Why are my zoas melting?

Edgecrusher28 · Feb 22, 2023

littlebigreef said:
I agree with @mfollen on the bacterial/protozan/fungal side (as my earlier posts attest to) but I also recognize that there's other factors at play here.

@jonbar1's Acropower observation (combined with the over-skimming discussion) is interesting. Perhaps we're pulling out too much good organic stuff? I know a few reefers that have long been dosing Aminos to great effect. looking forward to @Edgecrusher28 's results after dosing Acropower.

Wondering if any one is doing Reef Moonshiners program and what their experience might be with that? For those unfamiliar its an ICP based targeted dosing regime. From anecdotal evidence I've heard of it returning great results on mixed reefs, I've heard less about it in regards to zoas specifically.

I should have yet another of my ATI/ICP test results back perhaps by end of the week and the Acro Power will be here Saturday. I purchased new heaters and controller (I'm really desperate for a solution) and will do a deep sump clean and fresh water change as a control before I try the Acro power; will report back!

Edgecrusher28 · Mar 1, 2023

So a little follow up on the last few things that I have been working through over the last few weeks regarding my Zoa issues. The latest ICP test results are back and once again it appears that all items are where they should be. Overall ATI score was 93% which has been my highest score to date, yet Zoa's still look like death. I have been dosing Acro Power at a dose of 30ml per day, with no notable change or improvement, just like it was with Reef Energy, I have since installed the HELIOS controller and heaters just in a desperate attempt to see if temperature swings were an issues with the old standard 300W glass heater; unfortunately, there was no change.

I've installed diffusers on my lights to help blend the light more equally throughout the tank, and then re-checked PAR levels and adjusted accordingly to accommodate the small decrease in PAR with the diffusers. Just like before, PAR range is around 118 at the edge of the glass to around 180 in the middle at its highest peak; no noticeable change at this point. As a complete test, I took a few troubled frags and did a 24 hours bath in General Cure and Erythromycin to see if by chance it was a bacterial/parasite issues, and sadly there was no change.

At this point, I'm going to try to move my nitrates up to around 10-15PPM and keep P04 around .04/,06. Looking back through old ICP tests, the days were my zoa's looked the best I had nitrates around 15-20PPM, but always ended up with algae issues. However, I have since switched over to the Hanna ULR Phosphorus checker and think I may have found a reason to the algae issues in the past. Currently, I am testing my P04 around 14 PPB which is about .043ppm. What is odd about that is, the Hanna ULR phosphate checker continued to read zero. Looking back at my saved data, my P04 was reaching levels around .18ppm with the Phosphate checker, and I wonder if the values in fact were much higher given the testing inaccuracies. Either way, I'm going to keep after this issue because I'm way to dang stubborn to give up!

jx.reef · Mar 4, 2023

Please post your latest ICP results as that would help troubleshoot. If everything actually checks out there, I suspect bacterial infection and I would do abx dips to try and save it.
My zoa collection honestly does better at insane high levels of nutrients and shrink/close up when it dips near zero.

ericomotta · Jul 12, 2023

any news regarding zoas, noble friend?

ericomotta · Jul 12, 2023

I'm having the same problem as you and I don't know what else to do.

clhardy5 · Jul 13, 2023

ericomotta said:
any news regarding zoas, noble friend?

For me....I believe it was the filefish. I rehomed him....and my Zoa issues went away. I didn't change anything else......and let it be for a month + and the zoas rebounded.

I'm almost certain the FileFish I added to help with an aptaisia 'scare'.....caused more problems than he 'fixed'.