zoo growth under actinic

[EMBRYOGUY]

for the past 6 months ive been growing zoos under a 65 wt pure actinic bulb. i shut down the 65 white light to control algae for a couple weeks but to my surprise my zoos never looked better.

since than, ive had better growth than ever. ALL my zoos are fully opend all the time with there tentacles fully stretched. ive seen doubling of my zoos frags per month. so ive decided to keep them under there until i see any signs of stress. but as stated earlier, its been 6 months and they are growing vigourously.

please comment. anyone else with this experience?
neg/pos. comments welcomed.

[alexinfla]

very interesting, thanks for the input....I'm running to yank a white light off one of my tanks. Never thought of trying that!

[EMBRYOGUY]

please keep in mind, i dont necessarily advocat this. a full spectrum light makes more sense, but i cant hide the fact that ALL my zoo colonies look and are growing really well. most do not like the bluish look of the actinic only tank but if your into zoos mostly. the colors are amazing under it :)

ill post as they progress.

[ullnvrguess77]

I have had a lot of success in my 26 bowfront with 2x96W 50/50 quad bulbs and 1x55W actinic (151W actinic and 96W 10K total).

[EMBRYOGUY]

yeah ullnvr. thats typical lighting. and thats the combo i would expect to achieve max. growth also, thats why im perplexed why mine are growing so well under full actinic.

ws hoping someoe else had same exp.

[bigreddog]

That's pretty interesting. I'm setting up a prop tank for zoos so I might give it a shot and see what happens. The colors definitly look better under straight actinics.

[sr71]

correct me if i am wrong but to my understanding if your polyp/tentacles are stretched it's not getting enough light. are you feeding your zoos DT or something?

[EMBRYOGUY]

im not feeding them DT. i have a refugium connected to the propagation tank. and i feed the pair of clowns in there, frozen mysis occasionally, but the mostly get pellets.

so i do not directly feed the zoos. keep in mind when i say stretched out , they do not look stressed at all. when i had my full 5050 lighting, my zoos looked ok. they did not open up as much and there was always atleast one colony that didnt open at all. i even lost a few zoo colonies during this time.

since full actinic, ive lost NO colonies at all. they are growing very well. almost doubling the polyp number each month. ALL the polyps on ALL colonies are always open.. and colors are full.

keep in mind, i DO NOT advocate others doing this. despite my success so far, i still belive in a good spectrum lighting 5050. and i would not recommend anyone to do this.

the point of this thread is to document what im experincing. and hoping that someone else has experinced it also.

i would feel guilty if someone lost some zoos bec of using actinic only.

i jsut know that my zoos are growing very well. better than ive ever had them. and this includes over 15-20 colonies from all over the world.

w/ respect to the stretching, ive seen zoos that stretch but the tentacles look thin/unhealthy. mine are stretched but very thick. they look like the zoos in the pics of most of the reefers on here. very healthy.

anyway it doesnt make sense to me, but i cant ignore the fact they are growing very well under these unsualy conditions.

[Lionfan]

Any chance of a full tank shot and maybe a shot of 3 colonies together?

[EMBRYOGUY]

lionfan im really sorry ive tried to take pics of the zoos but under actinic i cant seem to get the colors right. i will try to take some more pics though tonight .to show everyone

[EMBRYOGUY]

here are pics i just took today. sorry for the poor quality. i used flash so this is what they look like under pure 50/50 pc.

notice the how spread out the zoos are and all are fully opend all the time.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=617351&goto=newpost


http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=117653&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500

[EMBRYOGUY]

sorry lets see if this works


http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=117653&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500


http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=117654&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500

[EMBRYOGUY]

ok sorry if the pics dont show up , click onto my gallery and you ll see the first two pics. the most current ones. are the zoos pics.

[Lionfan]

Thanks for the pics, but I was under the impression that they would be pics of just actinic with no flash.

[EMBRYOGUY]

the point is not the color of the actinic but the fact that they are very healthy under actinic. i cant get the colors when i dont use flash . thats why.

when i try to take pics w.o flash under full actinic all get are all blue zoos.

[Andys29]

i ran only a 65w actinic on my 29g just because i liked the color..but then i was told it wasnt good for the corals so i have since turned my 50/50 bulb back on. but i wont say that the corals didnt look like they were doing good when i had only the actinic on. I think the zoas like it :)

[EMBRYOGUY]

andy, i dont recommend anyon doing this at all. esp for other corals besides zoos.

i just like the look personally and they are growing well so ive since than added an additional 65 wts for a total of 130. and they are still growing very well.

