FRAG / Zoa Help!!

[Aquapod24]

Alight guys, in another time in my 2 year career as a reefkeeper I had some real blue zoos. For a time I had some things out of control in my tank and these zoos are hurting.

Anyone know what I should do? At one time these were huge and ready to frag. Now only about 8 polyps open about half wide and don't show the color they once had.

What should I do? Some of the closed ones have coraline algae on them. Frag the good polyps? Anybody ever seen this before or know what may have happened? Thanks guys.

[Gilbert]

same thing happened to me, awhile back my blues closed up for about 2 weeks before re-opening then about a mouth ago they closed up again and still haven't re-opened. i fear that they are dead.

[mikedelgado]

I would start increasing water changes, use ro di water. test for nitrates & phosphates in your tank and the newly made salt water, move the colony to n area with a little more flow.

[apedroza]

I've run into this with several colonies and have tried just about everything. Dosing with vit c didn't work and water changes helped a little. I've lost several polyps, but it seems that the ones that make it come back alot stronger and grow alot faster. Goodluck

[Daniel]

When was the last time you changed the bulbs to your lighting system?

[Aquapod24]

I put a new bulb in May 08. It is a 70watt Australux.

[Daniel]

I put a new bulb in May 08. It is a 70watt Australux.

Well I don't think you have a lighting problem. What about your calcium and magnesium and other levels? What critters do you have in the tank, could something have damaged them?

[Aquapod24]

Nassau Snails, Pepp Shrimp, Hermit crabs, Turbo Snails, Small Bristle Worms.
I need to have the water tested for calcium, magneseum etc. I only test for ph, salinity, nitrates.

[Daniel]

Id be willing to bet your calcium is low. If you are keeping corals you need to maintain a calcium level of 420-450ppm while magnesium needs to be at about 1200ppm for them to grow and be healthy, and they both need to be tested for regularly. It also helps if you dose your tank with vitamins and amino acids. Also anything large with claws could damage your corals. I moved my large hermits to my hospital tank when I noticed them wanting to pay attention to my corals.

[envy]

Id be willing to bet your calcium is low. If you are keeping corals you need to maintain a calcium level of 420-450ppm

from what i have understood it doen't apply to softies as much as it does to hard corals(lps and sps). what are your parameters at?

[Aquapod24]

salinity 1.024, ph 7.9, guy at store said nitrates look okay. The rest of my tank looks fine. I have a large hammer, some candy, other zoas, green polyps, mushrooms, xenia and all those look ok. I was thinking of buying some essential elements and dose with that. I already use coralvite weekly and do 2 gal changes weekly on my 24 gal.

[SoLiD]

Here a safe tip... Do a 25% water change (at least 6 gallons) & put some Carbon in one of your chambers. Corals don't have to touch each other to have a Chemical War. The is also some added benefits for Zoa's in dosing with Vitamin A. Read This First:

http://maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40346

[envy]

Your ph is low. What were your nitrites, ammonia, phosphates, and the others at?
Also a rule of thumb is if you dose something you should test for it.

[envy]

this is also happening to a friend with her two pieces of red and green polyps. don't mean to hijack a thread but do you dose with Vit C and how are the results if you do.

[Daniel]

I was thinking of buying some essential elements and dose with that.

If you are doing weekly water changes you won't need essential elements. If you run carbon then essential elements can be of good use. Maybe a reef vitamin.

My leathers, hammers, trumpets and bubble coral are growing great with daily liquid calcium, once a week Seachem reef vitamins, and once a week or when I change my carbon I dose with essential elements. However I don't do frequent water changes so I prefer to use essential elements to keep the trace elements up.

Your ph seems a little low is this normal for you? Does it get higher later in the day? Mine goes from 8.1-8.3 throughout the day.


from what i have understood it doen't apply to softies as much as it does to hard corals(lps and sps).

It may be true that it isn't as important but in a closed system I would want to keep these things in balance to make sure I had a healthy system for my corals.

[Daniel]

Here a safe tip... Do a 25% water change (at least 6 gallons) & put some Carbon in one of your chambers. Corals don't have to touch each other to have a Chemical War. The is also some added benefits for Zoa's in dosing with Vitamin A. Read This First:

http://maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40346

I'm a strong believer in vitamin's and amino acid supplements for the tank.

[Aquapod24]

PH is stuck at 7.9. I have tried using dkh superbuffer daily after testing and it doesn't move. This is what the lfs told me to use. I read that PH can also be affected by a lack of fresh oxygen and too much buffer will make you alk go way up and cause another problem. Vitamins? How do I test? Is there a (multivitamin)? I haven't that deep into my water parameters other than salt and PH. I am still learning of course. Also, it is just this one piece that looks weird. Thanks.

