Losing my Zoas, difficult situation and need some advice

[mess7777]

Anyone who has even seen this on their zoas please chime in!

This started out with just some of my zoas being infected, but seems to be spreading to all. They turn darker...even kind of blackish with a while/opaque film over them. They seem to shrink up and eventually dissapear. In the photo below the whitish film can be clearly seen particularly in the middle. These are eagle eye zoas...so as you also see the red has turned to almost black.

I cannot remove this rock without disturbing the entire tank....this is to do my aquascape and a pesky center brace. I have done peroxide dips on the frags that are removeable. This had no noticeable affect and no evidence of pests. I did have one extremely tiny red dot that I found with a magnifying glass....but certainly one tiny tiny bug on 1 frag shouldn't be enough to kill? This leads me to believe this is bacterial or fungal.

Can anyone PLEASE offer recommendations. At this point I pretty much think my best bet is to try and save the frags....but the problem is that whatever is happening is contagious. So until the zoas on the rock die I will need to continue dipping and dipping the frags.

Other information....recent changes :
-starting 2 part dosing...over the past 3.5 weeks the alk has been moved from 7 to 8.1(on purpose).
-changed carbon from Rowacarbon to BRS Rox

Water Parameters:
SG - 1.025
Ca - 420ppm
Alk - 8.1
Phos - .02
Nitrates - 0
Mag - 1300

 

[joshporksandwich]

i recommend you remove the rock and dip in furan 2 if you're 100% sure is not light. look up zoa pox furan 2 dip and you will find the right method to use. I've saved a few things that way.

 

[mess7777]

Thanks Josh, I don't believe it to be light as it has been the same for 2 years. Strangely enough, I am getting a new light tomorrow.

For reference here is a FTS. This huge rock in the middle cannot come out unless I remove the rocks either on the left or right. These side towers are held together using zip ties and epoxy. This is all of course not considering the mini cycle that usually follows moving that much rock around...which could prove detrimental to other corals in the tank too....not a fun time!

 

[saltyair]

Are you able to add more flow - this happened to me with some red blaters. I moved them to a higher flow area and they started to come back. Zoa's seem to hold a lot of gunk

 

[ZoaCollector]

It looks kind of like fungus from the pic. But it's hard to tell. Can you get a better pic? Also if it's fungus furan 2 is the answer.

You might just have to pull the trigger, if it doesn't get better on its own, and remove the rock. I suggest you get a large container from home depot and fill it with clean saltwater. Do a few dips, perhaps remove infected parts, and then return it to the tank.




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[mess7777]

I will try to get a better picture tonight. For now I zoomed in on the existing pic and tried to clean it up a bit.

 

[kuansreef]

Dip is fine. you have to change water chemistry. Water change every other day for 3 times. They will recover.

 

[mess7777]

what do you think it is about the water chemistry that is a problem?

 

[kuansreef]

How would they be better if water condition is not improved? Apparently, they are not happy in the exiting water. Water change always helps. When I see my zoas act funny, I can see imeediate improvement after water change.

 

[mess7777]

How would they be better if water condition is not improved? Apparently, they are not happy in the exiting water. Water change always helps. When I see my zoas act funny, I can see imeediate improvement after water change.

Normally I would agree. In this case I have been doing 5g changes 3x per week, so about 15% a week for the past 3 weeks with no improvement.

I have decided to start changing 5g every day and stop my 2 part dosing to see what happens. My demand is not insane so hoping the water changes will keep up with demand.

 

[PaulKreider]

HAVE THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM. Mine just started a few days ago after fragging a few polys, seems like they got infected and it quickly spread, had destroyed alot of my eagle eyes, army men, radio active dragon eyes and some other pricier zoas, I ordered some dip so im going to start using that, but it moves very quick, polyps would close up and eventualy just turn to dust.

 

[mess7777]

Feel free to join in, maybe together we'll figure something out. Would love to see some pictures to see if it is the same

 

[Toomnymods]

always dip colonies in revive or lugols iodine after fragging for 3-5 mins minimum..

 

[always reefin]

Water could be too clean. Too many water changes may make worse. Zoas like/need some nutrients in water

 

[mess7777]

Water could be too clean. Too many water changes may make worse. Zoas like/need some nutrients in water

How do zoas survive in ULNS systems. I see folks with biopellets and the like who have thriving zoas. Looking at the pictures don't you think there is a disease or something going on?

 

[always reefin]

How do zoas survive in ULNS systems. I see folks with biopellets and the like who have thriving zoas. Looking at the pictures don't you think there is a disease or something going on?

Water too clean is just one factor, as you know there is many more that can cause good and/or poor health

 

[mess7777]

I dipped a couple of the frag plugs last night. Nothing of interest, got rid of a bunch of crud...couple of amphipods. I did see one unusual worm....it looks like a transparent bristle worm. It was maybe an inch long and very thin. I haven't been able to find any pictures of it looking through chucks hitchhiker guide or threads on forums. If it is a predator it doesn't appear to be a common one.

I'm still sticking to the belief that it's a fungal/bacterial issue.

 

[PaulKreider]

Im gonna agree, I feel like its a fungal, algae, or some kind of infection, mine sort of glaze over with a reel slight hint of green or brown, then close up for 2 days, then just poof their gone. Iv been loosing about 10 heads a day now for a week, this is gettin bad, I ordered some coral dip hopefully that will stop from spreading to my larger colonies. Hopefully the dip helps yours!

 

[PaulKreider]

Use Coral Revive!!!

 

[NU2REEFIN]

I had similar issues recently and did some research on dosing Vitamin C and all my zoanthids look 1000x better and no ill effects have been seen on other corals.