Ideal Flow in a Zoanthid Dominated Aquarium

[Wy Renegade]

John's thread on generating flow in your aquarium

How are you getting Flow in your Tank ?

got me to thinking about flow again, and I remembered some articles I had read awhile back on how flow is actually more important to your corals than light. I had to do a little digging, but came up with the article;

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/6/aafeature2

This is the first article in a series of 4;

#2 http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/aafeature/view

#3 http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/9/aafeature2/view

and #4 http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/11/aafeature/view

Which in turn lead me to the question of what is the ideal flow for a zoanthid dominated tank? Total volume of flow? Turn over rate? and Type of flow?

Thoughts or input?

[Sir Patrick]

Great thread! looks like i got some reading to do! After i read these links, I will reply......but for now-

I would think, for polyps, a flow strong enough to keep their mats clean of debris, but not strong enough to cause than to close would be best. I also think a current in tank that promotes broken down, or semi broken down food sources to get carried within their reach, to feed them, would be ideal.

This reminds me of a post I read, long ago, about a "Sweet spot" in an aquarium, for polyps.....

Looking forward to reading those links!

[Wy Renegade]

Well, at least someone responded. Looking forward to future comments.

[Sir Patrick]

^ Everyone is probly letting the reading material sink in a bit....

[John]

Well, I'm too lazy to read all of that.

IME, if you want Zs and Ps with longer skirts, lower flow.

That's what I notice when I see a low flow tank as opposed to a high flow tank.

If the flow is too low though, algae can begin to grow on the poylps and cause them not to open unless blown off with a powerhead. (Not just Cyanbacteria either)

Sometimes too much flow will cause the polyps to not open fully or possibly to begin to shrink into a smaller size.

Lowflow, lowlight = larger polyps, long skirts.

Highflow, lowlight = shortskirt tall polyps.

Lowflow, highlight = large polyps with shorter skirts.

Highflow, high light = shortpolyps with long skirts.


That's just what I noticed with my setups and placements...

[Wy Renegade]

Anybody else have any thoughts?

[XSiVE]

I just recently put zoa's back in the display after a long hiatus... every polyp from the contest frag pack is wide open and I have a massive amount of flow in my display.

Two vortechs(run in TSM 100%) in my 120 up near the top, my 1200gph closed loop plus ~500gph return pump flow. The zoo's are in the sand near a side wall so they arent typically in the direct collision of flow from the two vortechs but they get some serious undertow from the one on their side.

sooo on average Im running ~ 7500-8000gph in my 120 and I dont have any closing up.

[fishtal]

I can report what I've seen in the wild... The last time I was in HI a buddy of mine took me around and we did some collecting. (Yes, it's legal to collect Zoas there, at least for now.)

We went out into Kaneohe Bay to an area that I would call the "upper back-reef slope" which EB describes as: "although somewhat buffered from incoming waves, this is a zone this swirling currents and a great variety of coral forms and species." The weather was a bit rough that day but the zoanthids were fine and plentiful.

The second place we went was actually a boat harbor where we couldn't collect but he just wanted to show me the massive mats of zoanthids. There were colonies the size of your couch in water that you wouldn't want to touch. Just nasty conditions... boat waste of all types and very little flow. The only flow would be from the raising and lowering of the tide and a passing boat.

So, IMHO, I'd say that flow isn't really a big factor for zoanthids in general. Although I'm sure the can be found at deeper depths, all of the colonies that I saw in the wild were at a depth of 3'-5'. HTH

[XSiVE]

Thanks for the info Tal!

[MizTanks]

As most of you know I have an 8g bio cube. 18w flor 18w atenic. Mj606 with a hydroflow 185gph. I have zoas all over the tank. The ones doing the best are those sitting right under the out put, back against the wall. These have actually climbed the wall. They're pretty much shaded by the hydroflow.
Another one that does great for me are the RADE's. Right under the lights, very little flow.

@Sir: FYI-my kedds are making a come back, I now have 4 polyps! Go figure right? Lol


Sent from my iPhone while chasing Forest Gump!