[exoticaquatix]

i had only actinic on one half of my octo tank due to a PC socket short and the zoo's seemed to like it alot more than the mushrooms i had in there.mi cant say they grew or multiplied very quick because it was only about a month. we'll see how they like 20k MH in a week or so. :)

[furforfour]

Those orange zoas in the lower right side of this picture <br>http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=117654&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500<br>
are incredible. Where did you get them?

[wds21921]

Just a guess on my part but I believe they're looking like they're in full bloom because they aren't getting enough of the light spectrum. To fix this they are opening up to get as much of the actinic as they can to compensate for the lack of white light.

I would further guess that the effect your seeing is perhaps going to be temporary at best which may last for several weeks or even months before they begin to digress.

For some zoos this MIGHT actually enhance them TO A POINT but for overall tank health I would not try this as a new solution and expect rapid coral propogation.

[EMBRYOGUY]

good point wds.

ive been growing them under full actinic for over 8 months now atleast. i DO NOT recommend this or advocate this to anyone. i m just documenting my exp. i like the actinic look of my zoos and based on that reason im keeping them under it for now until i see signs of stress, but as i stated they are growing faster than ive had them under 50/50,

despite this, everything your staying makes complete sense. and i agree with it. but i cant dismiss what i see in my zoos.

thanks your input.

the orange zoos, i got them at a local fish store., they grow very easily. i jsut gave away a frag of them. pm me in a couple months and ill be more than hapy to give you some.

[ficklefins]

Not sure if anyone has moonlights in their tank, but if you shine a blue LED on zoas they will not close at night. Not sure if it made a difference in their growth or anything.

[EMBRYOGUY]

good point, fickle.

ive noticed that also.........

yes yes yes i wonder what the affect of them are on moonlights.

everyone says it promotes coral. stimulation but ...........

[wds21921]

The only stimulation I've noticed so far after 2 weeks of regular intervals is my zoa's do appear more healthy and have grown and opened fully.
Nothing so far to ricordia though.

[tarhull87]

awesome

[babyhuey]

Originally posted by embryoguy
please keep in mind, i dont necessarily advocat this. a full spectrum light makes more sense, but i cant hide the fact that ALL my zoo colonies look and are growing really well. most do not like the bluish look of the actinic only tank but if your into zoos mostly. the colors are amazing under it :)

ill post as they progress.

From what I hear and what I have seen my self when I have been scuba diving the light gets filtered threw the water and the only light that they get is a blue light . so in nature they will only recieve is blue light. but there bright colors of the zoos is not seen as well. So most people say use 10,000k bulbs so the color can be seen well and the corals will get some light. And from what most will say they zoos will adapt to what ever light they can get but in nature they will only recieve is blue light. that is what I have seen and read here and what I have seen while scuba diving

[rsteagall]

Any followups on this one?

[EMBRYOGUY]

great insight / info baby,

thank you for that response.


rstagall, sorry this is such an old thread. unfortunately the pure actinic, caused alot of coralline growth also and ive since than have switched to all mhs.

ive also moved towards dev. clownfish and away from coralss/ zoos.

[hot4teacher]

I went to a frag store and EVERYTHING was powered by actinic (T5 i believe). It hurt my eyes to be looking at the goods...it was so blue.

They had carpets of zoos growing like weeds in their tanks too...on the sand, glass, in the overflow box!

Dana

[rsteagall]

So, is it factual that all actinic lights increase growth and multiplication of zoas?

[WarrenG]

I've done a lot of scuba diving in tropical locales. It is true that sunlight is getting filtered and by the time you get near 120+ feet deep the light left over is mostly blue, but in the first 60-70 feet in clear water there is still lots of "white" light landing on the corals.

Understand that it is the amount of water that determines the level of light filtering. If you are looking off into the distance underwater (the background) the water is always blue because the light is filtered coming down from the surface, and also back to you, or off into the distance. For example, if you are 50 feet deep and looking at something 50 feet away that is 100 feet of light filtering. If you are looking at something that is only 2 feet away that is 52 feet of light filtering.


Here are some photos. http://www.usvh.com/photos.html
http://www.usvh.com/lightsphotos.html

I have noticed that light levels in some reef tanks exceeds the light levels I see in many areas where coral health is very good although corals (and clownfish anenomes) that like to live less than 10 feet deep would see higher light levels than we could put over a reef tank.

Just ballpark, but I use 4x90watt VHO's in a 90g tank and see light levels that are very close to what I usually see more than 10 feet deep on a reef.

For the fish, I see Flame Angels living in Hawaii at 60-80 feet where light levels are much lower than we often have over our tanks. They obviously prefer this.

As someone said, overall health of all of the animals in the tank is important so light needs of individual animals may need to be compromised to suit the overall needs.

[EMBRYOGUY]

warren,

amazing explanation!. thank you. thats as good of an explanation as one could ask for. your personal insight is very much appreciated.

