Whats going on with my Zoas?

[sm1983]

Hello everyone. I am starting to get nervous about my Zoa's. They have gone from being fully open everyday and looking great to barely open in the last two weeks. My tank parameters are good but my calcium is a little low (when I tested this weekend it was at 280ppm). I have been dosing Kent Calcium and Purple Tech at night. Any ideas on what the issue could be? Here is a now and then picture...


http://img268.imagevenue.com/loc351/th_00397_DSCF1116_122_351lo.JPG
http://img265.imagevenue.com/loc211/th_00404_DSCF1067_122_211lo.JPG

Also what are these red vein looking things that are all over my tank?

http://img44.imagevenue.com/loc492/th_00406_DSCF1117_122_492lo.JPG

[Big_Pun]

Details about ur tank, size, filters, lighting, other coral. How frequent are water changes done do use ro/di water

[sm1983]

I have a 20 long with a 150watt MH, 2 Koralia 1's, 10g sump with cheato and some ulva. I do a weekly 4-5g water change with RO water. Tank is running at around 82 degrees, 1.022 salinity, 8 dKH, 280ppm Calcium, 0ppm Nitrates, 0ppm Nitrites, and 0ppm ammonia. I keep the Halide on for around 7-8 hours each day.

[Neptune@gabesfish]

Just a question why so much light on that tank?

[Paul28]

Your not adding to mutch Calcuim are you to drop your alk ? whats your ph ? how old is the tank you could be having nitrate spikes you dont see on the test kit do you youse Instant Ocean that why your at 280 cal then when you add you Purple Tech your just adding more cal no point Mag is droped now Did you have alot of people over Oxygen drops in tank now to mutch co2 in tank ph drops again is your ph around 7.5 to 7.8 ? could be anything lvls can change in mins

[JimD]

Zoa munching nidis..?

[MRSBIGBIRD123]

Bristleworms?

[stoneroller]

They don't look irritated or munched on (there'd be some missing skirts). Start by blasting (cleaning) them with a turkey baster; see what kind of detritus is blown out of there. Also, where is the colony located rel. to the lights?

[jpond83]

what kind of rock is that in your tank?

[sm1983]

I had planned on trying to keep SPS that is why I put the 150 MH on the tank. The colony is on the right side of the tank about midway up. I am using instant ocean and I am not very happy with it to be honest. I have tested it a few times right after mixing and the calcium is at around 240ppm, terrible!

The rock in the tank is from reefcleaners, it has been in the tank for a few months now.

I have seen a bristleworm in the tank but never around the Zoa's. I have a few different types of Zoa's in the tank and they are all doing about the same. I will try the turkey baster and see if they just needed to be cleaned out a little bit.

What type of salt do you all use?

[stoneroller]

Reef Crystals

Are the zoas directly under the 150?

[Paul28]

I youse reefcrystals and love it :) check your ph im thinking maybe a ph crash adding to mutch cal and not bal your alk, will make bad spikes in ph, and the brisleworms are great to have thay wil clean the rocks and sand bed of left over food in the tank. tanks that are not that old there is no reson to add anything to it but do regular waterchanges will keep everything balence you dont need rush it Coraline alge will come with time heheh :) sorry i cant spell for crap . o yeah how high do you have the light above the tank ?

[recoiljpr]

The rock in the tank is from reefcleaners, it has been in the tank for a few months now.

All I can see that reefcleaners sells is base rock. Did you also add some live rock to the tank? Or are all of your rocks reefcleaners base rock?



I have seen a bristleworm in the tank but never around the Zoa's. I have a few different types of Zoa's in the tank and they are all doing about the same. I will try the turkey baster and see if they just needed to be cleaned out a little bit.

Did you add the MH recently after you had the Zoas already in the tank? Do you have a test kit so you can measure the PH? If so, what is it?



What type of salt do you all use?

I use Instant Ocean for the very reason it has low calcium. I have a tank that is perpetually high in CA (520+).

[ReefCube]

STABILITY. just let them be as long as your perameters are good they should be fine. If you have no pests and If you feel like you have to do something i would just kent iodine them if we were talking sps i would maybe say something different zoanthids are usually hardy

[msmith619]

I have trouble with Zoas too. I keep lots of LPS, some Sps and soft corals with no problems. I have tried DOZENS of Zoas and only one colony has lasted more than a few weeks, my origional one. All of the others just seem to shrink and eventually fade away.
I have been told: too much light, too clean of water, etc but no real answers. Funny thing is, all fish, inverts, Lps, Sps, and softies are thriving. Same thing with two tanks. Oh, and btw, I use reef crystals. One tank with T5's, one with MHs; one at home, one at work; one with a wet/dry and protein skimmer, one with a refugium with lots of macro and I get the same results in both tanks. Some of us just can't keep the Zoas, I am jinxed.

