GMK's won't open in any position

[Lost in the Sauce]

Hi zoa peeps! I'm not a fire hard but have a dozen or so colonies on hand. About a month ago, a reefer friend mentioned to me that he had two discs with GMKs that just wouldn't open. They had opened sporadically a while ago but nothing for many weeks. He asked if I would take one disc into my display tank and see if there was something going on with his parameters. I agreed.

Fully dipped everything coming in. Reef dip, then iodine, then h202 to get some algea off.

For about the last month, I've been moving them around the tank from low light low flow, medium medium, Now medium light and high medium flow. During this time, Two of the largest polyps got super thin where they met the disk and have since vanished.
The gmk disk he still has in his tank are doing the same thing.

I'd really like to get those open and happy but unfortunately, all of my tricks have failed.

Any idea and info are appreciated.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Hi zoa peeps! I'm not a fire hard but have a dozen or so colonies on hand. About a month ago, a reefer friend mentioned to me that he had two discs with GMKs that just wouldn't open. They had opened sporadically a while ago but nothing for many weeks. He asked if I would take one disc into my display tank and see if there was something going on with his parameters. I agreed.

Fully dipped everything coming in. Reef dip, then iodine, then h202 to get some algea off.

For about the last month, I've been moving them around the tank from low light low flow, medium medium, Now medium light and high medium flow. During this time, Two of the largest polyps got super thin where they met the disk and have since vanished.
The gmk disk he still has in his tank are doing the same thing.

I'd really like to get those open and happy but unfortunately, all of my tricks have failed.

Any idea and info are appreciated.

How long between moves?

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

How long between moves?

They are in the 3rd poition, med light, higher med flow as of a few days ago, so I would say about 10-12 days in each.

During these stints, the disk has gone from 10p to 5 or 6.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

@footgal for input

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

They are in the 3rd poition, med light, higher med flow as of a few days ago, so I would say about 10-12 days in each.

During these stints, the disk has gone from 10p to 5 or 6.

Doing nothing so far has resulted in losing half. If doing nothing is the only option, I'm fine with that. Hoping the collective knowledge here had a zoa hack I dont know about.

 

[mwil79]

GMKs are a pain. I have mine in 100-120 par with low/med flow and they haven't moved much at all. I have heard so many stories of them melting. As of now I'm refusing to touch them at all. They will either live or die in that spot lol.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

When ever i have a touchy zoa i always start them in low light and low/med flow. if they dont open up for 2 weeks or so i do an iodine dip but otherwise i just leave them alone.

 

[footgal]

Give them higher light and medium flow. Light will encourage them to open and the flow will discourage algae growth. Think hammer level flow

H2O2 can be very damaging, especially if the polyps are already in bad shape.

I find putting them on a frag rack can help because rocks often divert flow and create current you may not expect. With a frag rack you know exactly what flow is hitting it 100% of the time and you can test the flow.

Good luck!!

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Give them higher light and medium flow. Light will encourage them to open and the flow will discourage algae growth. Think hammer level flow

H2O2 can be very damaging, especially if the polyps are already in bad shape.

I find putting them on a frag rack can help because rocks often divert flow and create current you may not expect. With a frag rack you know exactly what flow is hitting it 100% of the time and you can test the flow.

Good luck!!

Thanks K. I'll look around tomorrow and see if I can find a suitable spot.

 

[Hooz]

I have mine in 70 PAR with medium flow. I wouldn't say they're growing fast for me, but I went from 1p to 5p in a few months.