Zoa Help Needed

lofty78 · Apr 24, 2013

So I've been working on getting my zoas healthy... I only have Eagle eyes and some random orange/purple... plus the small frag of willy wonkas... The willy Wonkas are new, and the others have been unextended for a while... so far my efforts have included adding the doser and maintaining 480 cal and 9dkh... my mag is 1350 and I have been adding 50 ml of Magnesion (brightwell) every few days to slowly increase mag as I read that zoas like higher mag levels... I am aiming for close to the top end of natural sea water (1500ppm). I have been dosing 10ml of h2o2 daily which has help clear up some algea/cyano issues and I have an order for Brightwell VC on the way. With the brightwell, how much would be a good starting dose for 100G water volume, are there any other suggestions... they are staring to peek out now and I want to get them out full once again. I know they are not diseased because, although they have not had any polyp extension for quite some time, I have not lost any of them. Any help is appeciated

90greefman · Apr 24, 2013

Could be a lot of things. I have been through a lot of different zoas and one thing for sure is some like certain parameters that others dont. Sure you dont have bristleworms or something coming out at night and irritating them? Also the obvious, make sure you water parameters are in check. Outside of that maybe lower light for awhile with some decent water flow. I have always started new additions with the aforementioned with good results. Good luck.

lofty78 · Apr 24, 2013

I can't be sure about bristle worms... nothin else seems irritated... Also they do appear to be making a come back...so it seems I am doing something right

46gReef · Apr 24, 2013

Iodine...I would recommend testing your levels as you dose...I have a 46 gallon with hundreds of zoas/LPS/softies & I dose 5 drops of Lugols Iodine daily, but I also test with seachem's iodine test kit before dosing

lofty78 · Apr 24, 2013

46gReef said:
Iodine...I would recommend testing your levels as you dose...I have a 46 gallon with hundreds of zoas/LPS/softies & I dose 5 drops of Lugols Iodine daily, but I also test with seachem's iodine test kit before dosing

I do not have a test kit yet (yeah I know, I should not dose without testing) but I use a cap ful (5 ml) twice a week of Continuum Reef Basis Iodide. I had increase to twice a week about a month ago... before that it was once a week for about a month.

46gReef · Apr 24, 2013

The iodide is way less concentrated that lugols but personally I wouldn't dose lugols without a test kit. The cheapest I've found it for is $17 on amazon....what size tank do you have & how many zoas?

lofty78 · Apr 24, 2013

100 gallon (volume)... the larger colonies have estimated 50 and 100+

46gReef · Apr 24, 2013

I would guess with the amount your adding it probably isn't even touching your iodine levels but that's just a guess....once I started maintaining my iodine levele between 0.06&0.08 I definately noticed a difference in my zoas

lofty78 · Apr 24, 2013

Yeah, because I am not testing for it, I am doing the absolute minimum recommended with the Iodide. My water changes: try Bi monthly but it normally ends up being monthly... I do about 25% with reef crystals.... I have 1.5 more bags of that and plan to start using a better quality salt mix.

46gReef · Apr 24, 2013

That's definitely smart but IMO it would be worth getting a test kit & some lugols, your only looking at about $30. I was actually dosing vitamin c for awhile in my tank a few years back, I was using powdered ascorbic acid(more concentrated than the liquid vit c), I had read that it dramatically improves the color is zoas. It is also an organic carbon source, it wiped out all my macro and all the algae in my tank(not complaining at all!!) but to be honest I didn't notice any improvement in my zoas & I did it religiously for about 6 months.....

lofty78 · Apr 24, 2013

46gReef said:
That's definitely smart but IMO it would be worth getting a test kit & some lugols, your only looking at about $30. I was actually dosing vitamin c for awhile in my tank a few years back, I was using powdered ascorbic acid(more concentrated than the liquid vit c), I had read that it dramatically improves the color is zoas. It is also an organic carbon source, it wiped out all my macro and all the algae in my tank(not complaining at all!!) but to be honest I didn't notice any improvement in my zoas & I did it religiously for about 6 months.....

I should have lugols for coral dips anyways, how would I know if I have bristol worms, just seeing them? I have before, but have removed them... this was several moths ago.

46gReef · Apr 24, 2013

I would say it's safe to assume you have bristle worms, which isn't necessarily a bad thing......there are some types of worms that eat zoas but your everyday run of the mill bristle worm usually doesn't....the only way to know for sure would be to keep a close eye on your zoa colonies at night to see if something is eating them

lofty78 · Apr 24, 2013

I think for now, I'm going to bump the iodide dose to 2 cap fulls (approx 10 ml) 2X/week and put on order the lugols and test kit, probably will wait until I need to order salt so I can get free shipping though. I think I'm making pretty good progress ATM

90greefman · Apr 24, 2013

You can just take a looksy at night after the lights have been out for awhile to see if anything is cruising around that shouldnt be. Its simply a process of elimination and this is one possibility. Also bristleworms imo arent bad, they help clean your tank. Take a flashlight and just shine it on your zoas at night, if there are any bad guys you should be able to see them.