Thin algae film growing over zoas

[matteo.gravano]

I’ve had some Zoanthids in my tank for a couple of months. Tank has had its fair share of ups and downs but it’s been going pretty steady for a few months. I have a few hammers that are doing pretty well as well as my Yuma discosoma gsp anemones and bubble coral all happy. However I constantly have to go in and dust off the zoas because they get a film of algae all over them keeping them closed up mostly.

My thoughts are to add flow in the tank with the addition of possibly a Nero 3 for random wave patterns in addition to my sicce nano wave maker and my return pump in my 32g biocube. However I’m worried that adding more flow will tick of my lps mainly the bubble and hammers.

I can dip one of the Zoa frags but the other colony is on a big rock and would prefer not to rearrange my tank at the moment.
Alk 8.3
Calc 450
Magnesium 1380-1400
Po4 .1-.15 (hard to see exact with salifert)
Salinity 1.026
Temp 77
View attachment 3951482

 

[matteo.gravano]

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

All corals need to shed their outer mucus layer, they need enough flow to do this, or else algae will grow on the coral. How's the lighting in that spot, does it get enough?

 

[matteo.gravano]

All corals need to shed their outer mucus layer, they need enough flow to do this, or else algae will grow on the coral. How's the lighting in that spot, does it get enough?

I have a single ai prime 16hd directly over them running at about 80% they are at the bottom of the rock work but the other coral at similar height are doing just fine. My one hammer for example is getting less light and has split into 6 heads. My thought is that being a cube tank I don’t want to disrupt my euphylia which is much more important to me than the zoas by messing with the flow too much if I even turn my wavemaker a different angle my hammers start to blow. But I would like to keep everything happy obviously.

 

[ColorMeGone]

How are your nitrates? My Zoes like 10 - 20 nitrates and .03 - .05 phosphates.
I blow them off every morning to make sure there is no junk on them. Light is AI Prime 16 HD set at 40% full spectrum. Some flow but not too much.

 

[matteo.gravano]

Video of the tank and flow. My two main hammers were moved up to the rack not to long ago maybe like 2 months ago because there is easier flow up there but the Zoas are right where the return blows off the glass.

 

[tylerjohnsoncc]

any update? My zoas seem to be having the exact same problem, they're stretched AND closed. Tank parameters are great for me too. Please let me know if you found the issue...i'm puzzled!