[Dastank]

A few things:

I live on a subtropical island and there are zoos growing all over the place. Most of them are in 10 feet of water or less, with the mass majority being in less than 5 feet.

There is a coral propagation farm here on Okinawa and they keep all of their zoos under pure actinics and have unbelievable growth.

I'm not sure, but I think I might do some tests myself.

[EMBRYOGUY]

dasank,

thank you for that response. if a jap. farm is using actinics only. that makes me feel even more assured.

for the time frame that i had my zoos under actinics, they were always open and had the best growth ive ever experienced since ive been keeping zoos.

if my concentration was still with zoos, i def. would still have them under actinics.

[sprite]

dastank my in-laws live in urasoe city just north of naha last time i was there was a year ago..man that place changed in the last 10 years..i couldnt even hardly get around with out getting lost with all the new buildings

[jman77]

Are these actinics the 420's or 450's ?

[clownfrogfish]

Great Findings and infos.

[Dastank]

I'm afraid Okinawa is still growing like that too. It's changing all the time.

[lildraken]

It's funny because today I started to experiment with all actinics in my tank before I even read this thread! I have one 96 watt 420 nm and another 96 watt 420/460 nm.
all the blue kinda hurts my eyes, but all my shrooms/ and the 7 zoanthid polyps that i have are bright florescent looking. they're pretty! If they start to look bad then i'll change to 10,000k but I figure if they look better and grow better then how can you say it's unhealthy for them? anyway i'll keep ya'll posted

[wds21921]

I tried this for several months and the end results were less than spectacular.
Most of the corals started off doing much better or so it appeared during a short time period. After a few months they actually began to shrink and or lose some of there coloring. This appeared mostly and firstly from the mushrooms and then even a few of the zoas.

What I've since done that appears to work even better is to shorten my lighting cycle to 5 hours per day. Not only do the inverts get bigger but they're multiplying at the fastest rate I've ever seen.
The idea behind this came from an alage outbreak that I didn't feel like trying to keep up with through cut back maintenance. What's since happened is, my mushrooms have at least doubled in size in less than a month and multiplied. Same for zoas as well as hydnophora and my plate type corals.
Theoretically it goes along with normal growth in animals and plants that the greatest growth periods occure during sleep ;).

[wds21921]

The lighting used is 10,000k (2) 110 watt vho bulbs, 420 nm 110 watt actinic vho(1), Super actinic R 110 watt vho.
Using exclusively actinic did exactly what I thought it would over a long time period.
Even though most of the light appearing in depper water seems to be mostly blue, there is also a mixture of some higher and lower par that is included as well and necessary.

[lildraken]

thanks wds! so instead of having a 12 hr light cycle, you have it at 5 hrs? I'd never get to see my corals. Do you only have shrooms and zoo's? I'm not sure if my xenia will florish under a 5hr cycle. It makes sense to me that they grow more if they get to "sleep" more.

[EMBRYOGUY]

the good thing is that there are hobbyist, like you guys are willing to push the hobby beyond its current borders. that alone is success, regardless of the conclusion to this thread.

[wds21921]

Yes lil, the timing is set to run for only 5 hours in a 24 hour day. Since the main purpose here is growth and overall aesthetics, I've had better results using a shorter lighting duration which appears in both growth and coloring.
No, zoas and mushrooms are not my only corals either. I've got a fluorescent green hydnophoria (including some frags), a scroll coral, some fire coral frags, a blue/green table top coral, and a sandal brown digitata. Everything is responding noticeably, especially the hydnophoria. The zoas actually seem to have better coloring also as well as the mushrooms which were slowly becoming bleached with a longer duration lighting period.

[TKByrnes]

this is very interesting. im following along and also thinking about trying it myself. i love how the zoa's look under the actinic lighting.

[ZooZ]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=5198075#post5198075 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ullnvrguess77
I have had a lot of success in my 26 bowfront with 2x96W 50/50 quad bulbs and 1x55W actinic (151W actinic and 96W 10K total).

Hey I got a 26g bow front (24"wide) also but im jus using the lunar series by coralife. 2x65 wat. Where did you get your fixture? Or how did you set it up. Do you have pics?

[LoudProudNPunk]

there is a thread about turning all lights off for 3 days, but i havent heard of this before.

[wds21921]

Hmm 3 days seems a little long for my taste and probably for my animals as well. One day perhaps, but 3 is too much.
Another important point is having optimal life bulbs rather than trying to eek out a few extra months on bulbs or tubes that are already spent.
You'll be able to see the difference in many of your corals as the light intensity begins to deminish. Scroll corals especially.

[ZooZ]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=5198075#post5198075 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ullnvrguess77
I have had a lot of success in my 26 bowfront with 2x96W 50/50 quad bulbs and 1x55W actinic (151W actinic and 96W 10K total).

