Treating my Zoas

Ocean’s Piece · Jan 31, 2022

So I have some corals that have gone through a lot over the past 2 months, especially my zoas. The first thing that happened was I added additional lighting. I made the rookie mistake of increasing too much too fast and my zoas and some of my other corals did not appreciate it. Then, about a month later, dinos from bottomed nitrates. Everything was mad. Fortunately, I beat it about two weeks ago. Things are starting to look a lot better and aren't completely closed like they were, but there is one zoa that hasn't opened any of its polyps in 2 months which is concerning. Three of them are opening, but still a little closed and not fully extended. One of them, which I got a few days ago is perfectly happy (as of now at least). Is there a way to get the zoa that hasn't opened to open and is there any way to get the other zoas looking back to normal? Is this a matter of time before things start looking better on their own? Should I dip in Revive or another product? What should I do?

PS: This is a duplicated post. Original thread I bumped several times and never got any additional comments. Only thing different is the questions I am asking now.

Pic 1: Bowsers that have been closed for 2 months

Pic 2: Citrus Coolers/Sunny Ds that are starting to open back up, but are not fully opening

Pic 3: Illuminati Zoas that are doing the same thing as pic 2

Pic 4: Gatorade Zoas that are doing the same thing as pics 2 and 3

Pic 5: New Zoa that is fully extending

Can anyone tell me what I can do to treat them correctly?

blaxsun · Jan 31, 2022

Yes. Leave them alone. Keep up with water changes and testing to ensure your parameters are in-line and they'll eventually recover all on their own. Be patient - sometimes this can take weeks or longer.

Ocean’s Piece · Jan 31, 2022

blaxsun said:
Yes. Leave them alone. Keep up with water changes and testing to ensure your parameters are in-line and they'll eventually recover all on their own. Be patient - sometimes this can take weeks or longer.

Ok thanks. I have hope for my Zoas that are partially opened, but the bowsers are very concerning. Should I leave those be as well?

Zoa_Fanatic · Jan 31, 2022

Ocean’s Piece said:
Ok thanks. I have hope for my Zoas that are partially opened, but the bowsers are very concerning. Should I leave those be as well?

Yes. They’re open enough to take in some light and food. If you stress them out messing with them you will Make it worse. I don’t see any signs of disease or algea growing on the polyps. No reason to mess with them.

Ocean’s Piece · Feb 1, 2022

Zoa_Fanatic said:
Yes. They’re open enough to take in some light and food. If you stress them out messing with them you will Make it worse. I don’t see any signs of disease or algea growing on the polyps. No reason to mess with them.

Forgot to mention, the bowsers typically have brown algae growing on the polyps. All of the other Zoas don’t have algae growing on them but often times, I blow it off. It’s not like a stringy algae, it’s like a film on the polyps. Is this bad?

Ocean’s Piece · Feb 1, 2022

Zoa_Fanatic said:
Peroxide dip mashed this stuff when I had it growing on my Zoa. They bubble like crazy. I do 50/50 dips for 5 minutes and I haven’t lost any zoa yet. Mine just about always open back up the same day with no more algea on them.

This is a quote I found from you from this thread about a year ago when I was doing some digging. Do you still agree with this way of approaching the situation for my bowsers? Looks like I have about the same situation going on. My algae isn't stringy but it is definitely a film that covers the polyps daily.

Brown algae on Zoanthids

So I’ve had my first zoanthids for a week and I’ve had plug with 2 different kinds of zoas and I noticed that the first kind on the plug were and still doing fine but the different kind has been closed for awhile and I noticed some brown algae most likely diatom on the two polyps. I found it...

www.reef2reef.com

Zoa_Fanatic · Feb 1, 2022

Ocean’s Piece said:
This is a quote I found from you from this thread about a year ago when I was doing some digging. Do you still agree with this way of approaching the situation for my bowsers? Looks like I have about the same situation going on. My algae isn't stringy but it is definitely a film that covers the polyps daily.

Brown algae on Zoanthids

So I’ve had my first zoanthids for a week and I’ve had plug with 2 different kinds of zoas and I noticed that the first kind on the plug were and still doing fine but the different kind has been closed for awhile and I noticed some brown algae most likely diatom on the two polyps. I found it...

www.reef2reef.com

Yeah I do it all the time. I would seriously tone down the peroxide/water ratio though and not dip them for long.

