Help me trouble shoot closed Zoa

Dine

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Looking for some ideas to test why my new zoas are closed. Added the frag on Friday. Opened up within 1hour. Stayed open until Sunday. Fed the tank and they closed. Never opened up again (24hour)

-tanks about 2 months old
-IM 25g lagoon (shallow tank, 12in)
-Radion xr15pro
-Frag placed near bottom
-Mp10 on lagoon @ 40%. Frag on opposite end
-salinity 1.025
-Ammonia/nitrite 0
-Nitrate 5–10 (pic below cuz I hate this color chart)
-Phosphate reads 0 via Hannah ppm but ULR ppb is in the mail. Can’t get more accurate until then
Dkh 7.5-8
Ph 8.2
-water change yesterday (zoa closed prior) about 15%


frag was out of the box and into a holding tank within 30 min (floated for temp) after being overnighted. Reputable/well known vendor. Don’t want to say as I do not believe it has anything to do with them. Stayed in holding until the evening. Dipped with bayer for 5min. 1 cup tank water to 10ml bayer. Rinsed twice in 2 separate tank water cups. Put directly into DT after I visually Inspected. Don’t think anything jumped off. Few black specs but nothing I could identify as a pest.

This is the first coral addition to the tank so nothing to compare it to. Just lookingfor some advice of things to try over the next few days to narrow down the problem. so far all I’ve done is the WC last night and today turned the MP10 down to20%

CB4EB6E7-A75C-491C-AF0E-C480F15AAFAF.jpeg
 

Mykawl

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Can we get a full tank shot, zoas can be finicky as long as they’re not completely sealed up I wouldn’t do anything right away. A pic of the zoas will help

zero phosphate might be a problem, did you start with dry rock and what kind of sand are you using, phosphate can be absorbed by rock and sand.
I would put the mp40 back to normal setting don’t start messing with anything quite yet water movement is nothing but positive unless it’s violent lol

also need magnesium level and anyrhing else related to the tank, are you using carbon gfo skimmer or refugium? Any fish? Any inverts?

best guess is zero phosphate though, I have a couple palys but one colony slowly stopped opening, raising phosphate I believe has been the answer.

what settings are you using for the Radion That’s a powerful light
 

Sean Duggan

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Zoas are weird sometimes and will close for a couple days at a time. I have tons of zoa colonies in my display and zoas are the main coral I grow and frag. Sometimes a few of them will close for a day or two. Since it is a new zoa and it hasn’t been closed for that long I’d say just leave it. It can take corals a little while to adapt to a new system and lighting. If you move it or try to change the lighting could stress it out even more.
 
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Dine

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Can we get a full tank shot, zoas can be finicky as long as they’re not completely sealed up I wouldn’t do anything right away. A pic of the zoas will help

zero phosphate might be a problem, did you start with dry rock and what kind of sand are you using, phosphate can be absorbed by rock and sand.
I would put the mp40 back to normal setting don’t start messing with anything quite yet water movement is nothing but positive unless it’s violent lol

also need magnesium level and anyrhing else related to the tank, are you using carbon gfo skimmer or refugium? Any fish? Any inverts?

best guess is zero phosphate though, I have a couple palys but one colony slowly stopped opening, raising phosphate I believe has been the answer.

what settings are you using for the Radion That’s a powerful light

Started with dry rock. I’m not convinced phosphates are totally 0 my Hannah just doesn’t test into the ultra low range. But maybe when the more precise one gets here I’ll be surprised. I say that because other then weekly WC there’s no removal. No gfo, no chaeto, no scrubber, no skimmer etc. I did start dry in a separate container for 6 months. My previous experience with dry was I leeched phosphates so I did run GFO during that time to pull all the leeching out. But ive never run GFO on the DT.

livestock: 2 yasha gobies, 1 pistol shrimp, 3 hermits and 1 frag of unopened mango cooler zoas.

sand was Carib sea special reef grade? Something close to that in name.

magnesium I’ll need to get a test kit for. Not a parameter I was planning on checking 2 months in TBH.

Radion IS powerful so I have it set to ab+ but only at 30% at max. Too low? Can’t be too high right?

image.jpg image.jpg
 
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Dine

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Zoas are weird sometimes and will close for a couple days at a time. I have tons of zoa colonies in my display and zoas are the main coral I grow and frag. Sometimes a few of them will close for a day or two. Since it is a new zoa and it hasn’t been closed for that long I’d say just leave it. It can take corals a little while to adapt to a new system and lighting. If you move it or try to change the lighting could stress it out even more.

prob not bad advice. I’m def not one to panic react to these things. I’d let the frag melt before I swing too far in another direction. But did kind of want to get an idea of things to isolate in the coming days to test the various variables.
 

New&no clue

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You could test iodine, that can cause them to close. Is your cuc messing with them? Whenever I put a new frag in my shrimp and hermits all come to check it out which causes it to close.
 
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Dine

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You could test iodine, that can cause them to close. Is your cuc messing with them? Whenever I put a new frag in my shrimp and hermits all come to check it out which causes it to close.
I have not observed the hermits messing with them at all. Doesn’t mean they haven’t but when they decided to close during my feeding on Sunday the crabs were no where near and very preoccupied with the food.

I thought zoas like iodine? It’s a test I can add to my list. You’re welcome BRS...
 

Mykawl

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Not sure friend interested to see if anyone has any other thoughts some corals are just annoying lol

Iodine should be fine if your not running a skimmer or carbon, (i've heard that can pull it out). Everything seems really good i'd agree don't change anything. Maybe someone with radions can comment on the intensity they may just want more light. That's my only guess or zero phosphate. Magnesium should be fine as well if your using a reef specific salt like you are.
 
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Dine

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Not sure friend interested to see if anyone has any other thoughts some corals are just annoying lol

Iodine should be fine if your not running a skimmer or carbon, (i've heard that can pull it out). Everything seems really good i'd agree don't change anything. Maybe someone with radions can comment on the intensity they may just want more light. That's my only guess or zero phosphate. Magnesium should be fine as well if your using a reef specific salt like you are.
Never had to add phosphate into a tank before. Always had the opposite problem. Not that I’m planning on doing it tomorrow but what’s the best way if it comes to that? With such a small bioload I already feel like I’m over feeding as is.
 

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