Zoa's Shrinking Away, Help...

[lennyd19]

I personally think it is you P04. Zoas love nutrients. I was running GFO and striped my water of P04 and Zoas shrunk and started to recede. Took a week or so to get nutrients back up and took 2-3 three weeks for Zoas to recover.

 

[treedog5]

LOL, I keep hearing different stories. Some ppl say if P04 is to high then that will hurt them and then some say if it's to low that will hurt. I'm not sure which direction to go on that, I just took my automatic feeder down because I was thinking that had some impact on it, but now I'm thinking I should put it back up...SMH

 

[TheEngineer]

Yup! I haven't found that happy medium yet myself either. Let me know if you do

 

[lennyd19]

If your P04 is to high it will have an ill effect on not just Zoas but all tank inhabitants. Just need to find the sweet spot. Not to much not to little just right[emoji1]. Mine ranges from 0.03 to as high as 0.24. I have sps dominate tank with some Zoas and LPS.

 

[Lenny_S]

As long as you aren't running a phosphate binder like GFO you are most likely fine. I never get a reading from my Hanna low range phosphate colorometer, but I know the tank is getting phosphate every day from the frozen food I use. It's just reading 0 because as much that is going in each day is getting used up.
IME if you read 0 phosphate from a reliable test, as long as you have a know source of phosphate going into the tank there's a very good chance you are fine.

 

[treedog5]

I used the Salifert P04 test kit and checked it twice, 0 on both test. I was using a automatic feeder to dump a very small amount of pellets twice a day and then feed a cube of frozen reef frenzy every other day. So should I start feeding more to bring the p04 up?

 

[Lenny_S]

It depends on whether that frozen food has phosphate in it or not. More pellets won't help, they are very low/no phosphate.
The way I found out my frozen had phosphate is I thawed a cube in a couple of ounces of RODI then just tested that water... Was pretty high in that concentration.

 

[CodyRVA]

It depends on whether that frozen food has phosphate in it or not. More pellets won't help, they are very low/no phosphate.
The way I found out my frozen had phosphate is I thawed a cube in a couple of ounces of RODI then just tested that water... Was pretty high in that concentration.

This is false. Pellets/flake foods are much more nutrient dense than frozen foods. If you're trying to "dirty up" your water... You'll want to use pellets not frozen. Not to say all frozen foods are as clean as others, LRS is a very clean product IMO, but I don't know of any frozen food denser with nutrients than a pellet food.

If you tested and got low results with pellets its likely Bc they didn't have time to break down.

 

[treedog5]

Uh ok, can I say I'm more confused now LOL...

 

[CodyRVA]

Uh ok, can I say I'm more confused now LOL...

Change one thing at a time. As most have suggested your lighting is likely the culprit. Adjust it and give it time. If that doesn't help within a reasonable amount of time, then look elsewhere else such as your chemistry.

If you change too many variables at once you're going to drive yourself crazy.

 

[treedog5]

I use New Life Spectrum as my pellet food and Larry's Reef Frenzy for frozen. How about I just increase both and see where my numbers go, I think the fish would love that also. The only thing I'm worried about is that I see some red slime starting to form in a few places, I hope the feeding increase doesn't have a negative effect on that.

 

[CodyRVA]

The only thing I'm worried about is that I see some red slime starting to form in a few places, I hope the feeding increase doesn't have a negative effect on that.

I would not feed heavier if this is the case. You clearly have nutrients; I run an ultra low nutrient system and my Zoas/palys thrive.

 

[treedog5]

Change one thing at a time. As most have suggested your lighting is likely the culprit. Adjust it and give it time. If that doesn't help within a reasonable amount of time, then look elsewhere else such as your chemistry.

If you change too many variables at once you're going to drive yourself crazy.

I totally agree with that, I changed my LED yesterday so that's already in effect.

 

[CodyRVA]

I totally agree with that, I changed my LED yesterday so that's already in effect.

Sit tight and see what happens. Give it a few weeks. As long as they're not melting it'll be fine. You have to be patient to see if your changes work before trying something else.

Also, if you were depleted of nutrients you would know. All of your corals would be doing awful. I did this before and my toadstool turned white, sps lost color, etc. Its easy to identify.

 

[treedog5]

Ok, can do...

 

[najer]

If you look at your original pic there is a "spot light" effect, I would say physically raise it higher.
I have no experience of this light, you said you can't do the above, can you get wide angle lenses for it?
Do you have an fts please?

 

[Lenny_S]

This is false. Pellets/flake foods are much more nutrient dense than frozen foods. If you're trying to "dirty up" your water... You'll want to use pellets not frozen. Not to say all frozen foods are as clean as others, LRS is a very clean product IMO, but I don't know of any frozen food denser with nutrients than a pellet food.

If you tested and got low results with pellets its likely Bc they didn't have time to break down.

@CodyRVA I was not saying that pellets weren't nutrient dense, I was only speaking specifically of phosphate. I agree that increased use of pellet foods will definitely increase available nitrogen as they are broken down. But it's been my experience that pellets contribute very little (if any) phosphate (specifically) to the water. Since the OP is already measuring 4ppm of Nitrate in their tank, nitrate is probably not the issue. But the OP was asking about phosphate and I was simply providing what I knew from my experience.
I also agree that lighting is the best thing to look at for now, this is probably the most likely issue given all the other information.

 

[treedog5]

If you look at your original pic there is a "spot light" effect, I would say physically raise it higher.
I have no experience of this light, you said you can't do the above, can you get wide angle lenses for it?
Do you have an fts please?

If you look at this pic you can tell why I can't raise the light any higher, it sits on arms that are not adjustable for height. And wide angle lenses are not a option either. I could put my maxspect back up there but the decline started when I had those running so I doubt that would solve anything.

 

[Lenny_S]

I started out with 4 AI Hydras on the classic mount which had legs that sat on the tank similar to your OR. And like the OR it only set the lights about 7" above the water. Prior to getting a hanging kit, I went many months with just a couple of short pieces of 1"x3" wood between the legs and the tank. Not very pretty, but it did the trick.
Without blocks...

With blocks...

Maybe the same thing can work for you.

 

[treedog5]

My only argument with needing to raise the LED's are that the person that I got the rocks from had the maxspect running on the tank and they sit the same height as the OR. The zoas were looking really nice when I got them from him, that's why I think it has to be something else. But I'm willing to try whatever you guys suggest.