Long term issue with Zoas only opening halfway

[brandon4432]

Also, the only thing I believe to be effected by the stray voltage was the zoa's. I've heard they are extremely sensitive to stray voltage.

 

[Legonch]

Didn't read this whole thread but I had a similar problem about a month ago. I was desperate and getting pretty agitated. A fellow reefer told me to check for stray voltage and I discovered I did have above average amount of stray voltage in my tank. A added a "rid-volt titanium grounding probe" and all my zoa's made a full recovery and look awesome!

I actually tried that also. Forgot to put that in my original post. Good call though!

 

[Triggreef]

Also, the only thing I believe to be effected by the stray voltage was the zoa's. I've heard they are extremely sensitive to stray voltage.

I'd bet that's a coincidence. One way to tell for sure is to unplug that for a couple days and see if they close up again.

Reason i say that is because i was having some issues in one of my tanks and checked and found 50 ish volts in the tank having issues. Then i checked my tanks with no issues and pretty much the same corals. The tanks with no issues had way higher stray voltage. One of them measured 118.

 

[brandon4432]

I'd bet that's a coincidence. One way to tell for sure is to unplug that for a couple days and see if they close up again.

Reason i say that is because i was having some issues in one of my tanks and checked and found 50 ish volts in the tank having issues. Then i checked my tanks with no issues and pretty much the same corals. The tanks with no issues had way higher stray voltage. One of them measured 118.

Maybe a coincidence, may not be. That's part of the reason I love this hobby so much! All of us have different opinions and different things that work for us but it doesn't always work for everyone. In my experience, every single zoa colony was "partially closed" and I immediately saw progress upon getting my voltage reading down to 0.

 

[Legonch]

Okay, Im still having an issue with zoas opening. I had some zoas in a different coral qt, and the water had a huge algae bloom going, etc. Zoas were totally open and happy. I moved them into my dt(with the closed zoas) and in a day in a half, they look just like the others.

I had trition labs do a water test, and got the results back this am. Interesting to see is there is some copper in the tank water. I did buy some live rock when I got this tank, and what to watch out for, etc. Not sure if there is copper leaching out of the rocks, or what. My zoas in this tank did really well for 6-7 months initially, and have slowly closed and stay that way today.

Im uploading a copy of my trition tests. I see my phosphate is elevated also. I have a constant struggle with phosphate in this tank.....and I know its these rocks. Also there is a lot of iron in the tank from running BRS GFO. Ive since stopped running GFO

Ive started running more activated carbon since getting these results trying to get copper down, I also added a poly filter.

Thank you for any advice, ideas, etc.

 

[Esage]

Okay, Im still having an issue with zoas opening. I had some zoas in a different coral qt, and the water had a huge algae bloom going, etc. Zoas were totally open and happy. I moved them into my dt(with the closed zoas) and in a day in a half, they look just like the others.

I had trition labs do a water test, and got the results back this am. Interesting to see is there is some copper in the tank water. I did buy some live rock when I got this tank, and what to watch out for, etc. Not sure if there is copper leaching out of the rocks, or what. My zoas in this tank did really well for 6-7 months initially, and have slowly closed and stay that way today.

Im uploading a copy of my trition tests. I see my phosphate is elevated also. I have a constant struggle with phosphate in this tank.....and I know its these rocks. Also there is a lot of iron in the tank from running BRS GFO. Ive since stopped running GFO

Ive started running more activated carbon since getting these results trying to get copper down, I also added a poly filter.

Thank you for any advice, ideas, etc.

Did you ever figure this issue out? I'm having the same issue and I'm at a complete loss. Everything else in the tank is doing good.

 

[Triggreef]

Okay, Im still having an issue with zoas opening. I had some zoas in a different coral qt, and the water had a huge algae bloom going, etc. Zoas were totally open and happy. I moved them into my dt(with the closed zoas) and in a day in a half, they look just like the others.

I had trition labs do a water test, and got the results back this am. Interesting to see is there is some copper in the tank water. I did buy some live rock when I got this tank, and what to watch out for, etc. Not sure if there is copper leaching out of the rocks, or what. My zoas in this tank did really well for 6-7 months initially, and have slowly closed and stay that way today.

Im uploading a copy of my trition tests. I see my phosphate is elevated also. I have a constant struggle with phosphate in this tank.....and I know its these rocks. Also there is a lot of iron in the tank from running BRS GFO. Ive since stopped running GFO

Ive started running more activated carbon since getting these results trying to get copper down, I also added a poly filter.

Thank you for any advice, ideas, etc.

Po4 actually is not that bad, mine has been way higher with no issues. The copper is most likely from the foods you feed, everyone usually has a little aside from people that do crazy amounts of water changes. It is probably the Na that could be your problem. Not so much that like your sg is off, although it could be. More likely your water is imbalanced. I've had similar results in regard to the Na and similar problems followed. Also had myth higher like 4 times higher copper levels. But i would suggest many large water changes to get the water back into a good balance. As for the po4 alternate between gfo and aluminum based po4 products. They will work against eachother nicely while still completing the po4 removal goal.

 

[wattson]

what are your Iodide/Iodate concentrations ?? get a good test kit and find out...I see pretty fast reactions when i dose Iodide /Iodate in my system of zoas/palys,,,,,test first before you dose..every Wednesday is Iodide/iodate dosing day for my system..
whats your water change schedule ? also,,raise NO3 by feeding more or dose it to around 7.5..
might be as simply of being too clean too..I would start with nutrients and the Iodide topic..

 

[Triggreef]

Interesting thought with the iodine, census on the forums say test kits aren't very reliable with it.

