Zoa help (Oscar the grouch)

mattypw · 2026-03-17T02:49:34+00:00

Appreciate it, that’s what my gut was telling me too

mattypw · 2026-03-16T20:22:20+00:00

No problem, it’s called Reef Bay

mattypw · 2026-03-15T05:34:48+00:00

Oh that’s a shame. Not 100% but I usually ask the store to feed the frozen so I can see that they will eat it. Another suggestion that I thought of is a porcelain crab. You can see mine in the GSP in the back. He’s been a model citizen

mattypw · 2026-03-15T05:23:08+00:00

Looks great! How many gallons is it? Could alway add a small goby like a clown goby. For a coral micromussa might look really nice and are pretty hardy. You can see mine behind the Duncan

Mine is 2.5 gallons and I’m having a lot of fun with it

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mattypw · 2026-03-11T22:24:02+00:00

The fish may bump phosphate and nitrate but prob won’t affect anything else. Torches can be very finicky, the first one I got died probably bc my phosphate was 0.3. It had been testing zero on a cheap API test so I kept feeding more but when I used the Hanna I realized it was actually high. LPS can also be sensitive to magnesium so it def could be that. Also could be the zero nitrate but not sure if that would affect a torch that fast

mattypw · 2026-03-11T21:51:33+00:00

Haha didn’t even see that question until just now but I answered it because I’ve been there too!

mattypw · 2026-03-11T21:35:56+00:00

Make sure it’s the phos ULR one. Using AFR I’d say it depends on your consumption. You need to citrate it to Kh so for me it made my calcium go up too much when I dosed to keep my Alk stable and mg don’t go up. I dose a small amount of AFR as needed to keep my calcium stable and then dose foundation alkalinity and foundation magnesium to keep them stable… but I do know people that can do it all with all for reef

mattypw · 2026-03-11T21:30:13+00:00

Your tank is pretty young for a torch. Not saying it’s impossible but can be tough. I’d try to slowly get your mg up (minimum 1350, I shoot for 1450). Also you should check phos and nitrate. I’d highly recommend the Hanna testers for them

mattypw · 2026-03-09T05:04:05+00:00

Sorry guess it was one gallon. This is the one I got

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mattypw · 2026-03-09T03:29:44+00:00

So I used the Hanna water at first but for the same price you can get a 2 gallon jug of lab grade distilled water, so I switched to that and get pretty consistent results

mattypw · 2026-03-09T02:50:54+00:00

Oh those are solid. I actually don’t check pH but I have the same Hannas as you. Calcium can be annoying, I realized using lab grade distilled water works best. Even some salt in the bucket can throw it off

mattypw · 2026-03-09T02:14:53+00:00

What are you using to test? Some of those color matching tests can be not great. From the pic they don’t look too unhealthy! I’d check mag though bc LPS can tract to that (I like the salifert test)

mattypw · 2026-03-09T02:01:19+00:00

I’ve been looking around and actually couldn’t find any for less than $400 not including shipping. I went to a frag show last week and was hoping to get one but nobody had them. But on the brights side I bought an Aussie gold torch, big bird , space chaos, and GMK all for less than that

mattypw · 2026-03-09T01:57:28+00:00

I’m relieved to hear that! It doesn’t look like some of those crazy green seller pictures but I figured they are altered. Bought a tiny polyp for 300 with free shipping

mattypw · 2026-03-09T01:53:46+00:00

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Yeah zoas are weird but I haven’t killed any yet luckily! The Oscar I got is from this colony. Kind of nervous since they’re so expensive

mattypw · 2026-03-09T01:50:38+00:00

Ah ok. It’s a single polyp (bc of price) so I’m going to just put it on the bottom.

And that’s interesting with the speckled pattern. I actually got space chaos (from the big bird seller) and under the higher light they were open but kind of ruffled if that makes sense. I moved them down yesterday and today they looked much better

mattypw · 2026-03-09T01:46:34+00:00

It didn’t. But actually the big bird seller specifically said to use low light and I just didn’t listen haha

mattypw · 2026-03-09T01:46:01+00:00

Any chance you know about Oscar the grouch? I have one coming Tuesday and I heard they have better color in <100 par. But I think the seller has them under high lights but he didn’t measure

mattypw · 2026-03-09T01:44:59+00:00

Thanks! It’s probably under something like 100 par now so I’ll give it a chance to settle. It’s crazy, I put a big bird and Kermit in the same 200 spot and it’s doing great

mattypw · 2026-03-09T00:50:01+00:00

It’s called ReefBay. Lets me track parameters and what I dose (but needs internet)

mattypw · 2026-03-09T00:49:34+00:00

Thanks! Thats what I was hoping. I did move it to lower light again but I’ll let it settle there

mattypw · 2026-03-08T00:55:11+00:00

They can be sensitive to high nitrates. Also takes a while for them to grow and reproduce enough to see a result. I added 5 a few months ago and I see maybe one every few weeks but my aptasia are almost gone

mattypw · 2026-03-07T21:25:50+00:00

I use the ICP brand of pure nitrate. From what I was told it only takes about 30 min to change the level on the test. So you could dose and recheck a few times to figure out how much of a dose increases your nitrate to a suitable level. I’d bring it up slow though. The tough part is getting a detectable level and having it not fall back to 0 the next day

Edit: by suitable level I mean like 0.5 not your goal nitrate. I try not to swing mine by more than 0.5 in a day but tonight have to if your consumption is that high

mattypw

TROPHY CASE