I have a 26g bowfront tank as well. Which light fixture do you have? Or did you make your own. im Looking to get a better lighting fixture. I got a 65w 10K and a 65w actinic right now.

[yellowslayer13]

i am going to try it on some cheap zoos and see what happens

[st9z]

my corals like the moonlights bc of the shimmer effect they dont get from the t5

[IridescentLily]

Any updates?

[192clark]

what depth are you keeping the zoos at under actinic

[IridescentLily]

This is an interesting thread. Has anyone else done lighting like this with zoas, for any length of time?

[A.T.T.R]

i think i may have the final awnser in this thread.

i have a prop system that is 7 by 3 and used 3 banks of four 4 ft bulbs
i can have one side be whites and the otehr side be blues..and because of the size of the tank the corals will be getting just that color lighting with little "spill over" but yet exact same tank conditions.

ill start it soon once my other projects are done and i can afford new bulbs LMAO

[A.T.T.R]

and if oyu never hear from me again it probobly went VERY WELL lol

[IridescentLily]

lol, Awesome, I'm looking forward to your updates.

[swampthing]

wow, this is very interesting! Im going to try this!!

[madean]

any updates on this isssue. it seems to have died.

[palyfreak]

i have my zoo tank under 5 t5 bulbs all blue plus bulbs and i get great growth and colors are just awsome

[madean]

how long have you had this configuration palyfreak and does it seem to work better for you as compared to a tradition setup?

[Nano sapiens]

Ahhh..., what is old is new again...

Back in the late '80s I ran two actinic bulbs only on a homemade nano tank. I bought a live rock piece from a shop in LA that had Zoanthid sociatus (among a lot of other things). A few months later and the Zoas had covered nearly every inch of that good sized LR.

Zoas can grow very well under full Actinics. Today I use 3 actinics to 1 10K (T5s) in a 50% Zoa/Paly tank with good results. Montis and Acans are happy, 'shrooms are mostly under the 10K and looking good.

[madean]

interesting Nano sapiens, thanks for the info

[SpeedRacer]

i run MH on my 80gal 4 footer and during the summer reduce run time for temp control but the actinics stay on their full range up to 10 hours and my corals seem to open up and grow just fine

[650-IS350]

I ran only 1 white buld on my old 8 bulb Tek unit. Ran mostly 420/460/Reds/Purples and other colors.

[RightCoastReef]

I've def. run actinic only for up for a month to get rid of red slime, hair algae, etc. and my zoas have always done great. I also know a couple hardcore zoa guys that run all actinic.

[blammomike]

yeah all i run on the frag tank is actinics and everything does great

[madean]

blammomike what do you have in your frag tank that dos well under acticnics

[Reef_surfer]

i know this thread is a bit old agian but i was wondering if 4x39W 2xactinic+ and 2x aquaticblue+ 8" above the tank would be to much light for zoa's and also my tank is only 9" high its a super shallow tank. im wanting to put mostly zoas in so im guessing at max 17" of height not including the rock they sit on any info would be great thanks

[boboreef]

great! i want to try all actinics ...keep this thread alive ....need pics

[Friday Night]

36 watt 2x18 actinics on 2.5 running it for a year now everyone is happy pic of PPE two months in.. two nubs.. there full palys now.. so yea it works :fun2:

[Scott-CapeCoral]

There is a local fish store here using one one those new fluval tanks that have no water surface. He is keeping ricordia, gsp, zoas, and a couple easy softies alive with only a 4 bulb blue led strip. The l e d's are only 1 watt each. lmao... You'de be amazed what will survive in low low low light.. Still looking amazing.

[OldNemo]

Yep. I am running a 24watt JBJ Actinic with a 50/50 and am getting pretty decent growth.:dance:

[highpower9979]

can u run all athinic with t5s and get things to grow

[Friday Night]

yes 2 the T5's but growth rate slower

[Scott-CapeCoral]

Anyone else notice this guy never posted those 'progress' pics? Also this thread is a couple years old.

[Friday Night]

lol no $$$$ huh? good call

[popwin]

i switched to actinic only 2.

for the past 6 months ive been growing zoos under a 65 wt pure actinic bulb. i shut down the 65 white light to control algae for a couple weeks but to my surprise my zoos never looked better.

since than, ive had better growth than ever. ALL my zoos are fully opend all the time with there tentacles fully stretched. ive seen doubling of my zoos frags per month. so ive decided to keep them under there until i see any signs of stress. but as stated earlier, its been 6 months and they are growing vigourously.

please comment. anyone else with this experience?
neg/pos. comments welcomed.

[trinidiver]

I'm refreshing this post.................any new updates???