Zoas went from blue'green to brown/grey

[fishmamma]

When a purchased a zoanthid colony from LFS it was bright and beautiful, with some green and blue coloring. Many months later the polyps are growing quite tall and have lost all brilliant coloring. I will post some pictures below. They are under 80 watts of power compacts, mid tank in 16 gallon bow. I was assuming I need more lighting to get back the color but others are saying they may have just changed. Any input on what may be going on here would be greatly appreciated. Should I buy some halides or may that not bring back the beautiful zoas I bought months ago? I also just purchased a pink colony and am worried about them fading as well, all oranges have stayed true and bright, what gives??

 

[wax32]

Some zoanthids need more intense light to look their best. That particular green/purple zoo in your picture is one of those. I had them under 300w of VHO and they looked pretty drab. Moving them to 250w of MH made them really color up. You've started multiple threads on this same topic and it all boils down to you needing more light if you want them to really color up.

 

[fishmamma]

Wax- this is my second thread, first under a new forum....... didn't realize there was a one thread limit per topic on SWF.com.

You mentioned other zoos looking good because they are under actinics in the photos, well mine still look crappy under actinics- brown is brown under any lighting, glow or no glow. Many people on these boards keep bright colorful zoas under PC lighting no problem. Thank you for telling me in your experience these particular zoas need strong lighting, this is the kind of info I am looking for.

 

[wax32]

Sorry, didn't mean to imply a flame!

Was just wondering why you switched threads.

I'm guessing he has more wattage on his tank, even with actinics they won't STAY looking good for long if the wattage is too low for the particular strain of zoo. Lemme see if I can dig up some pics of that strain you have...

Purple/Green when I first got them.

Purple/Green couple weeks later Low in tank, 300w VHO

Purple/Green 8 inches from lights, after 2 weeks, 300w VHO

Purple/Green after a few more weeks, 300w VHO
In all pictures it will be the lavender/purple looking ones, the green/yellow ones are a differnet strain, but they turned out to have the same lighting requirements. I guess that's why they were on the same rock from the wild. I can't find a picture of them from after I got MH, I only had them under MH for a month before Katrina hit, but believe me when I say they were NICE!
EDIT: If you see red X's hit reload, I wasn't finished uploading them when I hit submit on the reply.

 

[fishmamma]

THanks wax.

They are under 5 watts per gallon but my glass lid filters a good portion of that light out no doubt. Your pictures are really inspiring me to try and set up a halide, now I just need to figure out how to make it work. Sorry to hear Katrina got you and your tank.

 

[wax32]

You're welcome! Removing the glass would likely help until you decide to make the leap to MH. And, thanks.