 

[wattson]

I test for iodide and iodate,,fairly accurate...I dose 2/3 the dose to play it safe..Always under dose ,,if I can make it happen..
Dosing Iodide/Iodate is a contriversal topic but my first hand experiences are very postive,,hence why I dose it...
I see pretty much instant differences in my zoas/palys in a couple of hours of dosing it..

 

[rosshamsandwich]

updates?

 

[Kremis]

Just wanted to add - I started to have issues with zoas only half opening or staying closed, and I fixed it by doing 2 things:
- I started doing infrequent water changes due to time, so I got back onto a regular 1 water change / week schedule
- dosed chemiclean to remove cyano that was growing on zoas. I think that this is a big factor, as the cyano was growing on closed zoas. I tried manually removing it for a few weeks but it just kept coming back.

 

[Triggreef]

Just wanted to add - I started to have issues with zoas only half opening or staying closed, and I fixed it by doing 2 things:
- I started doing infrequent water changes due to time, so I got back onto a regular 1 water change / week schedule
- dosed chemiclean to remove cyano that was growing on zoas. I think that this is a big factor, as the cyano was growing on closed zoas. I tried manually removing it for a few weeks but it just kept coming back.

Thanks for remembering to post back. Good information, I've always had good luck with chemiclean here and there. The few times I've used it I've definitely noticed zoas perking up.

One thing I've changed recently that has had unbelievable results on my zoas, is I've gone to kessils and mostly all blue. Not 100 percent blue but pretty close. And many problems with zoas half opening and melting went away.

 

[Triggreef]

Just wanted to add - I started to have issues with zoas only half opening or staying closed, and I fixed it by doing 2 things:
- I started doing infrequent water changes due to time, so I got back onto a regular 1 water change / week schedule
- dosed chemiclean to remove cyano that was growing on zoas. I think that this is a big factor, as the cyano was growing on closed zoas. I tried manually removing it for a few weeks but it just kept coming back.

Thanks for remembering to post back. Good information, I've always had good luck with chemiclean here and there. The few times I've used it I've definitely noticed zoas perking up.

One thing I've changed recently that has had unbelievable results on my zoas, is I've gone to kessils and mostly all blue. Not 100 percent blue but pretty close. And many problems with zoas half opening and melting went away.

Okay, Im still having an issue with zoas opening. I had some zoas in a different coral qt, and the water had a huge algae bloom going, etc. Zoas were totally open and happy. I moved them into my dt(with the closed zoas) and in a day in a half, they look just like the others.

I had trition labs do a water test, and got the results back this am. Interesting to see is there is some copper in the tank water. I did buy some live rock when I got this tank, and what to watch out for, etc. Not sure if there is copper leaching out of the rocks, or what. My zoas in this tank did really well for 6-7 months initially, and have slowly closed and stay that way today.

Im uploading a copy of my trition tests. I see my phosphate is elevated also. I have a constant struggle with phosphate in this tank.....and I know its these rocks. Also there is a lot of iron in the tank from running BRS GFO. Ive since stopped running GFO

Ive started running more activated carbon since getting these results trying to get copper down, I also added a poly filter.

Thank you for any advice, ideas, etc.

That sounds very familiar to me. Almost exact actually. That why I stopped using gfo. Permanently.

You can try running another reactor with a metal remover media. I forget what its called but there is one that looks like little white beads and removes low level copper etc.

Worst case there is triton detox. It works well and I used it many times with good results.

As for where it gets in, I highly doubt it's from The Rock's although many people will tell you that's probably what it's from.

 

[rosshamsandwich]

Thanks for remembering to post back. Good information, I've always had good luck with chemiclean here and there. The few times I've used it I've definitely noticed zoas perking up.

One thing I've changed recently that has had unbelievable results on my zoas, is I've gone to kessils and mostly all blue. Not 100 percent blue but pretty close. And many problems with zoas half opening and melting went away.

That sounds very familiar to me. Almost exact actually. That why I stopped using gfo. Permanently.

You can try running another reactor with a metal remover media. I forget what its called but there is one that looks like little white beads and removes low level copper etc.

Worst case there is triton detox. It works well and I used it many times with good results.

As for where it gets in, I highly doubt it's from The Rock's although many people will tell you that's probably what it's from.

which kessil? 360? ap700?

 

[slapman83]

any update on this ? as im suffering same issues..

 

[Vincent100]

sounds to me like your water maybe too clean. If you have a small bioload and barely getting anything in the collection cup of your skimmer the zoas may not have enough nutrients to thrive. Have you ever tried spot feeding with reef roids or smaller particle foods?

+1
I'v a big collection of zoa in my frag tank and sell to my LFS
It's a 170 liter red sea that's including the sump .
I'v 9 blue green Chromis , 2 clowns and a lawnmower Blenny in that tank
I run the skimmer on for 2 days than off for 3 over and over
I feed heavy and don't rinse any of the frozen food
I do have a algae reactor tho
My zoa grow like crazy because of my dirty.....ish water
So maybe try feeding more

 

[Potatohead]

When my zoas start to not open all the way it is almost always low phosphate. I first noticed it when it was happening my glass was not getting nearly as dirty as quickly. Raised phosphate a bit and they opened up again.

 

[Thewatchmangoby]

Anyone in this thread figure out the issue?
Going through the exact same thing.

 

[Edmund Y.]

I’ve had the same problems with my zoas. Talked to my LFS and his zoas were imported from Southeast Asia and he told me that the SG from the ocean there has a lower salinity than 1.025. His zoas are always opened up and his salinity in the store is always in the 1.021-1.022 range. I get all my zoas from him. My salinity was usually in the 1.025 and zoas do good for a couple of weeks then start to melt away. He advised me to lower salinity and I did that about 6 weeks ago and it did stop the zoas from melting. Now they are opened and so far so good. That is the only change I did on the tank. So far the rest of the other corals are okay. Anyone have thoughts on this?