another zoa not opening thread

[MarshallB]

Since you don't have a par meter and are not sure about flow. I would place a few of the frags higher up closer to a power head and some lower. Do the same further away from the power head. If none open then it's not flow or lighting.

Do you have exact phosphate readings?


All else fails I would perform a icp test to rule out something irritating them in the water column.

 

[melonheadorion]

Since you don't have a par meter and are not sure about flow. I would place a few of the frags higher up closer to a power head and some lower. Do the same further away from the power head. If none open then it's not flow or lighting.

Do you have exact phosphate readings?


All else fails I would perform a icp test to rule out something irritating them in the water column.

i have actually done this as well, and doesnt effect it. i can say that the flow, in just about everywhere in the tank should be low to moderate flow. my returns i keep vertical to the water surface, and my flow mostly directed upward and is on the opposite end of the tank. ive used macro algae to determine how much flow is moving through, and it slightly sways, so my assumption should be that it is low to moderate, at best.
i have a superman mushroom nearby that doesnt mind the flow that it gets, nor does it really move, so that is another sign that i use.
something that i did notice a couple days ago, a couple of the newer frags i got, reacted to the vibration of setting something down on the cabinet that the tank sits on (they slightly closed (this is when they were fully open)). i do have a canister filter within the cabinet, that maybe is creating enough vibration to keep them closed. im going to move it outside of the tank to see if that changes anything.

for phosphate readings, im using a fluval kit and have used an api kit to test it. both ready about the same, or as close as someone can see with the color anyway, and they are at most .2 but somewhere between .1 and .2

 

[RedFrog211]

I don’t believe the zoas would close up due to too little light, though I may be mistaken! Where do you source your RO water?

sorry for bombarding your with questions. I hope you can get this solved soon

 

[melonheadorion]

I don’t believe the zoas would close up due to too little light, though I may be mistaken! Where do you source your RO water?

sorry for bombarding your with questions. I hope you can get this solved soon

i make it myself with my 4 stage rodi unit. i have also tested the water before putting it into the tank to ensure that there are no elevated phosphate, ammonia, etc.

and i am sure this will come up....i do not have a TDS meter

 

[melonheadorion]

I don’t believe the zoas would close up due to too little light, though I may be mistaken! Where do you source your RO water?

sorry for bombarding your with questions. I hope you can get this solved soon

i moved them to shadow to test a couple things. many of the larger polyp frags i got, tended to shrink. at least 3 of the frags had polyps with long stalks that are no longer long, so i moved them to see if they would stretch out, and maybe get an idea if they needed more light or not. it doesnt really seem to matter too much.

through the day, i will see them slightly open, but then also see them go back to completely closed. normally, it wouldnt make me think anythign is unusual as polyps that i ahve, do this through the day depending on fish nearby, or whatever, but the ones with issues just never completely open at all, but are not hesitant to close back up. generally, you would think that if one colony is being bothered by something toxic, that all of them would have issues IE: ammonia spikes. but, at the same time, i dont rule it out.
at this point, i think i have it narrowed down to a couple things. flow, lighting, something irritating in the water, or pests (not tank pests, but pod type of things).
ive tested almost all i can with lighting, so i dont think thats it. flow, im going to try to put a frag that is closed, into a small glass int he tank, to see if effects the polyps by eliminating flow altogether.
im also going to try making a frag rack to move them to be elevated on the glass to see if that does anything pest wise.

if all of these fail, my only thought is water. while these frags were in the LFS, they were open and doing well, and did not change until they got in my tank, so i am leaning more toward water issues than anythign else. although it is a hassle, i can buy RODI water from him very cheap, its just a hassle to go to get it, and transport it, but will at least attempt it if all else fails.

i am still up for other suggestions or ideas as well

 

[mikemathis555]

I really don’t mean this the way it might come off, but maybe they aren’t opening because they are being moved around too much?

 

[melonheadorion]

I really don’t mean this the way it might come off, but maybe they aren’t opening because they are being moved around too much?

I give the multiple weeks in a spot before I've tried another spot.

 

[evrydayzawrkday]

You ever find out the cause for this?

 

[melonheadorion]

unfortunately not. however, once i got my large tank going, i moved my zoas to the new tank which is low nutrient comparative to the 20g. larger colonies, i never had any issues with, but if it was small colonies (2 or 3 polyps), they never seemed to do well in the 20g. once i moved them all over to the 65g, they all have done fine. the par was fine, as well as flow, so i attribute the issues to phosphates. thats my guess anyway. its the only thing that is really different between the two, so its the only thing that makes sense to me.
i found that some did ok in very low light (10 par-ish) and some did well in the 50 range. the ones that i put in 10 par did not like anything higher, but those same ones that did well in those parameters are full open in par in the bigger tank now. although it seems par could be a thing, it did not seem to carry over to the change from tank to tank.

 

[melonheadorion]

for comparison, the 20g tank was at about .2 for phosphates, whereas the 65g is around .02. amount of nitrates didnt seem to affect their behavior, and is comparable between the two tanks anyway