I'm out of ideas... Zoas slowly melting

[TheEngineer]

I'm completely at a loss at this point. My colony of ring of fire and alien acne zoas is slowly melting away and nothing I've done has helped. I tried a round of chemiclean in the tank, didn't help. I did an iodine dip, didn't help. I did a revive dip, didn't help. I did a peroxide dip, didn't help. (All of these were several days apart)

These are some of my favorites and this has happened before with them. Last time the chemiclean fixed the problem, but not this time. Help!

 

[vic67]

Is it possible that something is irritating them? Are they opening normally? Maybe try moving them onto a frag rack higher in your tank to keep them away from"whatever".

 

[TheEngineer]

Is it possible that something is irritating them? Are they opening normally? Maybe try moving them onto a frag rack higher in your tank to keep them away from"whatever".

Thanks for the suggestion. There are spaghetti worms on the rock they used to sit on. Never bothered them before, but I thought that might an issue too. I moved them off of that rock. Nothing near them where they are now.

 

[TheEngineer]

Maybe one of the zoa gurus knows? @joshporksandwic @jourdy

 

[domination2580]

Zoas eating nudibranch might be the issue

 

[domination2580]

Flat worm exit will take care of them. I've dealt with them once

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Some of my zoas like a lot more light than others, fwiw.

 

[Triggreef]

Not sure what order you did the dips with. I used chemiclean a few times with success, a few times with no impact. Every other dip seemed to hurt more than help with my zoas.

Perhaps some water parameter issue.

 

[TheEngineer]

Zoas eating nudibranch might be the issue

Do polyps slowly melt away? They just close up and whither. It doesn't look like they've been chewed on. I always dip everything before it goes in the tank and this is the only colony with an issue. I know what the nudi looks like, but not the damage they cause.

 

[TheEngineer]

Some of my zoas like a lot more light than others, fwiw.

Maybe, but they've been in this spot for 4 months.

Not sure what order you did the dips with. I used chronicles a few times with success, a few times with no impact. Every other dip seemed to hurt more than help with my zoas.

Perhaps some water parameter issue.

I tested water. Nitrates are 0, Alk is 9, calc is 420, salinity is 35ppt. No other colony is having an issue but this one rock. I think the order of dips I posted is the order I did it in. I don't know the chronicles dip. I'll look it up.

 

[scranton]

I like to dose vitamin c

 

[TheEngineer]

I like to dose vitamin c

As a treatment for this? Or in general you do?

 

[scranton]

I started in response to the same problem and it helped. Now I dose weekly. Just a few drops weekly in my 250gallon system

 

[DereksReef77]

Zero nitrates equals death for softies imo. Get your nitrates up to 7 but dont go over 7. Thats what I've recently been told by someone with over 20 years experience. Feed your corals. You probably don't have any nutrients in your water.

 

[TheEngineer]

I started in response to the same problem and it helped. Now I dose weekly. Just a few drops weekly in my 250gallon system

I'll look into it. What do you dose with?

Zero nitrates equals death for softies imo. Get your nitrates up to 7 but dont go over 7. Thats what I've recently been told by someone with over 20 years experience. Feed your corals. You probably don't have any nutrients in your water.

I feed my corals, so I don't think nitrates are the issue here. The other zoas have no signs of stress.

 

[scranton]

I usw kent vitamin c

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

A little dose of humor perhaps?

The Reefer's Axiom = "The more you pay for a zoa, the faster it will melt, and the more likely it is to die from some mysterious cause."

Sounds like you have the "million dollar question" problem. I have a colony of Rastas that Im sure do this to me cuz they think its funny. from near death to popping babies in a weeks time.
Im sure youve done it but if you have a light meter check if youve had light loss or your powerhead has slowed down. When my rastas were dead three days ago that was the issue, algae in the koralia.​

 

[TheEngineer]

It looks like there could be something to this vitamin C dosing. I'm going to pick some up from the drug store later.

 

[scranton]

I like it a lot. Its helps my stuff even if others sYstem its snake oil

 

[Jgomez324]

How clean is your water? When I ran a low nutrients tank my zoas would ball up and eventually melt away. Try feeding heavy something like coral frenzy.