Zoas won't open no matter what I try

[45ZoaGarden]

Depending on the salt, no. I don’t dose iodine.

 

[Terry Mattson]

I don't currently have a decent pic, but by thriving I mean that they are spreading, and the existing heads have doubled in size from when I purchased them in August, roughly.

Last water change was on Sunday, 1/19. Parameters posted were from testing Monday 1/20.

Shouldn't I be replenishing iodine with the WC? I have hermits and a shrimp who molt regularly, so I wouldn't suspect iodine, but maybe I'll get a test kit.

I also have a blood and cleaner shrimp that molt but my water changes did not keep up. I got the iodine tip from an owner of a saltwater company that services residential and commercial tanks beside the store he runs. He told me that zoas love iodine trace. So I was at my end point and checked it out.

 

[Terry Mattson]

Depending on the salt, no. I don’t dose iodine.

What salt to you use?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I run sainity at 1.026, temp at 78 and add lugols 2-3X per week to tank water and moderate water flow

 

[eraserhead187]

Do you have any stony corals that may be letting out sweeper tentacles and stinging them at night? Or a nearby anemone? Chemical warfare from another coral? I have had zoas that have been tortured by other nearby corals and close up. They usually recover but can stay closed for a long time.

 

[huckjai]

Not sure if it was mentioned, but it may be your light setup? What lights/schedule do you use?

 

[NanJ]

Pretty sure there's no pests, at least not on the frags. I can't say for certain that they didn't get into the tank since I waited so long to dip, but my original zoas right next door are THRIVING. So, I doubt it. They are Fiji Hyper Color and Fiji Bam Bam Orange zoas that are only open one head out of the two frags, and the ones that are open but retracted are Utter Chaos, all ordered from Tidal Gardens. I also notice that my timeline is off. I ordered all these back in October, so add another month on to them not being open.

Interesting that you mention Utter Chaos as being a problem Zoa - I opened this post because I'm struggling with the same issue! We bought the frag on October 28 with 4 polyps. The first several weeks in the QT they were open and even added 2 new polyps. Since then they only open partially. The Armageddon frag purchased at the same time is doing fine.

We added a small power head to the QT so I attributed their change in behavior to that so I moved them - and moved them again - and moved them again. I've tried more light and less light, too. May have to look into iodine as posted above.

 

[Gw2kpro]

Are other corals present? Have you tried running carbon for a few days?

 

[Jeff Hall]

My ICP tests consistently show low iodine and Zoas grow like crazy

 

[KristianS]

Hello!

Wondering if anyone has any new ideas for me. I currently have 4 different zoa frags at various degrees of... health? Happiness?

My tank has been up since June. I bought the first zoas from an LPS. Nothing special in terms of name or color. They were looking extremely happy, doubled in polyp size, and maintained coloration, so I bought 3 new zoa frags from a reputable online dealer back in November. When they all arrived, they opened right away and were extremely vibrant. This lasted for about a week.

After a week, one frag is totally closed up tight. Like, can't even see the color of the polyps. I know its still alive because just about a week ago they all opened just a sliver, and they are now back to being closed up super tight. The second frag has one head that doesn't seem to have a care in the world and has stayed wide open, while the others are all closed up tight like the first frag. The third frag had significantly larger heads, which have remained open but have reduced in size about 60% and don't extend as far as they did originally.

Where I may have messed up was not dipping them initially. I dipped them maybe a week after they all retracted. Nothing came off of them. I have tried moving them to different regions of the tank with higher/lower flow, higher/lower light, etc. Nothing.

I dipped them again out of desperation 2 weeks ago, when I received more new corals. Again, everything clean.

I will admit my parameters have not been as stable as they should be, given it is my first tank and I am still learning how and what to dose, or not dose, and how everything affects each other. I have incredibly healthy other softies, LPS, and recently added some SPS to see how those fare, and everything else is happy, just not the zoas.

Knowing that my Nitrates and Phosphates were high, and Alk low (slowly bring it up over the last month), my current parameters are
80.6F
8.0-8.1 pH
NO3 12-16 ppm
PO4 0.08 ppm
Salinity 1.024
7.9 DKh
Ca 443 ppm
Mg 1400 ppm

The only things I dose are ESV Alkalinity buffer, MicroBacter7, Reef BioFuel (Mb7 and BioFuel on "low dosage" according to instructions). The reasons I believe Ca and Mg are a little high is I use Red Sea Coral Pro.

My system is 60 gallons (about 55 gallons estimated after accounting for rock) and I do a weekly water change every Sunday of 5 gallons, and test params every Monday with the exception of testing alk daily to raise it ever so slowly.

Any ideas? Much appreciated if you got to the end of my wall of text

I would just give it time, do a 10% water change weekly, dont mess with lights

 

[B7Joe]

Zoas frustrated me early on (not a lot of bang for the buck and at least for me, very temperamental) and I moved on, but I need to try again.

 

[ZoWhat]

Zoas just don’t like some tanks for the weirdest reasons.

