Zoas closed? Need Advice please :(

toygrr

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Hey Y'all, my white zombies have been closed for a couple days now and I'm a little worried. This colony came as 5 polyps, I fragged two off them off as singles to grow and trade with my LFS. They were fragged about a two weeks ago, and received a seachem iodine dip at that time. Yesterday I decided to remove the closed (3) polyps from the rock, give them another dip and very gentle brush, and added them to my rack where my other frags are happy (ignore the sad rehab candy cane). I frag 1-2 polyps from every zoa frag I buy.

A photo of my reef chemistry is below. In the second photo you can see the other two fragged polyps, which are usually very full and open. I have a BTA, 3 torch varieties, frogspawn, hammer, GSP, pulsing xenia, micromussa, australophyllia, 8 varieties of zoas, and one sad little candy cane. Everything else in the tank opens fully, looks happy and this is the only colony affected.

The chemistry in the screenshot has remained consistent for months (I need to cool it on the reef-roids), and I just did a 15% water change yesterday (and routinely every week).

edit: and before anyone asks, I have no idea what that single tiny polyp is lol, I saw it floating around and glued it to a plug, it appears to be a tiny zoa that got knocked off of a colony.
PXL_20260217_004514571.RAW-01.jpg


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Tahoe61

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Alkalinity and Calcium levels are elevated. I would let those values drift down. Check or calibrate the instrument you use to measure SG.
 
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toygrr

toygrr

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Alkalinity and Calcium levels are elevated. I would let those values drift down. Check or calibrate the instrument you use to measure SG.
Ok I'll start with calibrating my tester, I use the Hanna digital tester and last I tested at 1.025.

Should I do another water change to bring it down, maybe a large one? Or just let my LPS consume the calcium/dKH over time?
 

Tahoe61

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Ok I'll start with calibrating my tester, I use the Hanna digital tester and last I tested at 1.025.

Should I do another water change to bring it down, maybe a large one? Or just let my LPS consume the calcium over time?
Why is alk and calcium so high?
Zoanthids can stay closed along time but your tank appears newer so I imagine the consumption rate is low.
If the saltmix has a higher alk value than I wouldn't bother. If you're using IO purple with a lower alk value than yes do a water change.
 
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toygrr

toygrr

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Why is alk and calcium so high?
Zoanthids can stay closed along time but your tank appears newer so I imagine the consumption rate is low.
If the saltmix has a higher alk value than I wouldn't bother. If you're using IO purple with a lower alk value than yes do a water change.
Yeah I understand now not to chase numbers, but early on I was trying to keep calc close to 450-500, I believe I overdosed it last time I tried to get it up. The alk came up with it, and from now on I'm just relying on water changes to maintain mag/calc. I'm using redsea coral pro salt. Rookie moves :/
 
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toygrr

toygrr

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Update:

I screwed up my earlier tests I guess: Calc 480, Mag 1390, dkH 11, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates .2, Phos .08, PH 8, SG 1.025 as tested at my LFS.

All 5 polyps are closed and have been for over a week. A couple days ago I gave them another dip using Seachem Reefdip and gently brushed off any debris/tissue. I moved them to a low light part of the tank, about 50PAR. Temp/parameters/salinity hasn't changed and all my other corals/nems are happy...

Maybe I just screwed up while cutting them? I'm just surprised they opened right up after fragging, and closed up a week later.

I really love these zoas :(

PXL_20260224_225957533.RAW-01.jpg
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