Really Need GOOD advice. All Zoa's gone

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Cnidoblast said:
Depends on what toxins - Gsp might be a nice way of finding out if there is a toxin at play - also worth upping your carbon

GSP is real cheap so it's worth getting a small chunk
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If it would tell me anything, I would. What happens if it dies too? What would that be an indicator of?
 
Breakthecycle2 said:
I'll try to be precise here. Over the last 3 to 4 months, every polyp in my tank is gone. Everyone. I know the obvious thinking is, something is eating it. Let me start there. I thought it was fish and I had ICH going on, so I decided to go fishless and have been for 6 weeks. That did n ot stop it. They all kept disappearing. What was happening was, they would stay closed, sometimes for weeks or a month, eventually shrinking on disappearing completely. If I added a new frag, gone in a week or two. I've done the following: removed all fish, did dips in: revive, iodine, peroxide and bi furan ( not at the same time). I did not see anything in the buckets. I used both white and black buckets. This brings me to the next thing I have amphipods ALL OVER. Thousands (10 of thousands really) and have seen them all over my zoas. Now, I know they can irritate them, but eat them?Not sure. I started this tank 3 years ago and used completely dry rock, so I don't think there are any rouge crabs. I also do not have any astrenia (SP) starfish at all. So two questions here: 1. What could it have been ( I do not have any zoas left right now). 2. If it was something like spiders, how long should I wait before trying zoas again? The rest of my coral seems fine and thriving. LPS, SPS and a ton of mushrooms.

Params:

Salinity: 1.025 (refractometer)
Calcium: 490
ALK: 8.2-8.8
MAG: 1350
Phos: .04-.10
Nitrates: 30PPM
PH: 7.8-8.01 (using a calcium reactor)

Temp: 77-79

Lighting 3 Radion G3's, 11 hour schedule.
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I got clobbered by Spiders several months ago. Killed off a bunch of wild colonies I scored from a LARGE and VERY well know online vendor - only zoas in the tank. Once I realized I had all of these spider looking things in the tank I pulled all my crabs and did a treatment with Dr Gs - whole tank. Killed all the spiders and pods. Everything started recovering within the week.
 
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that amphipods do eat zoa. Especially the bigger ones. I agree with zuri, would put in a wrasse to mow the population down. When you dip your corals, are you using the right dosage? I don't get how you're not seeing anything fall off your frags when you dip. Even in my tank something always comes off when i dip, like copepods and stuff. Nitrates kind of high too at 30 ppm.
 
Are they the real big amphipods? I suppose those might consume zoas if there was no other food present.
 
Deltec
Sjet said:
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that amphipods do eat zoa. Especially the bigger ones. I agree with zuri, would put in a wrasse to mow the population down. When you dip your corals, are you using the right dosage? I don't get how you're not seeing anything fall off your frags when you dip. Even in my tank something always comes off when i dip, like copepods and stuff. Nitrates kind of high too at 30 ppm.
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Pods, yes. I see those fall off.
 
Breakthecycle2 said:
If it would tell me anything, I would. What happens if it dies too? What would that be an indicator of?
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I guess it would show if there's a toxin in the water that only targets softies or if you see bite marks something got an appetite for softies

Reading the other posts it seems like you might have bad pods or zoa spiders - I like the six line wrasse idea
 
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Cnidoblast said:
I guess it would show if there's a toxin in the water that only targets softies or if you see bite marks something got an appetite for softies
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I don't think there is. It started on one side of the tank, took them all out. I had two lone frags what looked like they were going well and then bam, gone.
 
Bacterial infection or spiders/predation seem likely
 
No clue but I would assume 3 months or so #reefsquad
 
Centerline said:
I got clobbered by Spiders several months ago. Killed off a bunch of wild colonies I scored from a LARGE and VERY well know online vendor - only zoas in the tank. Once I realized I had all of these spider looking things in the tank I pulled all my crabs and did a treatment with Dr Gs - whole tank. Killed all the spiders and pods. Everything started recovering within the week.
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@Centerline
 
Breakthecycle2 said:
Or is there something that can be dosed to kill spiders (or a just in case)?
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Dr G’s coral dip, used directly in your tank...
Remove your inverts before dosing.
And if it is spiders, you’re gonna need to manually inspect each frag and freshwater dip for a few months.

I’m leaning toward your amphipods being the culprits though.
Perhaps look into Catalina gobies (I KNOW they eat amphipods!) or pink streaked wrasses, melanurus too
 
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in my opinion its not possible to troubleshoot the situation without a full tank shot. we're looking at things other than the actual zos

im looking for:
-is every crevice in the tank pristinely white, or are there any spots in the corners of light accumulation and calcification. zos want feed, I noticed po4 strippers being used here. tank organics spot check
-looking at other coral details, to see if any new mass has been added beyond frags. doesn't mean bad if not...but if they happen to be spilling over the plugs and only zos are holding back we're closing in
-general bioloading assessment given all ratios/fish in the big picture
-patches of algae or light competitive growth signaling some nutrients history
-placement in the tank that might be less flow causing change in hydrodynamic profile of the zos/eventual wasting and separation
-looking for any aged rocks in the system with color and attached benthic life forms/fanworms/sponges if any, seeking nutrient locations in these pics. zos want feed
-any form of calcification on pumps, inlets, some color to the system in the general picture. If the tank is newer and lacks calcification, that’s not bad it just shifts zo support to the types of feed you provide to make up for early tank nondiversity


I always check the greater support vs the actual zo colony given no clear invaders seen or teased off the colony for id.

curious: what would happen in this tank if no form of nitrate or po4 binding media were used? I recall from earlier posts some invasion challenges on this system if I recall correctly, am curious to see how much of the binding was set up in response to that if any. if you went to just skimming and water changes, what happens to the setup?

pics
 
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A yellow candy hog fish will help with the pods also and shouldn’t be an issue with the wrasses
 
WWC
Are these all from the same Fish store or Source??? Or are they all from different suppliers?
 

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