What are they white work-like things on my Zoa

[BrettE]

I noticed one of the heads closed a little early tonight. I looked closer and saw these things all over it.

Any idea what they are?

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I noticed one of the heads closed a little early tonight. I looked closer and saw these things all over it.

Any idea what they are?

They look like hydroids growing on the algae that's covering the zoas, try giving it a dip and gently rubbing off the algae with a paper towel/toothbrush

 

[BrettE]

I know there are a lot of hydroid species, but I can't find anything that looks quite like these.

Here are some more photos I took today. I cleaned all the algae off last week with a cotton swab, but some has grown back of course. Whatever the little things are, they are super small. To the naked eye they just look like a white dot.

They have very distcint little protrusions at their tips. They each have a ball at the end, and there appear to be 4 or 5 on each of them.

I may try to pull some with tweezers and see if I can get them under a microscope for a better image.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I know there are a lot of hydroid species, but I can't find anything that looks quite like these.

Here are some more photos I took today. I cleaned all the algae off last week with a cotton swab, but some has grown back of course. Whatever the little things are, they are super small. To the naked eye they just look like a white dot.

They have very distcint little protrusions at their tips. They each have a ball at the end, and there appear to be 4 or 5 on each of them.

I may try to pull some with tweezers and see if I can get them under a microscope for a better image.

Definitely hydroids, only hydroids have ant sort of stinging arms like that. I don't know how to remove them from corals, though they don't seem to be causing any immediate irritation

 

[BrettE]

They don't, but they seem to be increasing in number on just these Zoas. I'm wondering if I should pull the Zoas out, put them in a QT tank, and treat for Fenbandazole?

I've also thought about a dip in Hydrogen Peroxide to see if that will have any effect. From what I've read, Zoas are pretty tolerant of it.

 

[BrettE]

I guess what has me worried is a few threads mentioning that they had to reboot their tanks because of hydroids while others say they're totally fine. Who can say what this will turn in to?

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Looks like you got a bad case of cyano?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I guess what has me worried is a few threads mentioning that they had to reboot their tanks because of hydroids while others say they're totally fine. Who can say what this will turn in to?

It depends on the species and the conditions of the tank, but yeah, them spreading isn't a good sign.

They don't, but they seem to be increasing in number on just these Zoas. I'm wondering if I should pull the Zoas out, put them in a QT tank, and treat for Fenbandazole?

I've also thought about a dip in Hydrogen Peroxide to see if that will have any effect. From what I've read, Zoas are pretty tolerant of it.

Proactive treatment like this would probably be wise under the circumstances.

I know there are a lot of hydroid species, but I can't find anything that looks quite like these.

I'm not sure the exact species, but I can tell you they're from the taxonomic family Sphaerocorynidae:

Yeah, looks like probably Sphaerocorynid (taxonomic family Sphaerocorynidae) hydroids of some kind - the ball tips are distinctive.

 

[BrettE]

Looks like you got a bad case of cyano?

Oh yes, there's that too. It all went away one day, then it all came back again like a week later when my Nitrates dropped again. My Nitrates had been somewhat unstable because I'd been somewhat inconsistent with dosing NeoNitro to keep it above 0.0. I have it on a doser now, so it's been steadily climbing back up from a low of 2.2ppm.

My tank is only about 6-7 months old now, so I think some of this is just uglies sorting themselves out? I have a lot of what I think is green hair algae. And prorocentrum dinoflagellates too. It's delightful.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Oh yes, there's that too. It all went away one day, then it all came back again like a week later when my Nitrates dropped again. My Nitrates had been somewhat unstable because I'd been somewhat inconsistent with dosing NeoNitro to keep it above 0.0. I have it on a doser now, so it's been steadily climbing back up from a low of 2.2ppm.

My tank is only about 6-7 months old now, so I think some of this is just uglies sorting themselves out? I have a lot of what I think is green hair algae. And prorocentrum dinoflagellates too. It's delightful.

Ooh I have those Dino’s!

Nitrates and phosphates went to 0 . My tanks is 4.5 years old. Though I think cyano is a different imbalance from Dino’s….

Yeah so cyano is from high nitrates where what I’ve read the p. Dinos is from the bottoming out of nitrates and phosphates

Don’t quote me on this - I may be misremembering

 

[BrettE]

From what I've read, cyano can be caused by Nitrates that are either too low or too high. From what I understand, you need enough nitrates for something-or-other to out-compete the cyano.

If it doesn't go away soon, I may try erythromycin for the cyano, and some time later fluconazole for the hair algae that I have everywhere too. I'd prefer not to use chemical warfare, but it's been going on for some time, and it's not getting better.

Probably unrelated: 2 of my 4 heads of Dragon Soul torch bailed out today. They've looked unhappy since I moved them to a spot with more flow. I should've move them back sooner, or turned down the flow. And suddenly my Alk dropped one whole dHK. Everything is dying, and I'm really thinking about just giving up on coral and just having fish. Now I'm just venting, but this is super frustrating.

 

[BrettE]

I found some threads that claim Hyrogen Peroxide works for hyroids, and some that say it does nothing. I figured it will at least help with the algae on the Zoas if nothing else, so I dipped it in 3% + tank water. I dipped for 5 minutes and mixed approximately 300ml per 1L of tank water.

Here's them after their dip. This is a focus stack that I threw together, so it's a littel rought.

They look a bit sad.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

I found some threads that claim Hyrogen Peroxide works for hyroids, and some that say it does nothing. I figured it will at least help with the algae on the Zoas if nothing else, so I dipped it in 3% + tank water. I dipped for 5 minutes and mixed approximately 300ml per 1L of tank water.

Here's them after their dip. This is a focus stack that I threw together, so it's a littel rought.

They look a bit sad.

When I dip zoas in H2O2 I do 5 minutes full strength. I have never had issues. They may stay mad for a day but then its back to business as usual.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

From what I've read, cyano can be caused by Nitrates that are either too low or too high. From what I understand, you need enough nitrates for something-or-other to out-compete the cyano.

If it doesn't go away soon, I may try erythromycin for the cyano, and some time later fluconazole for the hair algae that I have everywhere too. I'd prefer not to use chemical warfare, but it's been going on for some time, and it's not getting better.

Probably unrelated: 2 of my 4 heads of Dragon Soul torch bailed out today. They've looked unhappy since I moved them to a spot with more flow. I should've move them back sooner, or turned down the flow. And suddenly my Alk dropped one whole dHK. Everything is dying, and I'm really thinking about just giving up on coral and just having fish. Now I'm just venting, but this is super frustrating.

it really boils down to an imbalance between nitrates and phosphates I believe.