NEED THE GURUS! zoas BLEACHED after 3 day vacation?!

Xirxes23 · Dec 29, 2007

So i just got back from 3 days in vegas, and ALL of the zoas that had a brown/tan SKIRT now have a white/clear SKIRT, the center coloration is exaclty the same!

I have quite a few SPS in the tank as well,and they are ALL unnafected.

The levels are near perfect: 1.024, 9.3 alk, 400 calcium, 0 nitrate, 0 phosphate, my chiller is still working keeping the temp below 78F.

WHAT GIVES? also what should i do? Some of the greens/yellows (once again on the skirts only) are now more of a flourescent/translucent.

Anyone experienced this? Man i don't know what it could be.

Thanks for any help, i will include pics asap.

surfn · Dec 29, 2007

picture?

Hypertek99 · Dec 29, 2007

Did you just recently get those zoa's or have they been in your tank for awhile now???

Xirxes23 · Dec 29, 2007

they have been in the tank for more than a few months... not new to tank.

Hypertek99 · Dec 29, 2007

and you didn't change your timing schedule?

Xirxes23 · Dec 29, 2007

nope... here are some shots for reference... unable to autobalance for corectness but ehre u go!

BEFORE:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c39/NicholeS29/2-1.jpg

AFTER:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c39/NicholeS29/IMG_5358.jpg

BEFORE:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c39/NicholeS29/6.jpg

AFTER:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c39/NicholeS29/IMG_5360.jpg

I am a LFS employee and no slouch in husbandry, i have seen MANY things in thehobby over the years, buti REALLY have no clue what could have caused this.

EDIT+++

It HAS been cold here so i hear, could a sustained temperature of 74 bleach a coral? I doubt that a 250W halide over a 30G cube could stay at 74, but man i just dont know.

reef-nut · Dec 30, 2007

Is the skirt color all they lost? If the center color is fine hopefully they will come back. Has any of them died completly? Did the time on the lights change in any way while you were gone?

Hypertek99 · Dec 30, 2007

The first zoa's don't look bleached to me. I think those pink zoas suppose to have the white skirts. I've seen them before. Maybe they just morphed colors

surfn · Dec 30, 2007

did you put in any chemical cleaners into the water any time recently? carbon? rowa? stuff like that?

Xirxes23 · Dec 30, 2007

nothing out of the ordinary... everything was running as it has been running for the last two months... the before pictures were the way the corals looked DIRECTLy before the trip.

On every affected zoanthid frag, ONLY the skirts are affected, with center color bright and not affected. I do not believe that the lighting schedule changed, becasue today it is still on and off of its own acord.

I apologize, thought i had mentioned this earlier... this is a whole tank phenomenon! Very unlikely that 12-15 frags of different zoas all decided to morph into white skirts in 3 days LOL.

Anyone ever experienced bleaching of zoas where SPS not affected with low temps? Thats about the only danged thing i can think of.

I have 250W 15K XM over the 30G about 10 inches off the water.... do you think if my caretaker forgot to cover the tank with the glass lid again that it could bleach the corals with UV??? Just grasping in the dark here.

Xirxes23 · Dec 30, 2007

Ok heres another pic from one that is one of the most transparent...

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c39/NicholeS29/IMG_5361.jpg

I only have one light, a 250W Mogul MH 15000k XM, anyone ever heard of a bulb itself going supernove and overpowering out of nowhere?

Xirxes23 · Dec 30, 2007

So Iv'e eliminated everything but temperature...

I believe that the tank probably got to 72 the last few nights, and i will be getting a larger heater to handle the cold. These soas should bounce right back right?

Thanks for any input.

surfn · Dec 30, 2007

i dont think a low temp swing would cause that.

i've had my zoas look like that from time to time.....and it was always caused by too much intense light in combination with ultra clear water. i.e. skimming wet or too much carbon or purigen in the tank......causing the zoas to look bleached.

what is this about the caretaker forgetting to cover the lid with the glass? is this is a DE setup? why would you remove the glass in the first place other than to replace the bulb in the pendant?

Hypertek99 · Dec 30, 2007

I don't think temp has anything to do with bleaching. When i get shipments in sometimes the temp get as low as 50-60's.

buster · Dec 30, 2007

lower nutrients than what they came from. You are skimming?

Xirxes23 · Dec 30, 2007

I am skimming with a remora nano on the 30 cube. Running a marineland cs180 canister with rowa/carbon/filter floss and bio balls (i have very little LR, please do not address the bioballs)

ok THis is a 250 MOGUL, so souldnt be any UV issues, and the caretaker did NOT remove the glass top to tank.

There has been NO change in light timing as far as i can tell...turns on and off without issues

Magnesium is 1200, compared to 1400 when i left, this is the ONLY measured change in system params before and after trip.

Alk: 9.3
Rates: below 0 ppm
Ammo/Nitrite: below 0 ppm
Calcium: 380 ppm
phosphate: no color on salifert testkit

Other than the bulb for some reason at 2 month in burn time decided to get a whole lot brighter, or the temperature getting too cold, i have absolutely NO clue why these would bleach.

Mind you, all of the affected zoanthids are on the SUBSTRATE, roughly 20 inches deep, and 0/15 SPS at 4-5 inches deep are affected in the least, which leads me to believe that it is NOT a lighting issue. And again to re-iterate, i have kept all of these different zoas well for 3-9 months depending on the frag, none are new and almost all are affected, so a possible Morph is out of the question.

So any other suggestions/experience? Once again anyone ever have a bulb all of a sudden GAIN power at 2 months use?

berns · Jan 1, 2008

without any changes to your set up/routine etc to account for this wholesale bleaching behaviour my thinking would be this reaction has to be due to a water biology/chemistry change. this change may have been just a brief one in some way but as we filter our water volume many times over a 24 hour period things can easily re-balence itself but you wont stop a coral reaction to anything it didnt like, but zoas/palys are quite hardy so no need to worry yet.

but...... if the lashes do not slowly colour back up and you start to loose colour of the centers aswell and all other corals are fine it could just aswell easily be a reaction to being slowly poisoned by something that has been released into the water coloum, maybe from another coral or ??

those that run carbon, as good as it is filtering/cleaning impurites, it can also very easily periodically dump a bit back into the water coloum and then over a very short period re-collect/clean it back up so you none the wiser this has happened (i often think this may be the coarse of many unexplained little blips in behavour of corals looking poorly for a brief while)