Zoa Frags need help

Celo1017 · May 12, 2024

jabberwock said:
I saw. Thanks for posting them. 6 Months is a new tank. I am no expert. Zoas are hit or miss for me. Corals in general are. Sometimes happy, then just waste away. Hard to tell what's up if they don't leave a note...

If you are in Holly Springs Georgia, you are just down the street from me.

Yes you trade corals what stores you go to ??

jabberwock · May 12, 2024

Celo1017 said:
Yes you trade corals what stores you go to ??

My favorite LFS is Optimum in Kennesaw. I don't trade coral. I have a small system. I do have extra macro algae from time to time.

Tavero · May 12, 2024

Celo1017 said:
My tank has been running well over 6 months now , I have at least 10 frags that been in the tank over a months. This is a 40g long all in one . Phosphate LR. - 0.06 , Nitrate H.R.- 9.7 Alkalinity DKH9.5, PH stays around 8.1-8.2 temp is always 76-78° , I make my own RODI , 4 stage . TDS meter used , mixing my own salt Ritz Pro red box. And calcium is at 399ppm using Hanna checkers for testing . I run a figi skimmer, Biocube”s UV sterilizer with an additional pump attached , upgraded my filter sock holder to use a 4” filter sock . WiFi wave makers have always been cross flow and medium-Strong flow . I have a Par meter as well using pop bloom WiFi lights . There copies of Red Sea . I use reef roids , Red Sea reef energy off and on , dose MicroBactor 7 bacteria , sand band about 3” high . Fish are all healthy purple coraline growing quickly , inverts are A plus cleaner shrimp red blood shrimp. 40 snails 30 of the smallest blue leg hermits and live rocks are beautiful. Recently maybe now for a week a few of my higher end Zoa”s stopped opening. No changes to flow or chemistry. I do a weekly water change every week , also ATO with Kalk plus . I am currently fighting cyanobacteria, not using red slime removal or any chemicals . Just keeping the tank well balanced on a schedule and clean. Worries about the Zoa”s most were purchased from vivid online . Single polyps and now almost all have 4-6 polyps. But the ones that are not opening have me worried any ideas ? Hope I provided good information to go off of .

Since when are they closed? Are they shrinking? There can be several reasons for unhappy zoas.
Low nutrients were mentioned. Your 0.06 mg/l phosphate isn't too low for now but still borderline.
Pests were mentioned but a bacterial infection is often invisible.
How often are you doing WC. I have observed Zoas to have high demand in fluoride. A lack leads to melting zoas but I doubt a tank stocked as little as yours has a big demand.

In my opinion the tank is still too new and has low stability to support demanding animals. Despite what everyone is saying, Zoanthids are not beginner corals. But for a proper diagnosis I need more information.

Celo1017 · May 13, 2024

Tavero said:
Since when are they closed? Are they shrinking? There can be several reasons for unhappy zoas.
Low nutrients were mentioned. Your 0.06 mg/l phosphate isn't too low for now but still borderline.
Pests were mentioned but a bacterial infection is often invisible.
How often are you doing WC. I have observed Zoas to have high demand in fluoride. A lack leads to melting zoas but I doubt a tank stocked as little as yours has a big demand.

In my opinion the tank is still too new and has low stability to support demanding animals. Despite what everyone is saying, Zoanthids are not beginner corals. But for a proper diagnosis I need more information.

I do a 5 gallon water change every Friday. I make the water on Thursday. Let it mix for 24 hours. All of this is mentioned above I increased my water changed to 10 gallons due to red slime appearing on the rocks after increasing to 10 gallon water change now it’s just on the sand and I’m still having trouble getting rid of that but it’s not on the corals or the rocks anymore

Tavero · May 13, 2024

Celo1017 said:
I do a 5 gallon water change every Friday. I make the water on Thursday. Let it mix for 24 hours. All of this is mentioned above I increased my water changed to 10 gallons due to red slime appearing on the rocks after increasing to 10 gallon water change now it’s just on the sand and I’m still having trouble getting rid of that but it’s not on the corals or the rocks anymore

Are they showing signs of sickness though: slime film or growth on top, shrinking tentakles, bleaching colors, expelling zooxanthella ect.
Also watch your phosphates so you don't accidentally bottom them out due to your repeated water changes. Zoas hate low phosphate.
If they continue to stay closed for another week or so you could do an advanced ICP OES to check on all the trace elements. Fluoride in particular.

aqquabubbles · May 14, 2024

Hey man cool tank!

