Zoas not opening (and GSP too)

[Chrisphotoreef]

I have a reef nano (Fluval Spec 60 litre) set up that is 4 months old. The occupants are 2 Oscellaris Clowns, 2 dwarf hermits, 1 cleaner shrimp and 4 astreus snails. I only have 2 corals so far - a colony of zoas and a small frag of GSP.

The Zoas and GSP were both fine for several weeks. The Zoa polyps would all open and were brightly coloured and the GSP had long wavy tentacles, but now the GSP is tightly closed and only a few zoas are opening. The tank has had a nasty hair algae problem, a brown algae on the rocks, and some blue green coloured algae within the sand. The filter has sintered glass biological media, carbon, and phos guard. There is good random flow from a Jebao power head.

Parameters with salare:
Salinity 1.026
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
Calcium 400
KH 7.8
pH 8.0

I have been dosing with Salifert all in one because pH, KH and calcium were all a bit lower than desired.

Any ideas what to do next? Thanks in advance.

 

[ShrimpBandit]

Not an expert, but my zoas are thriving in a tank about the same age. I'd try a peroxide dip just to get the GHA off and give them some breathing room. Did you dip them for pests when you put them in the tank?

At the bare minimum, blast them with a turkey baster and see what comes loose. Maybe a little targeted feeding for good measure? Good luck.

 

[SaltySam09]

I would remove the rock with the corals on it and use a soft tip makeup brush to try to brush the algae off the polyps. Also you might want to consider getting a turbo snail, I had an algae problem a little while back and they absolutely decimated every last bit of it.

 

[sp1187]

mine like nitrates and phosphates.

 

[Bfragale]

Once your tank is reading zero Ammonia and zero nitrite - you don’t need to keep testing. Once cycled there should never be any.

I believe you have some po4/no3- but your gha is consuming it. I believe these should
Never be at zero as corals need some in the water to grow.

I would start by dipping zoas in H2O2 to rid the algae - and give it a few days to see if there is any change.

 

[Chrisphotoreef]

mine like nitrates and phosphates.

I made a big effort recently to eliminate nitrates and phosphates, on the advice of my LFS, to try to control the hair algae even though they both were measuring zero. Perhaps they need some after all. Seems I might have an ultra low nutrient system now and the hair algae is desperately eating what little there is.

 

[Chrisphotoreef]

Not an expert, but my zoas are thriving in a tank about the same age. I'd try a peroxide dip just to get the GHA off and give them some breathing room. Did you dip them for pests when you put them in the tank?

At the bare minimum, blast them with a turkey baster and see what comes loose. Maybe a little targeted feeding for good measure? Good luck.

I’m going to try dipping tomorrow. Good advice.I didn’t dip them when I got them as the LFS I bought them from said they were definitely pest free.

 

[Chrisphotoreef]

Once your tank is reading zero Ammonia and zero nitrite - you don’t need to keep testing. Once cycled there should never be any.

I believe you have some po4/no3- but your gha is consuming it. I believe these should
Never be at zero as corals need some in the water to grow.

I would start by dipping zoas in H2O2 to rid the algae - and give it a few days to see if there is any change.

I’m going to give dipping a go tomorrow. Thank you for the advice.

 

[dedragon]

I have been dosing with Salifert all in one because pH, KH and calcium were all a bit lower than desired.

Any ideas what to do next? Thanks in advance.

I know tropic marin all for reef is a carbon source and can decrease nitrate and phosphate, i think salifert may be as well and could cause nitrate and phosphate to bottom out, softies dont like that at all

 

[Chrisphotoreef]

I know tropic marin all for reef is a carbon source and can decrease nitrate and phosphate, i think salifert may be as well and could cause nitrate and phosphate to bottom out, softies dont like that at all

You are correct - Salifert All in One is a carbon source and thus increases bacterial growth which will reduce nitrate and phosphate levels. I have now removed the Phos Guard from the system to see if phosphates will increase slightly, and I am going to hold off on my weekly 10ish % water change to try to elevate nitrates a bit.

 

[rja]

Well it looks to me like there’s algae on your zoanthids. In my experience if there’s ANYTHING touching a zoa or even over it causing a shadow, they will close. As far as your GSP, I really can’t say why. I had GSP that was closed for a couple days but opened up. Perhaps it’s your 0 NO3. You need some of that in your system for these coral and really most all soft and LSP coral. I see the algae is likely consuming the NO3 from the water column. Do you have a clean up crew? What’s your light schedule like? What’s your feeding schedule? I would start with lowing your light schedule a couple hours and feeding less. Try to get some more biodiversity in the system through copepods or cycled live rock to up your nutrient breakdown and see if that helps the algae. In the meantime clean off those zoanthids.

 

[Chrisphotoreef]

Thanks for the input. The GSP literally just disintegrated into nothing, but the zoas sorted themselves out after a few days. 3 weeks of using Microbacter Clean and all the algae has gone too. Just waiting for the coralline algae to establish and the tank will start to look awesome.