Zoas hate my tank?

[purpfish]

All of my zoas either stay the same size forever or slowly wither away, I do icp testing and other sps and lps are happy , but my zoas just stay stagnant. Except for these pink diamond zoas that are taking over, but I lost probably a 10 polyp frag for no apparent reason. Anyone had this issue and figured out the cause?

 

[Goaway]

Usually food, lighting, flow. Not all coral are equal in demands. Some hate high lights. Some love higher lights. Most hate pristine waters.

 

[EricR]

I've seen several threads about people having problems with ONLY zoas.

Here's a LONG one if you're bored:
Mystery Zoa Melt

For me -- about 5 different kinds grew like crazy for the first year,,, then all went into shutdown mode for the next year or so,,, now (at 3.5 years), ONE patch has grown back pretty big but all others are GONE.
*tried a bunch of stuff and gave up with no answer

 

[bubbgee]

Yeah, this is one of the first corals I was failing at. And I am still unable to grow GSPs!

With SPS, the tank may be too clean? I put my PO4 around .10 to .20 and Nitrates around 10 dosing while dosing ammonia instead.

 

[skiergd011013]

I had the same issue. All corals looked good but zoas. I thought it was low nutrients, so i upped feeding. It didnt change. I started testing Alk, and it was low. I started dosing and brought alk up into the 8's, saw an immediate improvement

 

[Tahoe61]

Have you checked for pest such as Nudibrach, Asterina, Sea Spiders or large Amphipods?

 

[bubbgee]

I've seen several threads about people having problems with ONLY zoas.

Here's a LONG one if you're bored:
Mystery Zoa Melt

For me -- about 5 different kinds grew like crazy for the first year,,, then all went into shutdown mode for the next year or so,,, now (at 3.5 years), ONE patch has grown back pretty big but all others are GONE.
*tried a bunch of stuff and gave up with no answer

I read anecdotally that Strats and GMKs will grow and crowd then all of the sudden will collapse and melt away at aa certain point. The post suggested to break up certain zoa colonies into smaller groups.

I am able to finally grow GMK into rock but now I worry that my zoa garden will flourish for a few years then melt away.

 

[purpfish]

Have you checked for pest such as Nudibrach, Asterina, Sea Spiders or large Amphipods?

Haven’t really seen a whole lot of creatures, my tank is dry rock so not many hitchhikers but I guess it could be smth like that

 

[Tahoe61]

Look at night, really late with a flash light.
I have gotten Sea Spiders, Nudibrach, Sun Dial on Zoanthid frags. I started with dry rock as well.
If N/P are wnl and not bottomed out you shouldn't have issues as long as you're using adequate lighting. I blast my Zoanthids with light, they're right next to clams and sps.