Zoa frags dying off

[Treenk]

One by one all my zoas are dying off they will be fine and then one day one head just doesnt open and starts to melt. It's starting to get bad I have no idea what to do.
Ph 8.3
P04 .03
No3 18
Kh 6.9
Ammonia 0
Salinity 1.025

 

[KyRo]

I'll let more experienced people weigh in, but maybe your Alkalinity could use some raising?

 

[GabeM]

Alk is a bit low and you are running dirty but IMO zoas shouldn't care too much ... Have you looked for pests?

 

[Nburg's Reef]

How are the rest of the corals doing? Any recent changes (in the last several weeks) to the tank? You have a good amount of nutrients, but how's your lighting? They look like newer frags, have you gotten any growth before they started declining?

 

[Treenk]

Yeah no pests to be found, there was one frag with a bunch of pods on it but dipped that one and then nothing after.

 

[Treenk]

How are the rest of the corals doing? Any recent changes (in the last several weeks) to the tank? You have a good amount of nutrients, but how's your lighting? They look like newer frags, have you gotten any growth before they started declining?

New light about 3 weeks ago an ai prime upgraded from orbit marine light it 4 inches off of surface and this is schedule currently at 70% ramping up.

 

[Treenk]

I just put 1 tsp of baking soda in my 5g fresh water supply for topping off it should take about 5 days to get full tsp into tank. Also I was having growth pre new light just a few heads. But just started the tank maybe 5 months ago so everything is frags. My duncan, anchor, and whatever that pink thing is are doing just fine. The pink one actually seems to be sprouting several heads in between the full ones.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I run 2 AI primes on a 20g long, and I run them at 100% all blues and 20% white, and part is decent but not SPS level great. Might not be the thing, but you may want to slowly crank those up a bit. With higher nutrients, your coral can probably handle higher light.

 

[Treenk]

I run 2 AI primes on a 20g long, and I run them at 100% all blues and 20% white, and part is decent but not SPS level great. Might not be the thing, but you may want to slowly crank those up a bit. With higher nutrients, your coral can probably handle higher light.

I have had so many drastically different opinions on the light I started everything at 50% and ramped towards 100 and a few people were telling me that was way too much, and Its what was hurting the first one I had a problem with. I dont know what to think

 

[Treenk]

I found a par reading for max par for ai prime from my height to 12 inches deep but that's straight the center. Mine is all the way to the side and I can't find the sense angle so it may not even be hitting my wrack because it's so far out to the side.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

If you have it only 4 inches off the water surface, you may want to raise it a bit. Lighting may or may not be the issue, tho. Sometimes thing in this hobby can be tricky. If say the lighting is not adequate, they might not be at optimum health so some other stressor may do more damage than usual (like if you were stressed out from work, you might be more susceptible to a cold.)

A lot of times, Zoas will stretch their stalk to reach for light and will face the source. Your Zoas don’t seem to be stretching a lot, and look quite flat. Would you be able to post a FTS with the tank and light position?

Other than lighting, have you changed anything else? Water source, salt, anything that could be souring the tank or metal source? Fish or inverts that might nip it?

 

[Treenk]

From pic you can see that there is a reason why its 4" from the water line. Also some are definitely reaching pretty high 1 of which is the one that had problems first. The only thing that has changed side from light is, my jet keeps falling and changing water flow slightly.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I can't see the total setup, but it looks like that light might be restricted by the lid. Usually you want them 8-10" above the water without any lid. I would see if you could borrow a PAR meter from someone to test it out, or ditch the lid.

 

[Treenk]

Yeah ditching lid would definitely help. But I bought a house that is only half remodeled and I'm afraid I'd lose the ability to easily cover and protect against dust.

 

[Treenk]

Well turning the light up made everything open way more, much better colors too. But I dont think that was the problem. This morning I woke up and one of them closed it final head. I thought I saw something tiny and orange, but I pulled it out and nothing was on it. I may have just been seeing things I dont know how easy it would be to spot a nudi, and shouldn't I have been able to see it when taken out easier? Also the one next to it I saw a little flat but run out from between an open head and a closed one. It ran out and sat and kind of inched around. This was the best I could do for pictures. Any suggestions?

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I've never had nudisbefore so I don't know what they look like exactly or how to best treat them, but I would hop over to the Zoa forum and research!

 

[45ZoaGarden]

That’s just a pod. Chances are, the lighting is not the issue. The only zoas you have reaching are palythoa. some of my palys tend to grow best when they are reaching a bit (purple monsters, sunny d’s). Your alk is way to low. Your phosphates are also way to low. Zoas like dirty water and suffer in systems too clean. You have higher nitrates and almost no phosphates. I run mine around 30ppm of nitrates and .15ppm of phosphates. What is your calcium and mg? My zoas tend to be bothered by higher calcium as well. I don’t think its pests because the zoas would be half eaten here n there.

 

[BeejReef]

Think 45ZoaGarden may be on to something with phosphate levels.

I like your goniopora (pink one)

 

[EMeyer]

I'm gonna respectfully disagree about Alk - yours is perfect (~7). Its the same as natural seawater and at the level where my zoas have always been happiest.

Check Mg - IME zoas don't like unnaturally high Mg (>1300).

You also might try dosing a little iodide. In two of my tanks this made a big difference when zoas were closed.

Your tank looks very clean, almost new... how long have you had it running?

 

[Treenk]

I'm gonna respectfully disagree about Alk - yours is perfect (~7). Its the same as natural seawater and at the level where my zoas have always been happiest.

Check Mg - IME zoas don't like unnaturally high Mg (>1300).

You also might try dosing a little iodide. In two of my tanks this made a big difference when zoas were closed.

Your tank looks very clean, almost new... how long have you had it running?

It's a pretty new tank about 4 months. Would dipping one or 2 in iodine suffice. I have no way to test iodine so dosing kind of seems dangerous. I'll check calc and mag today.