blue lights....white lights...

[sansouci01]

I see a lot of people on this site seem to run only actinic, blue, purple t5 lights in their tanks. Are white lights necessary to grow soft corals ? I have zoantids, mushrooms, and a green polyp. I still have a diatom bloom in my tank because it's only been up and running for about 2 months. I was thinking that if I cut down on the white lights, it might help the diatoms die off..

 

[mr_X]

If you have powerful enough blue lights, you don't need the whites. What lights are you running?

 

[sansouci01]

I have a 4 bulb 96 watt fixture for my 20 gallon tank. Right now I have 1-10,000k white light, 2 actinics ( came with my odyssea fixture ), and 1-wave point super blue actinic 460

 

[mr_X]

I think the blues will sustain them. If you see them losing color, turn the whites back on. Have you tried some water changes to remove nutrients from the water column?

 

[sansouci01]

yep.
doing 20% per week....everything at 0ppm. I did read that zoas do like a little nitrate in the water so I'm thinking about going to water changes every other week...I know it does take time for the diatoms to disappear but they are SO ANNOYING.

 

[mr_X]

That's not true IME. Just keep your water clean, and your corals will thrive. No corals do better in polluted water.

 

[sansouci01]

Thanks.
Any pointers on getting my zoas to grow. They are only small frags but are not really looking that good. I've tried moving them higher..lower..more flow...less flow..but they seem to be just surviving. I do feed them them twice a week with phytogold-s

 

[mr_X]

No need to feed them anything. What makes you think they don't look good? Are they closed up? Some zoas multiply very quickly while others take a very long time to spread.

 

[sansouci01]

just very small and don't seem to have a lot of color...my green button polyps that I bought on Sunday look like their growing already. They seem very healthy. Maybe the zoas just need a little more time

 

[mr_X]

If they are small, but open, they have enough light. Zoas (and many other corals) tend to increase surface area to have more contact with light when they are lacking. Zoas will also grow tall, trying to get closer to the light source. People mistake this for growing.
Possibly some other stressor also. Have you dipped them? Common zoas tend to have a lot of parasites/predators.

 

[sansouci01]

one of my zoas have a lot of what looks like hair or thread growing on the disk itself. Could this be a problem ?

 

[mr_X]

Some algae? Not unless it's blocking the light.