[Aquapod24]

What is that brand or name of the vitamins and amino acids? Is this made for the tank or humans but also used in the tank? Thanks.

How many test kits are there to cover all those parameters. I have only seen individual ones. Thanks.

[Daniel]

What is that brand or name of the vitamins and amino acids? Is this made for the tank or humans but also used in the tank? Thanks.

How many test kits are there to cover all those parameters. I have only seen individual ones. Thanks.

I use reef plus by seachem. Seachem products are great imo. The test kits I have are.

1. High Range PH
2. Nitrite
3. Nitrate
4. Phosphate
5. Ammonia
6. Calcium
7. Alk
8. Magnesium

9. There is one for copper but you shouldn't need it for your display. That would be for you hospital tank if you are using copper products for ich and so on. Or if you think you got copper in your system somehow.

[Daniel]

PH is stuck at 7.9. I have tried using dkh superbuffer daily after testing and it doesn't move. This is what the lfs told me to use. I read that PH can also be affected by a lack of fresh oxygen and too much buffer will make you alk go way up and cause another problem. Vitamins? How do I test? Is there a (multivitamin)? I haven't that deep into my water parameters other than salt and PH. I am still learning of course. Also, it is just this one piece that looks weird. Thanks.

If you are having oxygen probs buy a powerhead and angle the flow up to the top to move water more, you can add the venturi tube to add air to it if you want but you dont need to if you have the top of your water moving more. That will help in better gas exchange.

You want your alk imo at about 6-8 some this will keep your ph from crashing. I use seachem Reef buffer that gets my ph to 8.3 without going over but you have to do it slowly. I would get your ph up slowly. It takes 24 hours to show correctly in a test. If you did start raising it raise it only .1 a day or you will freak out your livestock. My ph is at 8.1 in the morning when lights are off and goes to 8.3 in the evening when lights are on, that swing is normal and doesn't hurt anything. If you add mag and calcium with a product like seachem reef advanced, your alk will be affected so be careful and read what is in every supplement you put in and make sure you are not overlapping.

I haven't found any test kits for vitamins and thats ok imo just dose it as it says.

btw This is what works for me and my tank. Every tank is different. You may want to leave things alone if you think that its just the one frag. I just had a lot of probs when I first started and passing on what I learned from very patient people. So my word is as good as the next guy.

[Kristy]

We dose everyday with vitamen C. I would say we notice a change in our zoos and palys when we don't. We were having an issue with some of them, looking like they were shrinking/melting, and then when we started dosing w/ vit C it cleared it up. What works for us, may not work for you.... Mike

[Aquapod24]

So if I try this on a 24gal lets say....I crush a 500mg tab of vitamin c and dissolve in a cup of water then put in my tank? Just like that? Thanks.

[SoLiD]

OK... So you didn't read the link on my post so I will spoon feed it to you. :(


Please Click the links and read the information. It is all there waiting for you to read it. :)

---------------------------------------------------
http://maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40346
---------------------------------------------------

From: http://www.athiel.com/lib2/pguide/vitami1.html

The method to be followed in all cases is as follows :

Day 1 : concentration of 5 ppm
Day 2 : concentration of 15 ppm
Day 3 : concentration of 30 ppm
Day 4 : concentration of 50 ppm
After day 4, continue treating with a concentration of 50 ppm for 10 more days.
The total treatment period is thus 14 days.
During this entire period you should not be using activated carbon
During this entire period you should not be using any chemical filtration media either (e.g. resins or pads).
Note that when you use these kind of Vitamin C concentrations it really is of utmost importance that you monitor you pH and ensure that it does not suddenly drop. Check the pH before you add the C but check a few minutes later also. If the pH is too low add a complete buffer immediately to re-establish your alkalinity and increase the pH of the water in the tank. This is very important indeed.

Do not make the mistake of letting your pH drop and stressing your fish out even more.


-David

[Daniel]

His ph is already low, shouldn't he work on raising it first?

[Aquapod24]

I apologize, I did read pieces but it's quite a bit. I will read completely now that I'm off work :) Thanks guys.

[Aquapod24]

Alright guys. I just dosed with 102mg of Vit C and am Checking my ph. I will continue the increase to peak as noted in the link. I will update with improvements as they come....I hope. :what_smile: Thanks.

[Aquapod24]

So far up to 30ppm. I have noticed the last two evenings that my xenia really get pumping at the end of the day after the dose. PH has remained unchanged at 8.0.

[SoLiD]

Thanks for the updates. :thumbs_up: