Zoa help

[musaabi]

Hey guys, I’m having some issues with my zoas and I can’t pinpoint the issue. These corals were all open and looking happy and then quickly started melting. My little shop of horrors which I received about a month ago is left to one polyp out of 3 and is completely closed up so that was $275 down the drain. My parameters are as follows, alk 8.5, ph 7.7 currently, salinity is 1.025, ca 481, mag 1329, nitrates are 20 ppt, and phosphates are .05. Nothing has changed that I can recall other than changing out filter socks. I’m going to do an icp test in case there’s heavy metals but I’m running carbon which I’m hoping should catch anything. Anything else to check? Also I dipped all my corals and did a fresh water bath for my zoas. I have one acro in my tank and that looks like it’s doing fine. I don’t see any nudibranches or spiders or anything else on the zoas so not sure what’s wrong. See before and after pics. The highlighted circles are of the zoas not doing well.

 

[sfin52]

How old is the system? Whats your water change system and how often? Have you checked for pests?

 

[musaabi]

How old is the system? Whats your water change system and how often?

Tank has been up since beginning of November and some of the zoas are from my old tank which was a temporary 10 gallon that I borderline neglected and those zoas were doing ok and then haven’t been doing well now.

 

[sfin52]

Tank has been up since beginning of November and some of the zoas are from my old tank which was a temporary 10 gallon that I borderline neglected and those zoas were doing ok and then haven’t been doing well now.

New rock and sand?

 

[musaabi]

New rock and sand?

I bought live rock from my lfs. They have a separate system that’s only dry rock that they cycle. Tank was fully cycled as well. Torches are doing fine as well which is surprising. I figured they would be the first to close up if parameters were out of whack. I heard chemiclean is good for zoas? I don’t want to do another fresh water dip because I don’t want to irritate them further.

 

[Nnavarro1982]

I’ve noticed my fancier, high end zoas have to be further away from the light. So I have a a section in my tank where they can get “partial” shade If that makes sense….every zoa I’ve had issues with I always directly feed mini mysis mixed with reefroids directly in there little mouths also. For some reason it helps. My friends call me “Dr. Zoa” because I can bring anything back. Also check flow rate. Try and get it into a gentle part of the tank.

 

[shakacuz]

the same thing happened to me few months back… many zoa frags just melted… i have since not found the issue and hope it doesn’t happen again as i’m filling up the rock they all previously once were…

wish i could help you, OP. here’s a bump..

 

[musaabi]

I’ve noticed my fancier, high end zoas have to be further away from the light. So I have a a section in my tank where they can get “partial” shade If that makes sense….every zoa I’ve had issues with I always directly feed mini mysis mixed with reefroids directly in there little mouths also. For some reason it helps. My friends call me “Dr. Zoa” because I can bring anything back. Also check flow rate. Try and get it into a gentle part of the tank.

I have them placed in the corner of the tank so not as much intensity. Prob around 75-100 par. Also flow isn’t intense since it’s a lps dominate tank so lower flow as well. I tried feeding them but they don’t seem to respond to reefchili at least but my cleaner shrimp would go and clean them off they caught anything. Debating on getting rid of the shrimp as well

 

[musaabi]

the same thing happened to me few months back… many zoa frags just melted… i have since not found the issue and hope it doesn’t happen again as i’m filling up the rock they all previously once were…

wish i could help you, OP. here’s a bump..

It’s such a struggle. Luckily my GMK looks like it’s still doing well just hoping I can find it. Maybe it’s metal from the heater or one of the pumps in the water? Idk I’m just assuming since everything else seems to be in check

 

[shakacuz]

It’s such a struggle. Luckily my GMK looks like it’s still doing well just hoping I can find it. Maybe it’s metal from the heater or one of the pumps in the water? Idk I’m just assuming since everything else seems to be in check

hopefully you get your answer with that ICP…i want to send one in as well but can’t find a source. that, and i’m reading that for some people it’s taking a long time receive results

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

the same thing happened to me few months back… many zoa frags just melted… i have since not found the issue and hope it doesn’t happen again as i’m filling up the rock they all previously once were…

wish i could help you, OP. here’s a bump..