A potential weird-reason is what other corals are in the tank? Corals produce mucus and if the zoas detect a mucus in the water column they see as a threat.... then there is the problem

 

[Pancake]

I notice that my zoas close up for a extended period of time when they get exposed to too much light. If you suspect this is the issue I would move them to a low par area in the tank and observe to see any marked improvements or deteriorations. If they start to show signs of opening i would slowly move them to brighter area and acclimate back to the zoas preferred light levels. Another possible suggestion would be to try using color program from Red Sea if you suspect deficiency in trace elements. I had a zoa (agave) that closed up for no apparent reason when all other zoas were doing fine and parameters were stable and adequate. The zoas stayed closed for over 2 weeks with no sign of wanting to open up. When I dosed color program, within hours the zoas opened up. I am suggesting something like color program because it’s hard to tell which of the trace the zoa maybe lacking so I think a comprehensive trace element additive is a good shotgun approach. The zoas not only recovered but they grew large and improved in coloration. I am now thinking that deficiency in trace elements could be a much ignored cause in the “mystery” of underperforming corals.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Instant ocean

What salt to you use?

 

[TeresaRN]

As a 1.5 year reefer I have learned to change one thing at a time and collect data with that one change. For example, if I change my doser rate, I will collect data for about 3-4 weeks to verify that it was the right thing to do.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

I run a double dose of carbon and skim heavily. I also run chemipure, purigen, and poly filter. That is not the issue

A potential weird-reason is what other corals are in the tank? Corals produce mucus and if the zoas detect a mucus in the water column they see as a threat.... then there is the problem

 

[Daniel Waters]

Hello!

Wondering if anyone has any new ideas for me. I currently have 4 different zoa frags at various degrees of... health? Happiness?

My tank has been up since June. I bought the first zoas from an LPS. Nothing special in terms of name or color. They were looking extremely happy, doubled in polyp size, and maintained coloration, so I bought 3 new zoa frags from a reputable online dealer back in November. When they all arrived, they opened right away and were extremely vibrant. This lasted for about a week.

After a week, one frag is totally closed up tight. Like, can't even see the color of the polyps. I know its still alive because just about a week ago they all opened just a sliver, and they are now back to being closed up super tight. The second frag has one head that doesn't seem to have a care in the world and has stayed wide open, while the others are all closed up tight like the first frag. The third frag had significantly larger heads, which have remained open but have reduced in size about 60% and don't extend as far as they did originally.

Where I may have messed up was not dipping them initially. I dipped them maybe a week after they all retracted. Nothing came off of them. I have tried moving them to different regions of the tank with higher/lower flow, higher/lower light, etc. Nothing.

I dipped them again out of desperation 2 weeks ago, when I received more new corals. Again, everything clean.

I will admit my parameters have not been as stable as they should be, given it is my first tank and I am still learning how and what to dose, or not dose, and how everything affects each other. I have incredibly healthy other softies, LPS, and recently added some SPS to see how those fare, and everything else is happy, just not the zoas.

Knowing that my Nitrates and Phosphates were high, and Alk low (slowly bring it up over the last month), my current parameters are
80.6F
8.0-8.1 pH
NO3 12-16 ppm
PO4 0.08 ppm
Salinity 1.024
7.9 DKh
Ca 443 ppm
Mg 1400 ppm

The only things I dose are ESV Alkalinity buffer, MicroBacter7, Reef BioFuel (Mb7 and BioFuel on "low dosage" according to instructions). The reasons I believe Ca and Mg are a little high is I use Red Sea Coral Pro.

My system is 60 gallons (about 55 gallons estimated after accounting for rock) and I do a weekly water change every Sunday of 5 gallons, and test params every Monday with the exception of testing alk daily to raise it ever so slowly.

Any ideas? Much appreciated if you got to the end of my wall of text

Not sure I have anything extra to add from what others have posted. I think you may have a multiple minor issues all contributing to creating stress on the corals. In no particular order, here are some thoughts- (1) lighting may be too intense, or even simply the change of lighting from the previous tank to your tank might have created an adjustment period; (2) repeated dips and moving them multiple times is exacerbating the problem (I'd have zoas stay closed for days sometimes after being moved); (3) your parameters are fine for the most part- your higher temps might be adding extra stress; (4) too much direct flow might cause an issue; (5) some zoas are just hard to keep in some tanks, and that's even in a tank that may have multiple other zoas thriving (we tend to think of zoas as all bring the same, but that is hardly the case- I'm had some that need 50 par and others need 150 par to do best for instance); (6) what is your livestock ? You've dipped for pests but could you have a nipping fish? Don't assume you'd see your fish nip either. I don't care if you watch your fish for 2 hours straight either and don't see it. And don't assume if your fish didn't bother your previous zoas that it won't bother the new ones. I have a regal angel that loved any zoa with red on it, and it would leave others alone (after the red colors were gone, it moved on to other zoas). Note, I knew the regal would take out my zoas, which I was fine with.

Just throwing out ideas. Let us know what happens or what you figure out!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Hope things get worked out for you on this. Looks like you've received some good feedback/advice already.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Have you found your issue with your zoas yet? I have some that have all closed for a round a week now, they have been In the tank for 3 years, I've added nothing new stock wise for over a year and a half. The only thing I notice is my hermit crabs using them as a climbing wall as the zoas that are struggling are on my rear filter box. I don't know if this is the issue or not. Iodine seems like it could be low, as I don't do very frequent water changes to replace it. Let us know if you find the solution.

 

[plexx]

I keep my DKH at 10 and my zoas grow like mad. When my Dkh drops they tend to get unhappy.