Sunny D's Melted in ~48 hours?!

[muzikalmatt]

So my Sunny D zoas seem to have melted in approximately 48 hours. I'm not sure I can save them, but I'd like to try and figure out what happened so I can learn from it, and hopefully prevent any other zoas in the tank from being affected.

I tested the tank last night and here are the parameters:

Temp: 76.6
Salinity: 1.025 (a little low normally I keep the tank at 1.026)
Alk: 8.0
Nitrate: 11.2
Phosphate: 0.09

Calcium was 435 on 11/21 and Mag was 1500 on 10/31. pH typically holds rock steady at 8.15.

I suspect it is something bacterial, but I can't be sure as I have never encountered zoa's melting this quickly.

The reason I suspect this is I have a large frag of Eagle Eye zoas that have been staying mostly closed since I got them. I tried dipping them in revive a few times putting them in different locations and nothing seems to help. I moved them onto the frag rack next to the Sunny D's and literally the next day the Sunny D started melting.

Below are some photos so you can see what's happening.

Here are the Sunny D's several weeks ago looking healthy. (Back of frag rack by the hammer)

Here they are last night when they first started looking rough. (Eagle eye suspects behind them)

And here they are tonight after I got home from work. (Obviously whatever it is has spread to the other polyps, and they look like goners to me.)

First off, I'm looking to figure out what it is. Is the cyano on the frag plug bothering it? I'm pretty sure that it's been there for a while without issue. Is it something else bacterial related? I don't believe it's pest related. Any ideas on the problem?

Second, I'm looking for ideas on what to do next? I'm normally not over-reactive with the tank but this seems like a case where I should intervene and do something.

Should I pull them from the tank and try dipping maybe in peroxide?

Are they goners and should I just pull them to prevent whatever it is from spreading in the tank?

Should I just leave them alone?

Any thoughts or input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[muzikalmatt]

Here's a quick full shot of the tank so you can see everything else looking happy.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Bump. Anyone have any ideas on what I might be dealing with or how to proceed? Thanks!

 

[PeterC99]

Has anything changed in the last few weeks - parameters, maintenance, lighting/flow, filtration, etc.?

When was the last time you did a water change?

Have you switched from open windows to closed windows for change in season?

 

[muzikalmatt]

There have been a few changes to the tank within the past month or so including the following:

• I added Reefbrite XHO's to the tank with my Kessil A360WE. I've been slowly ramping up the intensity/duration of the XHO's over the past month. I haven't seen any issues with other corals, but I did dial them back to probably 60% intensity last week just to be on the safe side.
• I added a polyfilter to one of the filter chambers in the back as my latest ICP test showed some copper and high zinc in the tank.
• I also added some Marine Pure Bioballs to the same filter chamber to get them seeded with bacteria as I'm planning to add them to another tank I'm currently cycling.

As far as water changes, I do ~15% water changes every Sunday and did one this past Sunday 11/28. I did have the window open near the tank one night recently (maybe a week ago) to get some fresh air in the house as it was unseasonably warm.

Other than that the tank has been in great condition recently. I've been much more consistent with my maintenance and husbandry and the parameters have been extremely stable as a result. The Sunny D's themselves were actually looking better than they ever had and were starting to grow new polyps after being stagnant for some time.

 

[Just John]

I don't know what is wrong, but I would remove them from the tank right away in case it is something that can spread to the other zoas. You could put them in a bucket with an aerator or if it is cold in the house use a Tupperware that can be suspended in the tank.

 

[muzikalmatt]

So just a quick update. The mat for the zoas is still there and there are signs of the actual polyps as well, so I'm going to keep them in the tank and give them a chance to try and recover. I did move them off of the frag rack to a lower light spot on the sandbed. Thusfar, none of the other zoas seem affected. I will update in the future if they recover. Thanks for the thoughts everyone!

 

[RobbieMaynard]

How are they making out? Having a similar issue with one polo out of the blue.

