Please Help!!!!

[mattheyn]

I have been reef-keeping for almost 3 years and my zoo's have me perplexed. I have a 45 gallon show tank with a 15gallon refugium. All the basics are 0 (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite), my pH is 8.3, alk in good range, temp=82, medium current, Ca2+ is 350, phosphates=0. I drip kalk everyother night. Recently my zoo's haven't been opening up likr they used to. They only open about half way, and that's it. They don't appear to be dying or infected with anything that is visible. All other corals and clam are doing fantastic, including my LTA. Fish are healthy and have a great appitite, including a new Anthelia. The zoo's are spread randomly throughout the tank which aliminates any lighting or current problems. Skimmer is going full blast but isn't pulling anything off. I even tried to run some carbon to see if that might take out any impurities. I have done a few water changes, but to no avail. I have also inspected them for any parasitic infections but don't see any. Thought maybe it was an iodine issue, so I added iodine. Nothing seems to help. They always look the same. No more than a month ago they were reproducing at about a rate of 1 polylp=7/month. I am out of ideas. What could be affecting them but nothing else? Do they have a sensitivity to something that other corals might not have? Any suggestions wouls be helpful.

Thanks,
Matt

[R.Allard]

when was the last time you changed your lights? and how far from the surface are they??what kind of lighting??also what kind of flow
is arround them i noticed when i put my zoos arround a place that had moderate flow not high or low they did the best.
what are you feeding the tank phytoplex,marinesnow,cyclopeze,etc...
Robert

[captexas]

First off, don't add anything without testing it first. Adding iodine without checking the tanks current level is not a good idea. Second, the lighting could still be a possiblity depending on what kind of lights you have and how old the bulbs are. As bulbs age, the quality of light decreases. Also, increasing the lighting from what the corals were used to can affect them and take time for them to adjust.

Has anything else been added to the tank recently besides the Anthelia? Many corals can emit a mucous or toxin into the water that can affect the other corals. All corals and even fish react differently to things added to their environment. Water changes would help this, but it could be an ongoing problem. Also, the anthelia or any other recent addition could have been diseased or simply carrying a disease and that is affecting the zoos.

The other question is where is your water coming from? If it is your own RO/DI unit, when was the last time you replaced the cartridges or checked the water quality? Perhaps your water or even your Kalk mix was contaminated with something the zoos don't like.

Hopefully this will give you a few more things to check and perhaps some of the others on the forums may think of other things that could be an issue.

[mattheyn]

My lights were recently changed, probably w/in the last two months. The water that I use is purchased RO/DI water. I'm sure that the TDS is low because I haven't had any algea outbreaks. I do ocassionally add cyclo-eeze to the tank but that is it except for the frozen brine. The problem started prior to adding the Anthelia. Do you think that a large LTA could be emitting toxin into the water? He really isn't close to anything. Maybe I have some chemical warefare. Is there anyhting I can do for this except water changes? Or is this even a viable question? Any other thoughts???

[captexas]

A low TDS doesn't mean you won't have any problems. TDS does not tell you what is in the water or if those things are good or bad. You might want to ask whoever you get your water from to test it. It has happened here in the past that a LFS was found with really bad RO/DI water and they were in need of changing their filter cartridges. MikeP is probably one of the best persons to answer the chemical warfare question and tell you if that might be an issue. I could be wrong, but I think that the LTA would not be a problem unless it was actually touching the zoos with its tentacles and stinging them.