Large scale zoa pox treatment

[AcroNem]

Well you know when things go great for a while then you're just waiting for your tank to throw you a curve ball? Well I didn't get a curveball It just hit me in the face instead haha. I have near 30 different colonies (and a lot more frags) in my frag tank and half of them have 1 or 2 polyps closed with what looks like a couple white patches...zoa pox. I know furan 2 dips will help me out but this is a large scale I'd need to dip. Any tips from someone whose done it before? Or do I just suck it up and take a lot of time dipping all the pieces? I've successfully beat pox before in other tanks just not like this so thanks in advance for any tips you guys with large prop systems can give.

 

[lakereef]

Could we see a pic of the infected zoas? Always wondered how you can tell they are infected.

 

[Ice]

make sure it's pox first..

 

[AcroNem]

What else would white fungus like patches and closed polyps be?

 

[wattson]

I feel your pain,,I have went through your situation last winter,,no easy way to do it but dip them in separate containers like you said/done previously is all know of..I ve found if you do a 15% + water change afterwards,,it help to promote healing and knock back some of the virus in your tank,,also get a good grip on temp swings,,thats one of the bigger issues that I feel provoked this pox issue with my zoas last year,,now I have a ranco controller with 3 300 watt heaters on my system,,which is overkill but gets the job done fast and steady..GL

 

[AcroNem]

Got home today, the pox is still fairly small but a lot more closed polyps today. Starting dips tonight I really don't want to lose any of these.

 

[Bunnee911]

What do you dip them in?

 

[AcroNem]

You dip them in furan 2. 1 packet per cup of tank water in a dipping container. I just finished my third day of consecutive dips and now will give them 4 days off. Honestly I don't see too much of a change so I'll likely need to repeat a second or third time. I ended up using two glass pans that I could put 8 cups of water in each (so 16 packets total each day) to dip multiples at a time. Really a pain but we'll see how well it turns out.

 

[AcroNem]

Also you asked for pictures sorry about that i finally took a few last night.

 

[wattson]

change 15% of water in the display tank and increase flow on them,,not abbrasive flow but more flow than what they were getting..I know it frustrating but most will get better but possibly a few wont...i always had success in treating though..
Make sure you fix your temp swing issues,,IME thats was my main problem when I got hit with zoa pox..I fixed that hopefully..
Please update your progress please

 

[AcroNem]

After first round of treatment it looks to have cleared quite a bit although polyps still look irritated. I've battled pox before in other systems just not on this scale. There's 3 gyre150's on this tank and two of them have been bumped up another 10% which added more flow but makes it even harder to keep my sand in place but i'll trade that any day. As far as temp goes the system is pegged at 78° I never really see swings. Although i believe one thing that may have stressed things is a drop in alk from 10-8.6, not quite sure how but it's now been corrected. Didn't see any stress in anything else in the tank including sticks but it's the only thing that changed/swung. I'm waiting on more furan and then will evaluate if a second round is needed. Although it may be necessary anyway.

 

[wattson]

was the Alk swing very fast or gradual as it normally happens?

 

[AcroNem]

I'm guessing it was gradual, the last couple weeks I barely got to check on it for a few days at a time. It's fairly good at running itself but I still dose manually so it probably just fell normally when I didn't get to dose to maintain its normal level. It rarely moves much so that's the only thing I can think of.

 

[wattson]

if the Alk swing was gradual then i wouldnt think that was it,,usually temp swings,new corals to the tank or dirty heaters/skimmer/heaters..also lack of water changes regular maintinance result in high organics,,the wrong kind..Some of those i read and others were first hand experineces..