Zoas are closed up..

immafishguy

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How it going everybody, got some issues with my zoas. :( Some of my zoas are closed up and I can not figure out why. I'm familiar with spiders and nudis, and I see no signs of pox either. The tank is relatively new(3 months), could that be it? Also, FYI I have tons of of SPS and all of which are super happy.
Here are my levels if it helps:
SG: 1.025
ALK: 8.3
CA: 430
MAG: 1200- I am aware that its low. I'm using a special two part that has the Mag in with the calcium supplement.(BTW i've also tried to raise it independently (did multiple 200ml manual doses with bright well and still could not get it up[its a 100gal system].CA and ALK are very stable though. everythings on a dosing pump.)
NO3: 0.0ppm
PO4: 0.04
any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Reefhabit

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From my experience zoas do much better with some nitrates. I don't think they like it too clean. I've lost quite a few high end zoas and palys just from doing too many or too much of a water change.
 
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immafishguy

immafishguy

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From my experience zoas do much better with some nitrates. I don't think they like it too clean. I've lost quite a few high end zoas and palys just from doing too many or too much of a water change.
Initially I thought the same thing, but I moved them to my other tank(that has high nitrates 10ppm) and they actually melted away... which Is weird because I grow zoas like crazy in that tank...
 

ReefTalk

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Yes get those Nitrates to 10ppm , and make sure you p.h and k.h are ideal. I had the same problem and I had to buffer the p.h and k.h to make them start opening
 

Diesel

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Look for Zoa-pox or any pest.
Dip in bayer to check them, not saying you have pest but you want to rule out any of that by checking.
 
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immafishguy

immafishguy

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Is low alk what makes them close up? Also, I'm trying not to raise my nitrates that much because I run a lot of sps and sensitive acanthurus which hate nitrates for some reason..
 

ReefTalk

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That was the case with mine 1/2 closed for 6 months, until I tested my k.h ,and p.h , which was at 6 and 7.9, as soon as I got 8 and 8.1 they looked way better.
 

Diesel

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Never heard such a thing of low alk or low No3.
It must be super low or super high on the alk or just a alk spike that would be from say 8 to 12 in les than 12hrs or vice versa.
I had zoa's in alk below 6 doing great and as high as 11 and still doing great.
Low No3 is out the question for you as I see algae in your tank, your No3 is just undetectable because of the algae.
Have a closer look at picture one in post 3............ you can see small strings with air bubbles on there.
Now to drop the bomb and say they are dino's I cant but for sure you can look into that.
Zoa's HATE dino's and that's why they are bothered and close up.
In some of the pic I see some white dots on the closed zoa's that can be a indication of POX.
Have some close-up pics made on both accounts for dino's and the pox and we can see more.
Let get some more experienced eyes on this topic......... #reefsquad
 
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immafishguy

immafishguy

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Never heard such a thing of low alk or low No3.
It must be super low or super high on the alk or just a alk spike that would be from say 8 to 12 in les than 12hrs or vice versa.
I had zoa's in alk below 6 doing great and as high as 11 and still doing great.
Low No3 is out the question for you as I see algae in your tank, your No3 is just undetectable because of the algae.
Have a closer look at picture one in post 3............ you can see small strings with air bubbles on there.
Now to drop the bomb and say they are dino's I cant but for sure you can look into that.
Zoa's HATE dino's and that's why they are bothered and close up.
In some of the pic I see some white dots on the closed zoa's that can be a indication of POX.
Have some close-up pics made on both accounts for dino's and the pox and we can see more.
Let get some more experienced eyes on this topic......... #reefsquad

In regards to the zero nitrates, I'm actually running bio pellets and purposely dosing phosphate to bring them down and keep them at zero which is why I have some algae growing. And in regards to the white spots, that's actually grains of sand. My tangs stir it up chasing each other around. But dinoflagellates, is a good point I'll dose some yeast and see if they open back up
 

Sabellafella

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How it going everybody, got some issues with my zoas. :( Some of my zoas are closed up and I can not figure out why. I'm familiar with spiders and nudis, and I see no signs of pox either. The tank is relatively new(3 months), could that be it? Also, FYI I have tons of of SPS and all of which are super happy.
Here are my levels if it helps:
SG: 1.025
ALK: 8.3
CA: 430
MAG: 1200- I am aware that its low. I'm using a special two part that has the Mag in with the calcium supplement.(BTW i've also tried to raise it independently (did multiple 200ml manual doses with bright well and still could not get it up[its a 100gal system].CA and ALK are very stable though. everythings on a dosing pump.)
NO3: 0.0ppm
PO4: 0.04
any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

IMG_1654.JPG
Hmm, have you tryed moving them into lower light or higher flow?
 

steve&mari

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I'd dip any you can and inspect extremely closely. I also thought it looked something growing on the left frags closed polyps sponge possibly? But definitely not helping em.
IMG_1660.JPG
 
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immafishguy

immafishguy

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I'd dip any you can and inspect extremely closely. I also thought it looked something growing on the left frags closed polyps sponge possibly? But definitely not helping em.
IMG_1660.JPG

Sorry, I probably should've mentioned that I dip everything in an iodine based dip. I also inspected everything very closely. Also that is glue in the picture. I literally only put polyps in and cover all the base rubble with glue to prevent any possible pests. I generally try to chop the rock with a ban saw so there is as little foreign rock as possible
 
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immafishguy

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Some are about a month old, and some are from late last week. The degradation is pretty equal for both recent and old frags
 

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This happened to me except none of mine would open.. I just kept buying more. My perimeters were almost perfect.. well at least I though.. I was calibrating my Red Sea refractormeterevery time and get 1.025.. when I thought I was at my wits end and about to throw the towel in.. I had someone come maintenance my tank and used a hydrometer and salinity was through the roof
 
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immafishguy

immafishguy

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This happened to me except none of mine would open.. I just kept buying more. My perimeters were almost perfect.. well at least I though.. I was calibrating my Red Sea refractormeterevery time and get 1.025.. when I thought I was at my wits end and about to throw the towel in.. I had someone come maintenance my tank and used a hydrometer and salinity was through the roof

Sadly, I doubt that's the case in my situation. I use a Milwaukee digital refractometer and calibrate it once a week...[emoji24]
 

Diesel

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This happened to me except none of mine would open.. I just kept buying more. My perimeters were almost perfect.. well at least I though.. I was calibrating my Red Sea refractormeterevery time and get 1.025.. when I thought I was at my wits end and about to throw the towel in.. I had someone come maintenance my tank and used a hydrometer and salinity was through the roof

The horror stories.
Glad you didn't threw the towel in as now you can express your experiences with others, how cool is that ;)
 
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immafishguy

immafishguy

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The horror stories.
Glad you didn't threw the towel in as now you can express your experience with other, how cool is that ;)

I totally Agree! Thanks for all the input guys, I really appreciate it!
 

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