Why are my zoas so unhappy?

fishguy242

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i am seeing some algae, may be getting false readings on phos,being bound in algae.
not to jump on rt this minute, let the carbon run for 48 hrs, add a phos remover,i believe its higher.
alk closer to 8 at least ,
calcium level?
and none of this should really be affecting zoas like this... ;Blackeye
 

Dre619

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My zoas are doing the same thing right now! Some of the colony is open and most of it stays closed throughout the day. I have a feeling my phosphates are a little high but still thinking it could be some pests.
 
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Just John

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i am seeing some algae, may be getting false readings on phos,being bound in algae.
not to jump on rt this minute, let the carbon run for 48 hrs, add a phos remover,i believe its higher.
alk closer to 8 at least ,
calcium level?
and none of this should really be affecting zoas like this... ;Blackeye
Back home from dinner and about to burst. The algae is why I had the Reef Flux in. I can get it off of everywhere, but a bit always stays in the zoas waiting for a good time to start spreading. If you look at the overall tank you won't see any on the rocks. Outside of the bits in the zoas, there is hardly any in the tank. I don't have any fish, so I have to dose to keep nitrates and phosphates from bottoming out. I only have softies, so don't test for calcium.
 

fishguy242

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you should test cal,could be too high ??
16 gallon tank correct?
 

fishguy242

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any additives,water changes, can build and climb.
example cal 550 alk 7 ,cal is not being used properly ,if that make any sense to you.
high cal could be causing cal burn...?
 
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Just John

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any additives,water changes, can build and climb.
example cal 550 alk 7 ,cal is not being used properly ,if that make any sense to you.
high cal could be causing cal burn...?
I didn't know that could be an issue. I don't have a cal. test kit right now. Maybe I'll get lucky and things will improve tomorrow. Or at least not get any worse.
 

fishguy242

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yep,keep us posted... ;) have a great night...:)
 
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Just John

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I think it may be due a minor dino problem with dusty small cell dinos, the least toxic dino. It does not seem like enough to bother anything at this point, but I just noticed a bit of brown dust on a few, so that may be related. Still, I will be surprised if that is it. But, it is going away now. I'll keep my fingers crossed!
 

vetteguy53081

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Get them off the sand and at least 2-3 from bottom. Phos is a little high, you want < .04
Take a turkey baster and GENTLY blow spurts at them as there may be dust like substance (mulm) on them. They require IODIDE which they convert to iodine weekly and under moderate light and water flow. They seem to do best in the lower half to third of the tank in an area of low-medium to medium-high flow. Too much flow may make it hard for the polyps to open. You will know your zoanthids are ‘happy’ if they open up and are fully extended without seeming to stretch so far upright.. The majority of zoanthids have symbiotic photosynthetic zooxanthellae (I dare you to try and say that three times quickly) and are therefore best kept with at least moderate aquarium lighting as mentioned for production of zooxanthele.
Zoanthids require the standard water parameters that are good for keeping just about any of your corals healthy. You’re aiming for water temperature about 78 F, salinity somewhere around 1.025 specific gravity) and normal hardness 8-11 dKH) and a pH around 8.1-8.3.
However, if your polyps were previously open and have recently closed up, this should be taken as a serious sign of a water parameters issue. The first things I would check are ph and salinity. In my experience, zoas will close up if there are swings in salinity.
One disease that seems to disproportionately impacts these corals as mentioned is something called zoa pox or zoanthid pox. Zoa pox is the name given to the zoanthid disease characterized by tiny growths on the side of the affected zoas. I’m not sure whether the growths/pustules themselves irritate the polyps and cause them to close up, or if the coral is otherwise sickly and closed up (therefore showing the zoa pox), but the bottom line is that if you see zoa pox, you have a sick coral.
Lastly, check for Super tiny spiders or nudibranchs which will take them down in No time. If you see these pests, start looking for eggs which are future pests to cause further problems. Hope this Helps !!!
 

vetteguy53081

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I think it may be due a minor dino problem with dusty small cell dinos, the least toxic dino. It does not seem like enough to bother anything at this point, but I just noticed a bit of brown dust on a few, so that may be related. Still, I will be surprised if that is it. But, it is going away now. I'll keep my fingers crossed!
If you suspect dino, turn off whites and increase blue a little and add 1.5ml of liquid bacteria per 10 gallons during the day and 1.5ml of peroxide per 10 gals at night
 
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Just John

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I wish I could say that a few things were really out-of-wack, but I already have everything taken care of as you suggested except for the phosphate and nitrate, because I have seen quite a lot of advice to raise them while dosing with something like Mibrobacter 7. It seems counterintuitive, since the bacteria bring them back down. I guess the idea is to keep the phos and nitrates up to make the bacteria reproduce quickly. It's so hard to tell what will work in the end. That method worked for me a few months ago when I started to get ostreopsis dinos. The zoas are up on rocks. No zoa pox and I dipped 3 frags to see if I could see spiders or nudibranchs and there was nothing. Also looked at night with a zoom lens and didn't see anything. I put on a green killing machine UV filter after I used a microscope to confirm that they are small cell Amphidinium. (UV is not run for a couple hours after bacteria is added) Actually, there is one other thing I have not been doing - I am not dosing iodide because I was not sure if it would make the dinos grow. It sounds like it won't and I have some, so I will put it in. Hopefully that will help to turn things around. I think the dinos may be dusting some of the zoas because they provide a nice surface to colonize when they are closed. Fortunately the dinos are starting to go away.
A little depressing - the zoas used to be so happy!
(from a few months ago when some of them could still be huddled together)
1638139221127.png
 
