Whats wrong with this zoa

bcarl77 · May 31, 2019

Need some help on what’s causing this stress on this zoa. All other corals look good. Water parameters: kH:8, Calc: 450, Mg: 1220, phos: 0.4ppm.

Is this a water parameter issue or something else?

tupes · May 31, 2019

What about nitrite and nitrates?

How long have you had the corals?

I'm suspecting you are referring to the the smaller zoa frags to the right side of the photo, correct? If so they look normal to me. Zoas open and close all the time mostly for no reason. I've had zoas stay closed for multiple days and then open up looking nicer than before they closed.

bcarl77 · May 31, 2019

I am referring to the middle closed polyp on the utter chaos. Will check nitrates. I have had them for a long time, over a year.

bcarl77 · May 31, 2019

Nitrates were about 1.5ppm

bobby.w.hodges · May 31, 2019

Seems like nitrate and phosphate are not balanced. Zoas prefer higher nitrate, like 10 to 20ppm, and phosphate is high for the amount of Nitrate you listed. Nitrate is coral food.

tupes · May 31, 2019

bcarl77 said:
I am referring to the middle closed polyp on the utter chaos. Will check nitrates. I have had them for a long time, over a year.

Ahh. I see it now. How long has it been CLOSED for? I also agree with above post for nitrate and phosphate.

blasterman · May 31, 2019

I'm seeing a lot of brownish stuff growing here, and I suspect we might have a dino bloom going on or some kind of nuisance algae thats ticking them off. I'm just not liking that brown stuff.

Also, I've had healthy, fast growing zoa / paly gardens and never touched them with a phosphate kit and never will. In order for N03 / P04 to get out of balance you have to be physically doing something to cause the imbalance, and in any respect I doubt even if you were it woulnd't cause zoathids to curl up and hide from the water because they don't care and aren't Acropora. I've had zoas thrive in nitrate levels too high to be tested. Just like UVA LEDs and voltage shorts now it N03 / P04 balances as the the new 'thang' to blame other more obvious problem on.

In any respect, a big water change will rule out N03 / P04 because they won't improve if it's not N03/P04. Right? I'm also not ruling out low pH because I'm seeing stunted skirts here as well and that's typically a sign of prolonged low pH.

My own experience with utter chaos is while they are slow growers they are among the hardiest of palys.

bobby.w.hodges · May 31, 2019

blasterman said:
I'm seeing a lot of brownish stuff growing here, and I suspect we might have a dino bloom going on or some kind of nuisance algae thats ticking them off. I'm just not liking that brown stuff.

Also, I've had healthy, fast growing zoa / paly gardens and never touched them with a phosphate kit and never will. In order for N03 / P04 to get out of balance you have to be physically doing something to cause the imbalance, and in any respect I doubt even if you were it woulnd't cause zoathids to curl up and hide from the water because they don't care and aren't Acropora. I've had zoas thrive in nitrate levels too high to be tested. Just like UVA LEDs and voltage shorts now it N03 / P04 balances as the the new 'thang' to blame other more obvious problem on.

In any respect, a big water change will rule out N03 / P04 because they won't improve if it's not N03/P04. Right? I'm also not ruling out low pH because I'm seeing stunted skirts here as well and that's typically a sign of prolonged low pH.

My own experience with utter chaos is while they are slow growers they are among the hardiest of palys.

You mentioned that it could be dinos or algae, both are caused/fueled by imbalanced nutrients. Facts are that there is an imbalance. I was just starting what I noticed, high phosphate fuels algae growth in general. I struggled with hair algae that was fueled by high phosphate and low Nitrate, i didn't realize that my multiple water changes were making it worse because my di resin was spent, the. 4 Phos could be from the sane kind of issue. Even if it isn't the cause of the current issue, if not figured out it will cause future issues.

bcarl77 · Jun 1, 2019

The only changes I made recently was cleaning the detritis out of the refugium and removing some chaeto. I can easily add some GFO and dose nitrate to help rebalance it. Typically my phosphates hang around .15-.18ppm. Is anyone concerned with the Mg levels?