Trick to blue zoa's?

[twps]

I've had almost no luck with anything blue in my tank... I added a frag of blue clove polyps 6-8 months ago, that dies off slowly, but are coming back slowly. Recently I added blue zoa's about a month or two back that never opened up and slowly disintegrated. Two weeks ago I was picked up another frag of blue zoa's. They opened after a couple of days, but now haven't opened in days, and are looking like they may die off as well. They're on the sand to start in medium lighting, the others died off in full lighting, so I thought I'd try less lighting this time. I also had a blue acro med/high in the tank that died off over months.

Is there a trick to blue corals I need to know? Or am I just not meant to have blue corals in my tank?

46G bow, 2x10k & 2xActinic. Light schedule is 30mins actinic to 5 hours full light then 1 hr actinic again. All other corals are thriving and growing nicely. Other corals include various zoa's & polyps, GSP & Pink star polyps, red digi, leather, trupmet, duncans, sun coral, large elegance & goniopora.

 

[Kazarko]

I have about 7.5 hours full light. I have no issues with blue SPS but I can't say anything about zoas since I haven't found any blue ones lately

 

[BL1]

I've had a lot of trouble with blue zoas/palys. What I have noticed is that when I had them in places similar to my other zoas they slowly melted away. But, when I moved them into low light/shaded areas they seem to do a lot better for me.

 

[Piratefish]

I have my T5 lights on for,(6x54w) main lights 10 hours and actinics come on one hour before and stay on one hour after. That is over my 55g.

 

[little_fish]

+1 BL1

I think those blue ones come from deeper down. Try shading them and see how they do.

 

[twps]

Thanks for the responses. I figured as much, but every time I buy them they're in full lighting and thriving. We'll see what happens...

 

[little_fish]

Well you dont know how long they have been at your lfs. They might have only been there for a week under those lights, and its only over a longer time period of time do they begin to fade.

 

[BL1]

Plus at the LFS you have no idea how old they're bulbs are. I'm sure most LFS don't replace them as often as they should and they may just not be as intense as the bulbs in our tanks.

 

[sen5241b]

I put blue zoas about 6 inches under a 150 watt MH and they melted. Although Zoas and other corals may need "high intensity light" there is a such thing as too much light.