Happened to me with my high end zoa. My CB white zombies shook it off but my rainbow incinerators melted. It was a bacterial infection brought in from some stuff I got from a LFS. i finally beat it back with UV light and peroxide dips. Chemiclean is harsh on a tank. Tons of people use it to help with bacterial infections but I don’t trust

Hydrogen peroxide is my go to help for zoas. Peroxide dip followed by iodine dip. I do like 60/40 peroxide to tank water mix for like 20 seconds. Haven’t lost a zoa to it yet.

OP your salinity is a little low. Mine do best at 1.026 and pH of 8.0-8.2. Raise pH SLOWLY. I mean like SUPER slow. It’ll help a lot.

 

[musaabi]

Happened to me with my high end zoa. My CB white zombies shook it off but my rainbow incinerators melted. It was a bacterial infection brought in from some stuff I got from a LFS. i finally beat it back with UV light and peroxide dips. Chemiclean is harsh on a tank. Tons of people use it to help with bacterial infections but I don’t trust

Hydrogen peroxide is my go to help for zoas. Peroxide dip followed by iodine dip. I do like 60/40 peroxide to tank water mix for like 20 seconds. Haven’t lost a zoa to it yet.

OP your salinity is a little low. Mine do best at 1.026 and pH of 8.0-8.2. Raise pH SLOWLY. I mean like SUPER slow. It’ll help a lot.

I’ll get salinity up. Ph is only down cause I turned off the skimmer that’s connected to a co2 scrubber. My Ph tends to be in the 7.4-7.7 range when not running the CO2 scrubber. Thanks for the info, I’ll give the Hydrogen peroxide dip a try before chemiclean. I’m wondering if that’s where it’s from, bacterial infection from another frag

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I’ll get salinity up. Ph is only down cause I turned off the skimmer that’s connected to a co2 scrubber. My Ph tends to be in the 7.4-7.7 range when not running the CO2 scrubber. Thanks for the info, I’ll give the Hydrogen peroxide dip a try before chemiclean. I’m wondering if that’s where it’s from, bacterial infection from another frag

I’m 99.9% sure that was my issue. It’s a very highly reputable store about 1 he away from me but that’s all I had brought in and my high end zoa just went down. My UV sterilizer finally killed it out for me, that and peroxide. They’re gonna bubble a lot when you dip them in peroxide but that’s normal.

 

[zuri]

you have clearly had things happening not sure why noone hasn't noticed the obvious here

look at the sandbed look at the rockwork tank has been maturing from the rockwork but the sandbed.... I would never put high-end coral in a maturing tank.
also looks like you have tangs, angels nothing to eat pick at they will eat polyps

 

[Klyle]

Anytime I've had issues with zoas, it's been lighting. As in too much. Even if the lights haven't changed, if you have them in higher par lighting, I would move them to lower par and see if it helps.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Slight edit to my post. My wife says the issues started when we brought stuff home from visiting my family in another state. May have been something to do with the long travel time and stressing the corals. I’m not sure. But something came in from that trip that messed a lot of my stuff up. And the UV stopped it

 

[musaabi]

I’m 99.9% sure that was my issue. It’s a very highly reputable store about 1 he away from me but that’s all I had brought in and my high end zoa just went down. My UV sterilizer finally killed it out for me, that and peroxide. They’re gonna bubble a lot when you dip them in peroxide but that’s normal.

I just dipped the zoas. Unfortunately I waited too long and the 3 polyps for the LSoH melted away. Hoping this works on the others

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I just dipped the zoas. Unfortunately I waited too long and the 3 polyps for the LSoH melted away. Hoping this works on the others

Wel that’s disappointing

 

[musaabi]

Wel that’s disappointing

Are you constantly doing dip or do you do it once and call it good? I’m trying to figure if I should put them on disks of glue them back on the rockwork?

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Are you constantly doing dip or do you do it once and call it good? I’m trying to figure if I should put them on disks of glue them back on the rockwork?

I dip mine once and then again if needed maybe a week later. I don’t do more than that cause I don’t want to stress them out even more. I dip in peroxide then dip in iodine then back in the tank. That usually fixes them but not always. Haven’t lost any due to the dip but some that were already on the way out couldn’t be saved