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I've also had a lot of issues with zoas in my mixed reef. I have SPS, LPS and zoas, everything was thriving and only zoas not opening up. After months of trying different things(changing single variable at a time) I was able to figure my issues:

1. Salinity was low. My refractometer was not calibrated correctly and was reading about 0.04 too low. so when I measure 1.026 it was actually closer to 1.022. Also it seems easy for refractometer to lose calibration. I have since purchased this to replace my refractometer as it is accurate and never needs to be calibrated: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/high-precision-hydrometer-tropic-marin.html

Zoas seem to be very sensitive to salinity than other corals. After I fixed the salinity zoas started opening up following day. No other corals were affected by salinity change


2. There was some kind of worm on one of my zoa colonies. I never noticed it since the worm's shell just looks like a piece of rock. However I realized it was some kind of pest when I noticed the rock growing in size over time, and there was a hole/opening through which the worm would give off some mucus web that causes all surrounding zoas to not open. I cut off the growth with coral cutters and now the surrounding zoas open.
 
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I wish I could say that a few things were really out-of-wack, but I already have everything taken care of as you suggested except for the phosphate and nitrate, because I have seen quite a lot of advice to raise them while dosing with something like Mibrobacter 7. It seems counterintuitive, since the bacteria bring them back down. I guess the idea is to keep the phos and nitrates up to make the bacteria reproduce quickly. It's so hard to tell what will work in the end. That method worked for me a few months ago when I started to get ostreopsis dinos. The zoas are up on rocks. No zoa pox and I dipped 3 frags to see if I could see spiders or nudibranchs and there was nothing. Also looked at night with a zoom lens and didn't see anything. I put on a green killing machine UV filter after I used a microscope to confirm that they are small cell Amphidinium. (UV is not run for a couple hours after bacteria is added) Actually, there is one other thing I have not been doing - I am not dosing iodide because I was not sure if it would make the dinos grow. It sounds like it won't and I have some, so I will put it in. Hopefully that will help to turn things around. I think the dinos may be dusting some of the zoas because they provide a nice surface to colonize when they are closed. Fortunately the dinos are starting to go away.
A little depressing - the zoas used to be so happy!
(from a few months ago when some of them could still be huddled together)
1638139221127.png
Have they improved? In mid November about all of my zoas started melting (in a zoa only tank) and now they just look better. It's not all of them that have improved, but most. A Christmas miracle?
 
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Just John

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Sorry, I should have updated this sooner. The last month has not been great, but things are looking up. I guess the incredibly high phosphate is what was causing the problems. The three colonies in the center of the picture above (blue with green center, pink with green center, and the cream colored ones in the bottom center of the picture) are all gone. Oddly, a few others have grown really fast while others are the same as always. I think the corals that were going to die are all gone by now.

I think I had taken the original .20 phos reading mentioned originally after I did a water change. I didn't realize that phosphate will be stored in the rock if it has been sitting in the high phosphate water for an extended time. As a result the next day I discovered it was up to .42. Wow. Getting it to stay lower has been a slow process with it now down to .10. I have had a giant bryopsis and gha forest removed with rip cleans twice, but it's not 100% gone. Somehow, a light dino infection has hung on. I am hopeful that the new year will bring me back to pre-disaster conditions. I can't believe all of this happened because of a bad phosphate test kit.
 
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Just John

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Get them off the sand and at least 2-3 from bottom. Phos is a little high, you want < .04
Take a turkey baster and GENTLY blow spurts at them as there may be dust like substance (mulm) on them. They require IODIDE which they convert to iodine weekly and under moderate light and water flow. They seem to do best in the lower half to third of the tank in an area of low-medium to medium-high flow. Too much flow may make it hard for the polyps to open. You will know your zoanthids are ‘happy’ if they open up and are fully extended without seeming to stretch so far upright.. The majority of zoanthids have symbiotic photosynthetic zooxanthellae (I dare you to try and say that three times quickly) and are therefore best kept with at least moderate aquarium lighting as mentioned for production of zooxanthele.
Zoanthids require the standard water parameters that are good for keeping just about any of your corals healthy. You’re aiming for water temperature about 78 F, salinity somewhere around 1.025 specific gravity) and normal hardness 8-11 dKH) and a pH around 8.1-8.3.
However, if your polyps were previously open and have recently closed up, this should be taken as a serious sign of a water parameters issue. The first things I would check are ph and salinity. In my experience, zoas will close up if there are swings in salinity.
One disease that seems to disproportionately impacts these corals as mentioned is something called zoa pox or zoanthid pox. Zoa pox is the name given to the zoanthid disease characterized by tiny growths on the side of the affected zoas. I’m not sure whether the growths/pustules themselves irritate the polyps and cause them to close up, or if the coral is otherwise sickly and closed up (therefore showing the zoa pox), but the bottom line is that if you see zoa pox, you have a sick coral.
Lastly, check for Super tiny spiders or nudibranchs which will take them down in No time. If you see these pests, start looking for eggs which are future pests to cause further problems. Hope this Helps !!!
I just noticed that I never gave you a thumbs up to let you know that I had read this. Thanks for the help as always!
 
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