Cleaning zoas

[Payne Train]

What’s the best way to get algae off of zoas. I’ve been able to get some off with a turkey baster, but some of it is stick to them . Any ideas ?

 

[pseudorand]

For hair algae on two frags I have in QT I take a soft toothbrush and gently brush around and between them. It does get most of the algae off, but since they're in QT I obviously have no long term info on if I've hurt the zoas doing that, but they did open up again after the pricing. The algae has come back a few times and I had to do it again, so it's an imperfect solution.

Mostly I just wanted to +2 this question because I need a better method than the toothbrush.

 

[Reverend Turtle]

Hydrogen peroxide dip. Just takes a couple of minutes. Check YouTube for mixing ratios.

 

[Tired]

On the frag, or on the zoa themselves? Toothbrush is good to clean the frag, just don't scrub the zoas- they won't like it and it may damage them. And remember to be careful while handling potential sources of palytoxin.

Long-term, small snails are a good bet.

 

[Payne Train]

on the actual zoa itself - it’s like a thin layer on a few of them.

 

[sfin52]

Agree with hydrogen peroxide. I used a 50/50 solution for about 3-4 min really does the trick

 

[Payne Train]

Agree with hydrogen peroxide. I used a 50/50 solution for about 3-4 min really does the trick

just to double check - that won’t hurt the zoas right ? It’s blue agraves, seductions and butt Kissers.

 

[sfin52]

just to double check - that won’t hurt the zoas right ? It’s blue agraves, seductions and butt Kissers.

Its what i did but others say to use a lower dose. Ive even read where leople did 100%. Research and do what you feel comfortable with. I felt 50 50 was ok.

 

[danschoenherr]

Agree with the peroxide treatment. They may take a day or two to reopen, I also use a small artist brush to clean my zoa frags/polyps. It is not as abarasive as a toothbrush and can get in between the polyps bettrer to remove the algae/bacterial film that builds up on them.

 

[najer]

Make sure you annoy the zoas before the dip to close them up, holding them in front of a powerhead will do it, they will wake up quicker afterwards.

 

[Payne Train]

Lol nervous - so I’m dipping two cheaper zoa frags tonight with 50/50 and see what happens

 

[makingitwork]

What happened?! I have a similar issue, but I cannot dip my big polyp zoas; after some research I found a tidal gardens video talking about hacks and one of them was to buy a multi-pack of makeup brushes and brush away turf with stiff bristle brushes and whispy algae with the softer brushes that I can brush down the whole coral with. If you try this make sure you buy nontoxic ones.

 

[Payne Train]

What happened?! I have a similar issue, but I cannot dip my big polyp zoas; after some research I found a tidal gardens video talking about hacks and one of them was to buy a multi-pack of makeup brushes and brush away turf with stiff bristle brushes and whispy algae with the softer brushes that I can brush down the whole coral with. If you try this make sure you buy nontoxic ones.

I got home late last night but noticed that they looked a little better than the day before. They weren’t completely cleaned off by any means.

I’ll be home at a more normal time this evening - I’ll give another update then

 

[Reverend Turtle]

In my experience it can take 2 or 3 days for the algae to die off.

 

[Payne Train]

So some of the algae looks like it’s not on the couple frags - but the hair type algae is still on there (that’s the kind I wanted off the most )

we’ll see what it looks like tomorrow

 

[Payne Train]

So this morning the frags look noticeably cleaner. They still have hair algae in them and a couple tiny spots of slimy algae.
One of the two frags hasn’t opened up fully yet - pout I did move that specific frag to a different part in the tank on the sandbed.

Im still iffy if I'm going to try it with my more higher priced zoas. I’ll probably work my way up to them:

lastly, if I had to give my honest input - I think the frag rack itself is a big part of the problem. I have a nice one, but it seems like it’s always getting dirty too fast. I may just drop all of my zoas into the sand bed and let my snails work on them that way.

 

[Payne Train]

Last night I went ahead and dipped some more zoas in 40% peroxide and 60% water. I also droped a tad bit of Revive in the mix too.
A bunch of the algae came off, most of the frags look pretty clean. I will say that the zoas are only about 1/3 of the way open today, one is looking a little mad.
I will give an update tomorrow

 

[dead zoa]

My brown / black zoa looked dead. tried the 2 min peroxide trick with paint brushing in small bowl filled with saltwater, back to green in 2 min. Saltwater rinsed zoa and I wil let zoa soak overnight in salwater and re-rinse and brush again in morning before putting this back in tank.