Ocean’s Piece · Feb 1, 2022

Zoa_Fanatic said:
Yeah I do it all the time. I would seriously tone down the peroxide/water ratio though and not dip them for long.

Will give it a shot on wednesday and let you know what happens

Ocean’s Piece · Feb 4, 2022

Just dipped them yesterday. Ended up doing 100% hydrogen peroxide for 2 mins because I saw billy pipes do it with success. But a day later, nothing has opened (expected) and there is that same algae growing on them which I don’t know what that means. This algae isn’t growing everywhere and doesn’t really bother any of my other corals. What do you think all of this is?

Ocean’s Piece · Feb 5, 2022

@Zoa_Fanatic @vetteguy53081 do you know what that algae is? ^^^^

vetteguy53081 · Feb 5, 2022

Ocean’s Piece said:
@Zoa_Fanatic @vetteguy53081 do you know what that algae is? ^^^^

Yes- Its either the start of dino or diatoms.
Give the zoa gentle blasts with a turkey baster to clean it off.

Ocean’s Piece · Feb 5, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
Yes- Its either the start of dino or diatoms.
Give the zoa gentle blasts with a turkey baster to clean it off.

Just finished the Dino fight I thought. Guess not. My nitrates bottomed out and now they’re up again and Dino’s seemed to have stopped growing (ostreopsis). Should I keep dosing MB7 daily to get rid of it too? I have been turkey basting daily

vetteguy53081 · Feb 5, 2022

Ocean’s Piece said:
Just finished the Dino fight I thought. Guess not. My nitrates bottomed out and now they’re up again and Dino’s seemed to have stopped growing (ostreopsis). Should I keep dosing MB7 daily to get rid of it too? I have been turkey basting daily

Yes on Bacteria at 1ml per 10 gallons for another week and add 1 ml of peroxide per 10 gallons at night also for a week to assure theyre done.
Clean filters daily and empty skimmer cup daily for this one week period. Anything floating loose after basting - net up and discard and lower number of hours for white light or turn off

Ocean’s Piece · Feb 5, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
Yes on Bacteria at 1ml per 10 gallons for another week and add 1 ml of peroxide per 10 gallons at night also for a week to assure theyre done.
Clean filters daily and empty skimmer cup daily for this one week period. Anything floating loose after basting - net up and discard and lower number of hours for white light or turn off

In regards to dosing, can I dose MB7 and Hydrogen Peroxide at the same time? Can I dose MB7 with lights off? Also, can I dose peroxide in the morning (3-4 hours before lights come on) or does it need to be at night with 10+ hours of lights out?

vetteguy53081 · Feb 5, 2022

Ocean’s Piece said:
In regards to dosing, can I dose MB7 and Hydrogen Peroxide at the same time? Can I dose MB7 with lights off? Also, can I dose peroxide in the morning (3-4 hours before lights come on) or does it need to be at night with 10+ hours of lights out?

Yes although I prefer bacteria during the day and Peroxide at night

Ocean’s Piece · Feb 13, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
Yes although I prefer bacteria during the day and Peroxide at night

been doing this for 6 days and I haven't noticed a lot of change. Noticed just a tad, but there is still dinos growing on my zoa. Should I continue this until I don't see anymore?

Also, is my method flawed? A few hours after lights have turned on, I'll add 2.5 mLs of Microbacter (shaken, into low flow area) into my Biocube 32 (25 gallons of water)
Then at night, about 30 mins after lights off, I dose peroxide into a regular flow area

happyhourhero · Feb 13, 2022

You are running UV right?

Ocean’s Piece · Feb 13, 2022

happyhourhero said:
You are running UV right?

No, too expensive. Would be nice if I knew someone near me that had one I could borrow

happyhourhero · Feb 13, 2022

I found the UV to be the key to defeating Dinos. I had ostreopsis too and it was doing the same thing the my zoas.

Ocean’s Piece · Feb 13, 2022

happyhourhero said:
I found the UV to be the key to defeating Dinos. I had ostreopsis too and it was doing the same thing the my zoas.

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Would something like this be good? I have a 32 gallon tank and I’m not gonna use it all the time. I’d only use it for this and any potential Dino outbreaks in the future.