Zoa’s looking weak

[TheBeta100]

I’m still very new to the hobby and finally decided to dive In with some coral after a lot of research. I got five corals in total, two candy canes, branching frogspawn, hammer and a nice small colony of small Zoa’s. They seemed happy and healthy up until honestly today. Within the last 24-48 hours the Zoa’s shrunk and I’m pretty sure lost a few heads. I don’t have a very strong light so I didn’t think I had them too high but it was always a possibility. (Current USA Orbit Marine), I lowered them today to see if they will grow a bit more but I figured I better get a second opinion on this one.

Also I should note I got the corals about two weeks ago and haven’t moved them much since then.

A few days ago before they fully opened in the morning

Today

I’m pretty sure the algae is more a function of too much light than params, as all of the nitrogen cycle params and phosphates are low. I’ll have to check my other parameters tonight to see where they are though.

Thanks in advanced, your ideas are appreciated!

 

[GThompson]

I don’t see any dead polyps. If anything touches them they will draw up. My shrimp cause mine to close. Lighting actually looks okay judging from pictures. Maybe give them a little more blue if you can.

 

[bacc2bacc]

Zoas in my expierence are very finicky. Sometimes they close up for a few days and open back up like nothing happened, sometimes they close and never open back up and just melt away, I find they like more more flow instead of low flow, I would acclimate them to a more moderate flow and try placing the coral down in lower par to see if that helps them open back up. Keep a close eye on it, maybe there’s a pest bothering it?

 

[blasterman]

Judging by the white rock with light algae patches that's a really young tank still going through post cycle biology changes.

It's not the light - it's the biology going on. I've never had a zoa/paly tank that didn't have these problems until it was at least 4-5 months old.

 

[A. grandis]

Your tank is way too young to add anything there. We can tell by the clean rocks.
Wait about 4 to 6 months to have it established in order to spend your money.