Zoanthid and Paly help!

[j.faulkner72]

Most of my zoa's and paly's are not very happy!! I have been quite vigilant for things like nudibranches, and flatworms. And even out of frustration, I have dipped with Coralrx once a week for 4 weeks, gave them a break, and then used flat worm exit on the DT once a week for three weeks, following instructions very carfully (but doubling dosage to help fight nudibranches incase they are present). I'm back to giving the tank some rest, but not experiencing any changes with the zoas and palys. I have tried "some" different placement, water flow, lights, etc.. But, trying not to get to extreme with it due to stress of dipping Coralrx. The next culprit I am pointing at is phosphate level, I have read mixed reviews about what phosphate and nitrate levels are optimal for tank health. After that, (and I seriously hope not) is my tank over stocked? I.E. chemical warfare? Any help is much appreciated thanks!! spec's below.... pics to follow from phone.

29gal coral life boicube

API TEST KIT
NH3/NH4+ 0 ppm stay's pretty stable
NO2- 0 PPM never reads detectable
NO3- 0 PPM wish I had a more accurate way of testing
PO43- 1.0 PPM stays fairly stable at 1ppm, small spike's when meaty foods fed
CA2+ 420 PPM stay's very stable, according to API... lol
pH 8.4 stable
KH 179 ppm stable

Red Sea Mg pro
Mg 1350 ppm stable

H2O Ocean refractometer
salinity 1.024 had issue first few months with salinity dropping, no leaks never found out why, has stopped and fairly stable now small change of .001 here and there with weekly water changes.

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

Everything seems fine according to the water parameters you are telling me. Now what kind of lighting are you running over these zoas and palys?

 

[j.faulkner72]

Lights are stock lights that come with the cube, 1 x 10,000k 36 watt compact, 1 x actinic blue 36 watt, and a deep blue led 3 x 1 watt. Pics are taken just now with phone, I normally have the lights off at this time except the led., so most stuff is closed, but the zoa's don't change much from what the look like, closed and kinda slimy ( maybe melting?).

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

wow! wait first of all, are those triggers i see in there? triggers will tend to pick and even eat coral. also looks like your light bulbs are due for a replacement. how old are those bulbs? when was the last time you replaced them? what are your water change intervals? also do you dose ?

 

[j.faulkner72]

yea those are triggers from my 55 gal I down graded from, I try to keep them fat and happy due to the small tank, I don't want them stressing while their stuck In there till my new big tank Is ready to go. Lights are two months old, might be the phone pic making them seem on their way out, not sure, but not opposed to replacing them.. water changes are weekly on sundays (10%), I dose iodine in the weekly recommended dosage for tank size according to "Kent" on wensday's. I don't dose any thing else, mainly cause I haven't picked up a way to test for other trace elements, kinda hoping the water changes take care of it? so it's not likely overdosing is the reason, unless it's iodine. Under dosing could be the cause, something is definetly out of whack, have you ever had issue's with flow or lighting making them unhappy?

 

[j.faulkner72]

And thank you for racking your brain trying to help me!

 

[J Rog]

I would say a couple things. Possibly the trigger picking at them, possibly the water is to clean, and possibly the stock lights aren't enough power for them. That's all I got. Lol

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

yea those are triggers from my 55 gal I down graded from, I try to keep them fat and happy due to the small tank, I don't want them stressing while their stuck In there till my new big tank Is ready to go. Lights are two months old, might be the phone pic making them seem on their way out, not sure, but not opposed to replacing them.. water changes are weekly on sundays (10%), I dose iodine in the weekly recommended dosage for tank size according to "Kent" on wensday's. I don't dose any thing else, mainly cause I haven't picked up a way to test for other trace elements, kinda hoping the water changes take care of it? so it's not likely overdosing is the reason, unless it's iodine. Under dosing could be the cause, something is definetly out of whack, have you ever had issue's with flow or lighting making them unhappy?

first off i would dose iodine less then what the bottle says. i always dose the minimal possible. there are negative affects of to much iodine. Alot of people dont dose iodine at all and their tanks are fine. so dose minimal of iodine. in a tank that size i would dose maybe less than half a cap once a week. maybe twice a week if your tank is loaded with corals.

Your water levels again seem fine. calcium is good, Kh is spot on . When did this issue start ? or have they always had trouble like this?

If everything checks in fine, as far as good flow, lighting, and water parameters , i recommend a chemiclean treatment. Ive seen and heard many hobbyist complaining about zoas/ palys not doing well for no apparent reason when everything checks in perfect, and a chemiclean treatment quickly bounced them back to thriving health. I myself had a similar issue as my zoas/palys would just not do well no matter what i did or how perfect the conditions were for them, but once i did a chemiclean treatment everything bounced right back to perfect health and they have been great since.

But again, double check everything, make sure everything is spot on and if nothing you might want to consider giving chemiclean a try. chemiclean will balance out your nitrate/phosphate levels to a more balanced ratio.

I have a post on my blog about chemiclean and zoas , check it out if you like Reef-a-holiks

Also i would find a way to get those triggers out.

 

[j.faulkner72]

Reef-a-holiks I like the post! and pics!! good stuff! Well it looks like I got some new things to try, I'm gonna hop on board with the less iodine, see what that does, then possible give chemiclean a try (looks like a good thing to do). Might as well get a par meter whle I'm at it Hopefully I'll have some good news in a few weeks, and give some feed back on what changes they made to the tank. Thank you very much

 

[FishnFriendz]

Following

 

[ajdiver]

I have a red sea max 250 and recently started to stock up on zoas. My phosphates were hi so I solved that issue and also upgraded my stock T5s to a retrofit steves LED'S and now they are really opening up. I'd say upgrade the stock lights also if you can afford it.

 

[FLipp]

two triggers in a 29 w reef? idk about that.

 

[FLipp]

i've never dosed iodine.

 

[ajdiver]

Me neither. Didn't know that was even an option. I do know that the tangs are probably an issue also.

 

[VincentBrown83]

I by no means am an expert but what about flow? In my tank my zoos like med-high flow.

 

[badfish2]

How are you maintaing 8.4 PH? That's a difficult number to reach/maintain by chance.
It almost sounds like the situation is being over thought just a bit. Water changes should be all you really need. Have you tried leaving the tank alone except for water changes/feeding? It sounds like that 29 gallons has a lot thrown at it.

 

[badfish2]

This picture almost looks like the colony has "zoa pox."

 

[pickupman66]

my immediate thoughts...

1. Triggers may pick at them?
2. why treat for Nudis and such if you never saw them?
3. If you dose iodine, do you also test for it? if not then I would not dose for it. Dont dose for something you cannot test for.

ive had phosphate and niterates in an elevated state and never had zoa issues.


I also raise the lights question. my zoas seem to really like the light poured on.

 

[stunkenwagon]

Why dosing iodine? That's the first thing I would stop and would be concerned about how many chemicals your putting in such a small tank! Personally my zoa's like strong flow and really like my strong led's! My nitrates and phosphate are always a little high but every thing is growing well and zoa's multiplying.

 

[Brem]

if its zoapox then treat it with coral rx.stop adding the rest for a while and only refresh some water once a week