My Zoa’s are dying

[Flame2hawk]

I’m in FALLOW period in my semi reef. This means my temp is at 81 and no fish. Salinity was unfortunately at 1.020 for 5 wks and raised it today to 1.024. All my corals are fine except my Zoa’s. You can see the pics of what’s left of my beautiful orange and green zoa Rick so sad. I have another orange zoa rock which is not as bad but starting to look like it’s turning for the worst. All other parameters and readings including iodine and calcium are good. Could Zoa’s been impacted by thes3 conditions even though all other corals and nems are fine? I loved that zoa rock

 

[BlennyTime]

Did you raise the salinity all in one day? That could cause stress on the corals.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Cannot see anything in those pictures, sorry. Need them with some white. I did see what could be sponge all over. That will invade zoas and cause damage. Can you take the m out for a dip or scrape?
Any sudden change in parameters will affect the animals. How they handle it is based on them individually.
Hope they recover.

 

[Uncle99]

Hard to kill, but easy if your starving them.
Blue only?
That won’t work long term.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I hope you are providing more light that is shown in pics. Starvation is not a cause for stress as they need zooxanthellae more than food - Again Light which provides this. I believe I see poriferan sponge surrounding them which will irritate them.
There are a number of factors why zoas close up. Some are water movement/flow as zoas do not require the consistent high flow conditions that SPS corals do. I would consider a moderate flow environment ideal but Zoanthids, like most corals, can adapt to low or high flow. In high flow, you will typically see polyps grow closer to the rock with shorter stalks. Another is lack of feeding and food as infrequent feeding and ultra low nutrient conditions can lead to entire colony meltdowns. Target feeding is not a requirement as Zoanthids are photosynthetic. I have found that target feeding Zoanthids always provides mixed results, when a food particle falls onto the polyps.

Back to parameters, good water quality is a must.
dKH: 8.0 - 11.0
Calcium: 400 - 440
Magnesium: 1300 - 1350
Iodine: Maintained via regular water changes or manually at small dosages
Temperature: 78-79 degrees
pH: 8.1-8.3
Phosphates: .02 - .03
Nitrates < 8

Asterina stars, little tiny tiny spiders and nudibranchs also will make them miserable to point of death as will aptasia, worms like spinoids or vermetid snails. A few things to look for. Hope this helps

 

[Flame2hawk]

Totally confused….they are under mostly blue lights and low white. Was told that was good for Zoa’s. Its’ not? All other corals thriving. Is that the problem> There are no sponges in the tank. The zoa rock was in tank doing well for some time and all of the sudden this “spongey type white stuff with shoots as shown in photo developed. This is not suppose to be this hard as everyone always said Zoa’s were easy but I’m having more luck with everything but Zoa’s…..

 

[vetteguy53081]

Totally confused….they are under mostly blue lights and low white. Was told that was good for Zoa’s. Its’ not? All other corals thriving. Is that the problem> There are no sponges in the tank. The zoa rock was in tank doing well for some time and all of the sudden this “spongey type white stuff with shoots as shown in photo developed. This is not suppose to be this hard as everyone always said Zoa’s were easy but I’m having more luck with everything but Zoa’s…..

Not that that lighting is Not good, but they need that white balance for production od zooxanthellae which is their building blocks for color and energy
What light are you using ?

 

[Flame2hawk]

Not that that lighting is Not good, but they need that white balance for production od zooxanthellae which is their building blocks for color and energy
What light are you using ?

SMATFARM LED Aquarium Light, I had both warm and cold white at 5/10% and dark and indigo blue at 80%. Should I add more cold and warm white?​

 

[Flame2hawk]

Here are 2 more pics with white light higher than before. You can see the white shoots more clearly coming out in between polyps.
I did have predominantly blue on and have now increased both cold and warm white to 40 Any suggestions on where I should have my warm and cold white as well as blues which are now at 70. Thx.

 

[vetteguy53081]

SMATFARM LED Aquarium Light, I had both warm and cold white at 5/10% and dark and indigo blue at 80%. Should I add more cold and warm white?​

cold white- 10/15 and indigo at 90-

 

[Flame2hawk]

cold white- 10/15 and indigo at 90-

That’s pretty much what it was on before I just changed it.

 

[Flame2hawk]

Here are 2 more pics with white light higher than before. You can see the white shoots more clearly coming out in between polyps.
I did have predominantly blue on and have now increased both cold and warm white to 40 Any suggestions on where I should have my warm and cold white as well as blues which are now at 70. Thx.

Any ideas what the white “stalks” and spongey looking white thing is?

 

[Bribo12]

That’s some crazy looking sponge growth on them. Idk how you get that off without harming the zoas too. Maybe try a peroxide dip? Definitely not a light issue. Invasive sponge.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I have had that sponge growth before and it really irritates and kills zoas. Take it out, scrape off all the sponge and rinse with h2o2 around the zoas. Hopefully they will come back. Watch for more of that invasive sponge.

Hold on, took another look. Are those spikes hard or soft? Either way, something is irritating those zoas. Get out and dip and cut off anything not zoa around them.