Question on Zoa growth

With zoas they seem to like the water to be off just a little bit. It would apear that a few nitrates and some leftovers floating around help them to grow faster.Shaun

 

I recentally have shown alot of zoa growth in my nano. I will contribute it to a couple things, first off I have added LED lighting, and am on a long light cycle.(10am-8pm) and second its about what you feed them. I personally use phyto feast and that has helped alot. Personally I do not know about the dirty water thing. Because most of the time my numbers are very close to zero an mostly zero. I think its more about light and food. But for a reference in growth that I call good, My 10 polyps have almost doubled in 3-4 months.

 

Zoas can be strange - the same specimen that explodes with growth in one tank may do very little in another healthy tank.
Typically, the nuisance zoas do well while other (i.e. desirable) ones don't.  I have several specimens in my tank that are growing fine while a small colony of orange bam-bams have gone from 6 polyps to 14 in the last year...these are know to be slow growers (for most).
Many things can factor into the growth: 
As with other corals, I don't see much growth in a new colony until they settle in and heal.
Flow - some zoas love flow, others not so much.
Water quality - typically, zoas do better in dirty water cleaner water and often SPS dominant tanks are ultra clean.
Placement in tank - try moving them around a bit until you find their "sweet spot".
Good luck!
-Eric

 

Most of the time you can hope to get 2 polyps a month until the colony gets larger