How to Take Care of Palythoa in Your Home Aquarium

The Red Death Palys are great for beginners because they are easy to take care of. Zoanthids and Palythoa make more of themselves by blooming.

Setting up

With IC gel glue or putty, attach the Red Death Palys to a rock lower in the tank that is open to the air. This will give them direct flow and light. If you don’t want them to grow on your main rock structure, try making a Zoanthid island by attaching different kinds of Zoanthids and Palythoa to a bigger rock and setting it in the sand as an island.

Being fed

Zooxanthellae, beneficial algae that live inside them, provide most of their food through photosynthesis. However, Oyster-Feast, Roti-Feast, cyclopeeze, and sometimes small pieces of mini mysis are good to give them as well. When you target feed, you feed the corals less food, which keeps the nitrate and phosphate levels low.

Needs for Lighting and Flow

To keep their color, Red Death Palys need a reasonable amount of water flow and low to moderate lighting (PAR 100–250). If you give Zoanthids and Palythoa the right amount of PAR, you can grow them with T5s, Metal Halides, or LEDs. For the best coloring, we suggest a 14K to 20K color spectrum.

Level of Care: Easy

The flow of water: average

Aggressiveness: Not very aggressive

Range: Asia and the Pacific; grown in California

The Zoanthidae family.

water condition

75 to 80°F water; sg 1.024 to 1.026 (1.025 is best); pH 8.1 to 8.4; Ca 420 to 440 ppm; Alk 8 to 9.5 dKH; Mg 1260 to 1350; Nitrates <10ppm; Phosphates <0.10 ppm

Chemistry of Water

Keeping the right amounts of magnesium (1260–1350 ppm), alkalinity (8–9.5 dkh; change to 7-8 if you are carbon dosing), and calcium (420–440 ppm) is very important. Increasing magnesium levels slowly up to 1400–1600 ppm can help stop algae blooms. But while you do this, make sure that calcium and pH levels stay the same. Do not let phosphates or nitrates go above 0.10 ppm or 10 ppm. If the nitrate amount gets to 10 parts per million, we suggest changing the water. When phosphate levels reach 0.10 ppm, you should get new phosphate soil. Media Reactors are the best way to use your phosphate media because they mix it with other things.

Dosing

Vivid Aquariums uses and suggests dosing pumps to handle the addition of additives automatically and keep levels more stable. A dosing pump can make it easier to add calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium to your aquarium by hand, two to four times a week. This will help your tank stay healthy by keeping the levels steady with frequent small additions. When we went from three human dosings a week to 70 automatic dosings a week, our tanks got better, which let us get more done.