Losing some zoas, need help/ideas

[Reefer1978]

Morning y'all. Need some help or ideas what else to try. I've been randomly loosing some zoas in my tank. It's all over the tank, not just some areas. Some colonies are fine, some are randomly loosing heads without explanation. Either full dieouts, or one or two heads. Best example is my candy-apple frag, I got this frag with 2 heads, which quickly multiplied to 8, then bounced back to 6 and stayed there for a few months. No reason for two heads to wither away, but they did. Now another head is closed and not opening, same symptoms as before, it will wither away in a week or two.

I don't see any pests, one potential is asterina stars, which I started dealing with (Harlequin Shrimp).

Another idea is lights are too bright. Lowered them into acclimation mode to see if it help,

But other then that I am out of ideas for now.

Tank Parameters (Red Sea tests, Calibrated Refractometer)
Nitrate - .25ppm
Phosphate - .02ppm
Calcium - 470
Alk - 8.5
Mag - 1340
Salinity - 1.026

Lights are Orphek Atlantic 3.0+.

 

[steve&mari]

Have you dipped them ? I've found that sometimes a h2o2 dip does wonders with them. I also use coral rx with good results. Good move with the stars. People will debate if harmful or not but I had issues with the darker ones not the white ones with zoas. We also used a Harley shrimp to be rid of em.

 

[Reefer1978]

Have you dipped them ? I've found that sometimes a h2o2 dip does wonders with them. I also use coral rx with good results. Good move with the stars. People will debate if harmful or not but I had issues with the darker ones not the white ones with zoas. We also used a Harley shrimp to be rid of em.

I dip everything that goes into the tank, with maybe a few exceptions when brought coral in late at night. But this exact frag is in the system for 6 months already.

 

[steve&mari]

I dip everything that goes into the tank, with maybe a few exceptions when brought coral in late at night. But this exact frag is in the system for 6 months already.

I've pulled out zoas been in over a year because they start having issue sometimes we don't know why it happens but being active and treatment can revive them.

 

[Reefer1978]

I've pulled out zoas been in over a year because they start having issue sometimes we don't know why it happens but being active and treatment can revive them.

I've done proactive dips but they never seem to do anything.

 

[steve&mari]

You could try to frag off the melting polyp and I'd dip then replace it into tank. It's worth a shot it's a beautiful frag.

 

[A. grandis]

Morning y'all. Need some help or ideas what else to try. I've been randomly loosing some zoas in my tank. It's all over the tank, not just some areas. Some colonies are fine, some are randomly loosing heads without explanation. Either full dieouts, or one or two heads. Best example is my candy-apple frag, I got this frag with 2 heads, which quickly multiplied to 8, then bounced back to 6 and stayed there for a few months. No reason for two heads to wither away, but they did. Now another head is closed and not opening, same symptoms as before, it will wither away in a week or two.

I don't see any pests, one potential is asterina stars, which I started dealing with (Harlequin Shrimp).

Another idea is lights are too bright. Lowered them into acclimation mode to see if it help,

But other then that I am out of ideas for now.

Tank Parameters (Red Sea tests, Calibrated Refractometer)
Nitrate - .25ppm
Phosphate - .02ppm
Calcium - 470
Alk - 8.5
Mag - 1340
Salinity - 1.026

Lights are Orphek Atlantic 3.0+.

The params seems fine to me. You've said no predators and they are in the tank for about 6 months+, so...
Make sure you get those asterinas though!!
Please let us know what would be an acclimation mode for the light. There could be a million types, I presume.
Your "acclimation mode" could actually cause worse effects, not being beneficial to the polyps at all.

LEDs are like that... The polyps do great, reproducing and looking healthy... than they get weak and melt away!!
Everything goes fine for a while and out of nothing they start to perish and go down the hill.
That could happen because of the LEDs, yes, but could be lots of other things too.
Changing the LEDs' intensity could help somehow for a while, but in the long run, after so much ups and downs the polyps suffer so much that they'll just melt... That's why I truly believe that reefs shouldn't have any type of LEDs over them.
That fixture was probably between $700.00 to $ 1,000.00!!! You could get a nice T5 system instead!
If you want to change you could try an ATI.

Another thing... if you have GFO please remove it from the system. Most reef systems won't need GFO.
Good luck!

Grandis.

 

[jd371]

Same thing, I have some Rastas that are starting to wither away while other Zoas are doing fine. I have a small colony of Purple Hornets that where to doing the same about a month ago but made a comeback. I'm hoping the Rastas will be alright and bounce back, but it doesn't look good.

 

[A. grandis]

Same thing, I have some Rastas that are starting to wither away while other Zoas are doing fine. I have a small colony of Purple Hornets that where to doing the same about a month ago but made a comeback. I'm hoping the Rastas will be alright and bounce back, but it doesn't look good.

Again... changing the polyps around the tank is gamble...
Shouldn't be that hard!
If you guys know the problem is the light and don't want to change the LEDs for T5s you'll need to figure out the safest intensity for that tank.
Sometimes that is so messed up that there is no way to help all the different spots.
When one colony is getting better, the other will start to fail... and around it goes...

There is way too many people with problems trying to figure out LEDs.
Please make sure that your problem is really light, though.
I'm sorry.

Grandis.

 

[TheEngineer]

The params seems fine to me. You've said no predators and they are in the tank for about 6 months+, so...
Make sure you get those asterinas though!!
Please let us know what would be an acclimation mode for the light. There could be a million types, I presume.
Your "acclimation mode" could actually cause worse effects, not being beneficial to the polyps at all.

LEDs are like that... The polyps do great, reproducing and looking healthy... than they get weak and melt away!!
Everything goes fine for a while and out of nothing they start to perish and go down the hill.
That could happen because of the LEDs, yes, but could be lots of other things too.
Changing the LEDs' intensity could help somehow for a while, but in the long run, after so much ups and downs the polyps suffer so much that they'll just melt... That's why I truly believe that reefs shouldn't have any type of LEDs over them.
That fixture was probably between $700.00 to $ 1,000.00!!! You could get a nice T5 system instead!
If you want to change you could try an ATI.

Another thing... if you have GFO please remove it from the system. Most reef systems won't need GFO.
Good luck!

Grandis.

Sorry but your comments on LEDs are complete bunk. There are plenty of examples of successful tanks with zoas that run LEDS only and have for years. That includes coral farms.

 

[Reefer1978]

Sorry but your comments on LEDs are complete bunk. There are plenty of examples of successful tanks with zoas that run LEDS only and have for years. That includes coral farms.

Bud I am sorry but this comment is not helpful. Nobody is bashing LEDs, please don't turn this into a t5 Vs LED thread.

LEDs do have a higher learning curve. Mine put out 800 par at full power, and grandis is right, if I put them up at full power I will cook everything.

 

[Chrisfish]

Following this thread as I'm having the same problem and am finding it helpful, and I agree it should not turn into "this light versus that light".

 

[Ben007]

Zoas and palys can be really funny sometimes. I found that when i treat for flatworms after dipping really helps. Just make sure U have some mixed water ready to do a water change