[Big_Pun]

ive been using instant ocean do weekly water changes and only have pc lighting, no skimming, just a sponge some filter floss sometimes mostly after water changes till its dirty, ive had the livestock in my 14g since feb and everything doubles in size every couple months, i mostly keep zoas, i have lost some frags but ive learned to move them around till they seem happy,low flow high flow bottom midway then top,

[sm1983]

Thanks everyone for all the great info. When I tested the tank this weekend the pH was at 8.2. The light is a Viper Clamp and it has been on the tank since day one. I am going to stop with the Purple Tech and Calcium and see what happens.

[subsailor]

Do you have any live rock in the tank?

[jpond83]

thats why i asked about the rock. it didnt look live to me. doesnt look very pouros either.

[recoiljpr]

thats why i asked about the rock. it didnt look live to me. doesnt look very pouros either.

If it's all the same type of rock then you don't have any live rock at all in your system. I'd be more then happy to give you (free) some rubble and small pieces of mine to put in your system. It will help you to seed those other rocks. Without live rock your fauna, microbes, etc in your tank will be lacking. Adding live rock adds biodiversity to your tank. That then gives you many more critters to help balance things out.

Honestly jpond, that rock looks like Florida limestone (I'm not a geologist so don't quote me on it). Florida rock is a heck of a lot more dense then the more common fiji, etc type rock you find.

Let me know if you are interested and we can arrange to meet somewhere (I work in San Antonio on the NE side).

[sm1983]

I forgot to say I had a decent mound and a few small pieces of live rock in the tank with the sand for around 2 months to seed the tank. The rock from reefcleaners is AMAZING! It is incredibly light and has a great shape. I will get a better full tank shot on here eventually.

[sm1983]

Well I have real trouble now. The skirts on one of the Zoa's are all stringy and extending out of the heads. I have noticed a small white snail also on two of my colonies. My Kenya Tree is even looking bad today. I am about to take my tests and give the update but please take a look at the pictures and tell me what you think this might be!!



http://img111.imagevenue.com/loc69/th_27237_DSCF1121_122_69lo.JPG (http://img111.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=27237_DSCF1121_122_69lo.JPG)http://img166.imagevenue.com/loc413/th_27245_DSCF1122_122_413lo.JPG (http://img166.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=27245_DSCF1122_122_413lo.JPG)http://img216.imagevenue.com/loc396/th_27252_DSCF1123_122_396lo.JPG (http://img216.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=27252_DSCF1123_122_396lo.JPG)http://img223.imagevenue.com/loc499/th_27254_DSCF1124_122_499lo.JPG (http://img223.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=27254_DSCF1124_122_499lo.JPG)
http://img206.imagevenue.com/loc446/th_27259_DSCF1125_122_446lo.JPG (http://img206.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=27259_DSCF1125_122_446lo.JPG)

[Big_Pun]

look up box snails/sundial snail they eatsoft polyp coral, could be what you have

[stoneroller]

And the snails look like this...
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r10/stoneroller/9630026d.jpg (http://maast.org/forums/%5BIMG%5Dhttp://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r10/stoneroller/9630026d.jpg%5B/IMG%5D)

I am not sure it's the snails, they don't have the right look. I have had luck dosing iodine; might be something to consider trying. Did you blast them clean? Much detritus come out?

[aggman]

you might just have a nutrient poor system. my sister had the same problem in her biocube. nothing would last. i gave here tons of frags and for some reason it would not last. then we figured out she had nothing in her tank. it was too 'sterile'.

it seems that yours is the same considering you have had your tank for a while and from the pics it looks like it was just setup. no 'dirty' sand or algae growth.

we just overfeed her tank for a week and stuff started popping out. as did an algae bloom. but that lasted a few days only. now things are good. even her mandarin is still alive and well.

~alex

[sm1983]

Yeah as you can see the snails are only white. They have the same shape as the sundials but just not the color. I took the colonies out and freshwater dipped them. I also picked what few snails I could off of them. They are not looking too good, hope things get better in the next few days.

The system is quite clean. My calcium has always been low but other then that all other readings seem great. I have been thinking I just did a really good job making sure I put things in at the right time and cycled correctly. The next few days should be interesting...

[sm1983]

Yet another little update. I decided to do the ole' flashlight at night in the tank trick... Found these weird brown spots on my radioactive dragon eyes, what the hell are these???

http://img190.imagevenue.com/loc624/th_60939_DSCF1126_122_624lo.JPG (http://img190.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc624&image=60939_DSCF1126_122_624lo.JPG)

http://img260.imagevenue.com/loc135/th_60947_DSCF1127_122_135lo.JPG (http://img260.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc135&image=60947_DSCF1127_122_135lo.JPG)

[jpond83]

look around your tank with a red flash light at night and look for zoainthid eating spiders