Suggestions for help:

1. Zoas really dig the flow, moderate flow
2. Zoas always love nutrients. My tank runs about 20 nitrates, and .25 phos
3. I know it’s weird but I have found that many delicate zoas with small Polyps like lower light. You could try moving the zoas around to find a place they will open.
4. Zoas really like higher salinity, around 1.026 is what I recommend.
5. Zoas really like iodine and certain trace elements, your water Change schedule will be good for replacing those
6. The only thing that is a bummer about your water change schedule is that zoas will hate it unless they are getting fed.
7. If you wanna keep the water hinge scheduled feed a bit more. I reccomend a mixture of reef nutrition’s oyster feast, phyto feast, rotifers. Also I mix in reef blizzard and AB+. Remember don’t do full amounts just a tiny little bit of each!
8. Zoas really dig alk between 8.5 and 9.3, calcium at least 450 and mag around 1300

Also suggestion for getting unhappy zoas to open again. We all know the feeling of zoas closing for what seems like an eternity before melting away. Take your zoas out of your tank around 10 hours after they close and wont open. Gather about 15 oz of tank water or one red solo cup. Drop 5 drops of lugols iodine into the water and mix, place zoas into mixture for 15 minutes. Put back into tank. Usually one to two treatments will open the Zoa back up. Try to move closed zoas around the tank to see if you can get them to peek open. The moment you notice they open a bit leave em alone, unless they close again and then 24 hours do another dip if necessary

Hope this helps man!

Tavero · May 14, 2024

aqquabubbles said:
Hey man cool tank!

Suggestions for help:

1. Zoas really dig the flow, moderate flow
2. Zoas always love nutrients. My tank runs about 20 nitrates, and .25 phos
3. I know it’s weird but I have found that many delicate zoas with small Polyps like lower light. You could try moving the zoas around to find a place they will open.
4. Zoas really like higher salinity, around 1.026 is what I recommend.
5. Zoas really like iodine and certain trace elements, your water Change schedule will be good for replacing those
6. The only thing that is a bummer about your water change schedule is that zoas will hate it unless they are getting fed.
7. If you wanna keep the water hinge scheduled feed a bit more. I reccomend a mixture of reef nutrition’s oyster feast, phyto feast, rotifers. Also I mix in reef blizzard and AB+. Remember don’t do full amounts just a tiny little bit of each!
8. Zoas really dig alk between 8.5 and 9.3, calcium at least 450 and mag around 1300

Also suggestion for getting unhappy zoas to open again. We all know the feeling of zoas closing for what seems like an eternity before melting away. Take your zoas out of your tank around 10 hours after they close and wont open. Gather about 15 oz of tank water or one red solo cup. Drop 5 drops of lugols iodine into the water and mix, place zoas into mixture for 15 minutes. Put back into tank. Usually one to two treatments will open the Zoa back up. Try to move closed zoas around the tank to see if you can get them to peek open. The moment you notice they open a bit leave em alone, unless they close again and then 24 hours do another dip if necessary

Hope this helps man!

Lugols does absolutly nothing for zoas except to act as a disinfecting dipping solution. If there are no pests it won't do anything and even if there are, there are more effective dips against zoa pests.
Also they don't really care about alkalinity or calcium. Zoanthids don't have a skeleton.

aqquabubbles · May 15, 2024

Tavero said:
Lugols does absolutly nothing for zoas except to act as a disinfecting dipping solution. If there are no pests it won't do anything and even if there are, there are more effective dips against zoa pests.
Also they don't really care about alkalinity or calcium. Zoanthids don't have a skeleton.

Just telling you what works for my zoas! Take in or disregard no worries. I have quite a few delicate zoas and have saved multiple other zoas from closing up for what seems like for ever by a quick iodine dip. Zoas love iodine. In fact they need it in order to grow!

Celo1017 · May 15, 2024

Appreciate the feed back most have reopened looks like I may loose some

aqquabubbles · May 15, 2024

Celo1017 said:
Appreciate the feed back most have reopened looks like I may loose some

I wouldn’t lose hope, you can always try very light dips with a product called restore.

Move them around the tank a bit too. I have a Zoa right now that was closed for about 2 weeks. Moved it around till i got it to open a tiny bit and left them there. Currently still healing but more heads have opened since then!

Tavero · May 16, 2024

aqquabubbles said:
Just telling you what works for my zoas! Take in or disregard no worries. I have quite a few delicate zoas and have saved multiple other zoas from closing up for what seems like for ever by a quick iodine dip. Zoas love iodine. In fact they need it in order to grow!

If it works for you, for whatever reason, that's great. But I tried it and it did nothing. Other reefers also tried it and it also did nothing. So I don't believe that it's true that zoas love iodine dips.
In my opinion it is fluride that is loved by zoanthids, but without an icp oes, OP shouldn't dose either.

We have a general about zoanthid degeneration issues where several members conducted experiments and collected information for over a year.

Mystery Zoa melt, my search for a cure (follow my journey).

Given the crazy amount of information out there, along with endless accounts of experienced reefers who out of nowhere begin to struggle keeping zoanthids long term. I wanted to make a dedicated post where I document all of my attempts at solving my miserable and dying zoanthid collection...

www.reef2reef.com

If you think you have valuable information I invite you to share your experiences.