Brown film?

OutsideBrian · Jul 23, 2019

This zoa colony hasn’t opened in about two weeks. I tried moving it to see if it just wasn’t happy where it was. I noticed when I moved it there’s a brown film on the polyps.
Any ideas what it is and if I should dip it to try cleaning?

Tonyreeffish · Jul 23, 2019

Unfortunately it might be too late and they could already be melting. You can take a small paint brush or make up brush to brush the brown algae off and/or give them a dip but I think that most of them are probably past the point of no return. You'll know right away when you go to brush them if they are melting because youll break right into the tissue. Good luck, hope I'm wrong and they make it.

OutsideBrian · Jul 24, 2019

I dipped them in 50/50 tank water/peroxide for five minutes and lightly brushed/blasted them. They seem cleaner. Give it a couple days and see what they do.

ahiggins · Jul 25, 2019

In my experience, it’s a diatom/Dino algae and it suffocates them. Unfortunately yours look mid melt

if you catch it early, like when the polyps are still big and fluffy and only close at night, you can save them by adding flow to that area and blowing off/wiping off.
Sorry man, but they look like goners to me. I’ve had it happen too so don’t get discouraged.