I keep my eagle eyes and radioactive dragon eyes under pc's in my 40g. They are all doing just fine.

 

[Gordonious]

Well when I move into my new place I'll have a tank set up just for zoanthids. For time being I'm going to set up the 30g as a mixed reef. Oh and I also came across some T5s from a hobbiest who was moving... I think that 3 of them should be bright enough. ;-) (oh happy day)

 

[drummereef]

You'll have no problems keeping zoas under T5 lighting. Especially if it is HO.

 

[Gordonious]

Will zoanthids lose color that they can not regain under low light if left there for an extended period of time or can they usually regain any color lose?

 

[IdahoReef]

A friend and I went to a moving sale locally and bought some live rock from him that had some polyps on them. They were out of the tank so it was understandable that we could not tell exactly what they were.

My tank was not ready so he put the rock and polyps into his sump. Every time I went over there the polyps were all brown and enlongated and basically looked pretty ugly. Because of this I left the rock with the majority of them behind:

BIG MISTAKE

Once I got them home and into my 29 setup with 150 MH they responded almost immediately. It took a few days of just running the t5's with limited MH (they recoiled and closed up initially with the bright light) to get them settled in. Now they almost DEMAND the bright light and have a brownish orange major coloration with nice orange highlights.

Not a big mistake, really, since they are already starting to multiply.

 

[Pentagona]

Gordonius:

I have had a frag of Alien Eyes that my Orange spotted goby decided looked better in his burrow than out in the open and I couldn't find them for about two months. Durring some rearranging one day I finally came accross them and they looked nearly transparent. After about a week they were back to full coloration, so yes, they will color back up given proper conditions (assuming there is still a hint of color to them).