Zoas dying Help!!!

Noah_88

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I have two nano tanks, both of which have the zoas looking terrible.
The first tank is a 14 gallon with an AI prime, eshoppes nano skimmer, and refugium. The temp is set at 82 and I do a 2.5 gallon water change every weekend. I’ve been noticing more and more of my zoas aren’t happy in the tank ever since I started college a few weeks ago and am only home on the weekends. I also have a torch, green sinularia, some shrooms, a goni, an unknown acro, blue sympodium, and violet cespitularia that are all doing well. The phosphates are high (.25ppm; faulty test kit) but I’ve already been working on bringing them down using phosguard. I’ve done dips on all the zoas that aren’t attached to the rock work and nothing has come off other than some copepods and such. Ammonia is at 0, nitrates are at 2ppm, alk is at 8dKH, salinity is 1.025, and nitrites are 0. I also added carbon today to see if there’s any toxins in the water

I’m having a very similar issue in my 10 gallon that also has a prime, a refugium, is at 82, gets 2.5 gallon water change every Sunday. Basically everything in the tank are zoas minus a Xenia. I’m using chemipure in the tank as well. Phosphates are between 0 and .25 (api test kit), Ammonia is at 0, nitrates are 2 ppm, alk is at 7dkh, salinity is 1.025 and nitrites are at 0.

Both tanks have been dealing with cyano and diatoms (phosphates and lack of flow in the 10) but I have been getting the cyano under control. The only thing I have done differently is that I haven’t been able to feed reef roids because I’ve been at school. Are the tanks just too clean or are there other issues y’all can think of?
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Noah_88

Noah_88

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I’ll bump the temp down a bit for sure but it’s been at this temp for months so shouldn’t have it affected them a while ago?
 

Tired

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Nitrates are low for zoanthids, and I wonder if your phosphates might be too low as well. Lower the water changes a bit. More phosphates won't do any harm- all high phosphate does is potentially cause algae, it won't directly hurt your corals.

The ones on the sandbed look like they need more light, stretching like that.

It's possible the heat has been bothering them for awhile, and their stress has now built to the point where it's causing them problems.
 

magicwhistle

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Yeah. Just basically repeating whatever else is saying.

Zoas like “dirty” water (high nitrates especially) and they stretch like that when they’re trying to get more light.

Can try lowering the light or raising the corals. Decrease water change frequency for now.

Any inverts or fish in there that could be bothering them?

Im not too sure the temp would be affecting them unless it’s swinging a lot. Every zoa I’ve had has been fine around 82F. It is high though. Should aim for around 78F or so.
 
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Noah_88

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Nitrates are low for zoanthids, and I wonder if your phosphates might be too low as well. Lower the water changes a bit. More phosphates won't do any harm- all high phosphate does is potentially cause algae, it won't directly hurt your corals.

The ones on the sandbed look like they need more light, stretching like that.

It's possible the heat has been bothering them for awhile, and their stress has now built to the point where it's causing them problems.
I just replaced the light on that tank so hopefully they’ll stop stretching soon and I’ll turn down the temps and do less frequent water changes. Might be able feed on tuesdays or something too to help
 
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Noah_88

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Yeah. Just basically repeating whatever else is saying.

Zoas like “dirty” water (high nitrates especially) and they stretch like that when they’re trying to get more light.

Can try lowering the light or raising the corals. Decrease water change frequency for now.

Any inverts or fish in there that could be bothering them?

Im not too sure the temp would be affecting them unless it’s swinging a lot. Every zoa I’ve had has been fine around 82F. It is high though. Should aim for around 78F or so.
I just put a new light on that tank so hopefully they will stop stretching and I’ll cut back on water changes. The fish in the 14 are a black bar chromis and a Trimma milta. The inverts are a brunns cleaner shrimp, a peppermint that I added today to help with some aiptasia, blue leg hermits, astrea snails, and trochus snails. The 10 gallon has a clownfish and a masked goby as well as blue leg hermits, trochus snails, astrea snails and maybe a bumblebee shrimp (see him every couple of weeks)
 

joseserrano

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Your tank is dirtier than you think. Look at all the algae and cyano. You need to bump up the light, you are probably running heavy blues and little to no whites
 
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Noah_88

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Your tank is dirtier than you think. Look at all the algae and cyano. You need to bump up the light, you are probably running heavy blues and little to no whites
High phosphates but very very low nitrates
 

Tired

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That's a recipe for algae. Pest algae loves those kinds of conditions. Add more cleanup crew and work on raising your nitrates, and do some manual algae removal. Non-pest algae does poorly in nutrient-low situations, but will do much better when your nitrates are up, and will start to compete with that pest algae and make it harder for it to continue being a pest.
 
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Noah_88

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That's a recipe for algae. Pest algae loves those kinds of conditions. Add more cleanup crew and work on raising your nitrates, and do some manual algae removal. Non-pest algae does poorly in nutrient-low situations, but will do much better when your nitrates are up, and will start to compete with that pest algae and make it harder for it to continue being a pest.
Okay I’ll definitely work on getting my nitrates up and increase my cleanup crew. More snails and hermits here I come
 

mermaid_life

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I'm not an expert, but it kind of looks like dinos and not cyano based on the stringiness. Dinos could be a reason zoas are not doing well.
 
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Noah_88

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I'm not an expert, but it kind of looks like dinos and not cyano based on the stringiness. Dinos could be a reason zoas are not doing well.
Ohh true, I completely forgot about dinos
 
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Noah_88

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I'm not an expert, but it kind of looks like dinos and not cyano based on the stringiness. Dinos could be a reason zoas are not doing well.
And I didn’t even connect it to my snails. Lately they’ve been falling off the sides a lot and acting odd. Completely forgot that dinos affect them. That’s probably what’s going on
 

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I was letting my zoa tank get to 85 on the hot days and they were all open. I did notice they werent growing tho so i added a fan. Since then the tank goes to 82 on hot days (set at 80.5) and they all started growing again. I dont know the prolonged effects of sustaining 82 butbi do know my zoas have been growing well at 82 on hot days. (Which has been the last almost 2 months straight haha)
 

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Dinos are frequently caused by low nutrients. If it is them, upping your nutrients will help with that as well. Get your nitrates up, and don't worry about phosphates.
 

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Your cyano is so bad because the frag plug you bought is literally caked in thick layers of Cyano on your Blastomussa colony. Your snails are acting weird because they don't want to eat the cyano which takes over everything. Happened on one of my nano tanks (10g) from an online purchase at TSA (same caked layers of dark red cyano) and it nuked it. I had to start over. Even though it was an established tank, being so small could not handle so much poison and it took over. Remember cyano is not algae. It's bacteria. As it takes over, corals will begin to die.
 
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