Zoas Dying. Help!

[iMi]

I need some help here.

I am puzzled by what's happening. I have already lost an entire colony of zoas. They went from growing and expanding to melting away within a week. Just poof, gone. Same thing has happened to another colony that was fairly large. Half of it just melted away. Now another one is starting to look like it might be headed in the same direction.

Everything else is doing well. Water parameters are all normal.

I've noticed some will kind of swell up and extend outward, as you can see below, before they start closing up and dying back. Too much light?

This is a colony that just melted away within a week or two... It covered the entire area seen here up to the ridge in the rock and to the edge of the rock all the way to the right where it neighbored that small frag

Here the orange one was full and extended all the way down a few inches past the plug you can see now (which was covered with dense colony). Not it's less than half the size but somewhat more open today...

Others are doing very well (too well, if you ask me. Taking over)

I know sometimes a colony just "fails" but it's happening suddenly and to more than one colony at the time. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm at a loss...

 

[Reefer Matt]

What are you running your nitrates at?

 

[iMi]

What are you running your nitrates at?

Low. At last check, it was at 0.25 and testing it now again it looks to be undetectable. I'm using RedSea Nitrate Pro kit.

 

[Reefer Matt]

Low. At last check, it was at 0.25 and testing it now again it looks to be undetectable. I'm using RedSea Nitrate Pro kit.

That could be the problem. In my experience, zoas like elevated nitrate levels. I run my zoa tanks around 20-30 nitrate.

 

[iMi]

That could be the problem. In my experience, zoas like elevated nitrate levels. I run my zoa tanks around 20-30 nitrate.

That's the problem with a mixed reef, I guess. I'll try raising the nitrate a little bit and see what happens. Thanks for the help.

 

[Reefer Matt]

That's the problem with a mixed reef, I guess. I'll try raising the nitrate a little bit and see what happens. Thanks for the help.

Yes, hard to keep everyone happy at the same time. I keep separate tanks for each type of coral to help alleviate parameter issues. I'm sure someone with mixed tanks can help with a solution that will work for your situation though. Good luck!

 

[AFHokie]

I’ve been experiencing the same with some of my zoas lately as well as some other coral. Found my nitrates had dropped to zero and phosphates were still up around .1.

I’ve since dosed nitrates to get them closer to 10 where they have been for most of the tank life. Too soon to tell if it will fix anything but my Hollywood stunner (invincible right?) that started losing tissue is looking way better and getting some of it’s color back.