 

[DanTheReefer]

Take a look an hour + after lights out and see if there’s any creepy crawlies on them. My guess is the lighting change is causing short term stress. They may be expelling expelling some zooxanthellae algae if the intensity increased. Mine seem to like low light, they didn’t do anything for a year in a 150 par area of the tank, but have been a lot better in a 75 par area. Sometimes hard to tell if it’s the flow or the par that makes them happier in a new place though.

 

[littlebigreef]

Almost certainly a bacterial issue. I've seen that time and again. First the polyp color shifts and then shrinks up a bit. Some times you'll see the connecting tissue between polyps go transparent. Best to triage and do a chemi-clean dip if you have that come up again. Glad to hear they're hanging on.

 

[muzikalmatt]

I figured I'd follow up on this thread as the Sunny D's survived! I moved them to the sandbed to give them a chance and slowly but surely they've come back to life.

The mat and stalks look really healthy and the polyps are slowly opening back up.

I'm still not sure what actually happened to them and nothing else in the tank has been affected. I guess this is another example of why we should give corals a chance to recover. You'd be surprised how far gone they can be and come back.

 

[RobbieMaynard]

Glad to hear!

 

[Fishy888]

What became of the eagle eye zoas? I am glad the sunny-d zoas are doing well.

 

[chipchipbro]

tbh. I have the same issue with my sunny D's - they somehow are "melting" and always closed..
my blue hornets and playboy bunny's plus the radioactive dragon eyes are fully opened.. i just dont understand that..

whatever.. all other corals are totally healthy SPS and LPS.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I figured I'd follow up on this thread as the Sunny D's survived! I moved them to the sandbed to give them a chance and slowly but surely they've come back to life.

The mat and stalks look really healthy and the polyps are slowly opening back up.

I'm still not sure what actually happened to them and nothing else in the tank has been affected. I guess this is another example of why we should give corals a chance to recover. You'd be surprised how far gone they can be and come back.

Zoa can literally grow back from tissue so small you can’t see it. I lost some purple monsters to the same issue (melting, just nowhere near this fast. it was due to a bacterial infection from a LFS frag) and just forgot about the frag. It looked like a solid white clean frag. About 6 months later a tiny purple monster head sprouted. Now I’ve regrown around 6 heads off that empty frag.

Also, for some reason Sunny D do this to me almost every time I get them. I have 31 other zoa varieties and none of them (aside from daisy cutters-hate those guys) have ever straight ho melted within like a day of getting them on me. I finally got two small heads to live I got from a local guy who takes real good care of his tank. They’ve grown 1 head in about two months lol.

bad pic but they’re bottom center here

 

[muzikalmatt]

What became of the eagle eye zoas? I am glad the sunny-d zoas are doing well.

Good question! The eagle eyes continue to struggle a bit, but they're slowly opening up more every day.

They're definitely not as bright or open as they were when I got them, but they're getting there.

The Sunny D's continue to improve tremendously though. They're almost back to their former glory!

 

[Saltwater226]

They look stretched out, are they getting enough light? I think light might be your issue.

 

[muzikalmatt]

They used to be on my frag rack in higher light (probably 150-175 PAR) but I moved them after they melted (still not sure why) and I've left them on the sandbed to let them recover. Now that they're back to what appears to be full health I'll likely move them back to a higher light position. The polyps are almost back to their full size before they "melted" on me.

 

[ZoWhat]

What you had there were some.....

Kentucky Fried Zoas

 

[muzikalmatt]

Final update! I believe the Sunny D's have returned to their full former glory. The polyps are back to their original size and colors, and quite a few new heads are sprouting.

I'm still not sure what caused the original issue though. I'm wondering if I accidentally dumped a pile of salt creep on them when cleaning it off the side glass. Regardless, I'm so glad they've recovered and again it reiterates that corals are quite resilient and if we give them a chance to recover, oftentimes they can!