Show & Tell WITH PICS

[ZoWhat]

This is the best phone my phone can mustard

This thread is a CONTINUATION of my past threads of my issues with certain zoas being closed for weeks. A complete MYSTERY to me.

I encourage you to ZOOM IN on the above pic [which is a perfect example of my issues] and put your eyes on any potential red flags I'm not seeing

Again.....

* My lights are right at 75-100 PAR, mainly 420-470nm

* My flow is light, just a whisper

* My calc (400ish), ALK (9ish) and Mag (1400ish) all checkout

* My NO3 (around 10) and PO4 (around 0.2-0.3) checkout

* My temp is a rock solid 78

* I dose TM BactoBalance every morning at 5ml to manage no3/po4

* My daily fish feedings are mysis mixed with reefroids in the AM and Nori on a clip that was soaked briefly in Boyd's VitaChem

* My tank is well aerated with a skimmer with an outside air line feeding it, I also have an airtube feeding my DT vortex pushin gentle microbubbles

First 1ft of a 6ft tank

* i dose 5ml of SeaChems Iodide every other day

* I dose 1-2 drops of Lugols Iodine every OTHER night

* I brew my own Tetraselmis phyto and dose about 4ozs every other night

* @PeterC99 has encouraged me to put a Sochting Oxydator in the tank to increase avail O2. The shipment is OTW.

Areas I'm uncertain:

* pests. I have no idea if some creepycrawly thing is coming out at night and irritating things. BUT! 80% of my zoas are great, just SELECT 20% just struggle, W E I R D

* some select bacterial infection only effecting the sekect zoas that are closed. I have no knowledge on how to even investigate that.

* Some unknown element in my tank which is going to take a ICP test.

Thoughts?

Here's picture of zoas palys going JUST FINE

Hazy pics bc I just fed the tank reefroids

 

[cocoReefer]

What size tank?. Seems like alot of iodine dosing. My 100+ gallon system is fine with 5ml per week. Have you done icp testing before?
I stopped using lugols over a year ago when my tests came back high in iodine. Just my experience of course.

 

[cocoReefer]

Your pics look good

 

[ZoWhat]

What size tank?. Seems like alot of iodine dosing. My 100+ gallon system is fine with 5ml per week. Have you done icp testing before?
I stopped using lugols over a year ago when my tests came back high in iodine. Just my experience of course.

6ft 180g = 220ish total gals

I have the Triton Labs ICP kit on the way in shipment.

I'll definitely document my results as I've run MY STORY thru the mud.

I'm sorry folks, just looking for answers

 

[Miami Reef]

I can’t wait to see the ICP results. Definitely following and please post the results here. I’ve been waiting for WEEKS for this! I can’t believe I’m so hooked up on this.

 

[acananoreefer]

I assume you have probably considered these but here goes anyway, just in case!

Are there any "digitate" hydroids near the closed zoanthids? In my experience they tend to be very short during the day but will extend to multiple inches at night. They can be kind of hard to find but I've been able to find a few lurking in nearly every tank I've seen including very nice display tanks. They don't seem to bother stuff most of the time but I've had zoanthids scourged by them close.

I have a couple spots in my tank that will cause usually a single polyp to close and remain closed until moved, I believe it is due to lighting hotspots.

Have you tried dipping the effected colonies in a dilute lugol's solution or other coral dip?

 

[GHOSTLY]

Mt purple monsters melted for some reason

 

[ZoWhat]

digitate hydroids

I usually spend 1hr of quiet time each night around 11pm when the lights are at dusk settings, very low, like 25 PAR

I'm not seeing any hydroids but who knows....

I have taken some of the zoas that are on freehand plugs and sprayed with h2o2 for a brief period to where the stems foam white, then quickly rinse off with tank water, then place them back. I understand this psssss them off. But after 3 days, no difference. Still closed

 

[acananoreefer]

All's well, hope you get it figured!

 

[Dolphins18]

This is the best phone my phone can mustard

Is that ketchup hanging from the polyp?

 

[jiffyjhn]

I have similar issue occasionally. Zoa's and cloves are closed, but larger Palys are doing fine.

At first I thought it was because of my low nutrients(phosphate and nitrate at 0). I tried raising those by feeding more/turning off skimmer but didn't seem to work.

Now I found it more to be flow/lighting related. some smaller polyp zoas prefer very low light and flow. I had a piece of yellow zoa frag fall into a large hole on a rock, so it was getting very little light and flow, but it opened up fully. While the mother colony of the same zoa in the same 32 gallon tank at a spot with higher light/flow was all closed up.

I think different zoa varieties prefer different light/flow conditions, move zoas around until you find a spot they are happy.

 

[ZoWhat]

Is that ketchup hanging from the polyp?

No... bad photo-op

It's actual a piece of black thread I used to tie down a mushroom.

I noticed this thread only after my ability to edit the photo within the first 60mins...

 

[Dolphins18]

No... bad photo-op

It's actual a piece of black thread I used to tie down a mushroom.

I noticed this thread only after my ability to edit the photo within the first 60mins...

I was just messing around
I hope you get to the bottom of what is causing issues!

 

[ZoWhat]

I have similar issue occasionally. Zoa's and cloves are closed, but larger Palys are doing fine.

At first I thought it was because of my low nutrients(phosphate and nitrate at 0). I tried raising those by feeding more/turning off skimmer but didn't seem to work.

Now I found it more to be flow/lighting related. some smaller polyp zoas prefer very low light and flow. I had a piece of yellow zoa frag fall into a large hole on a rock, so it was getting very little light and flow, but it opened up fully. While the mother colony of the same zoa in the same 32 gallon tank at a spot with higher light/flow was all closed up.

I think different zoa varieties prefer different light/flow conditions, move zoas around until you find a spot they are happy.

Great write up. But my lights are not overpowering. I've tested my PAR with a $500 Apogee meter on loan from a LFS twice.

All values are heavy 420-470nm blue at nothing more than 120PAR up top, 80 mid tank, 50 bottom


.

 

[ZoWhat]

I can’t wait to see the ICP results. Definitely following and please post the results here. I’ve been waiting for WEEKS for this! I can’t believe I’m so hooked up on this.

I should invite Ryan and BRStv Investigates to come out to my house and do a whole dam series.

With the series finale being the ICP reveal

 

[zuri]

I assume you have probably considered these but here goes anyway, just in case!

Are there any "digitate" hydroids near the closed zoanthids? In my experience they tend to be very short during the day but will extend to multiple inches at night. They can be kind of hard to find but I've been able to find a few lurking in nearly every tank I've seen including very nice display tanks. They don't seem to bother stuff most of the time but I've had zoanthids scourged by them close.

I have a couple spots in my tank that will cause usually a single polyp to close and remain closed until moved, I believe it is due to lighting hotspots.

Have you tried dipping the effected colonies in a dilute lugol's solution or other coral dip?

the zoas look like they have small white spots maybe stings. looking around the largest poly looks like it has some type of hydroid. the polyps are not connected ither unless it's to separate strains something is likely stinging it. also some coral do not like micro bubbles an will ither slime or close up

 

[ZoWhat]

Did my Saturday testing;

No3 8.8
Po4 0.4
Mag 1400
Alk 8.5

Still waiting on my Triton ICP test to be shipped to me