zoanthids not opening

[Alex’s Reef]

Okay so I have a 23 gallon frag tank with 1 Kessil A360x tuna blue and 1 Kessil 160we tuna blue, a Nero 3 pump with a sicce whale canister. I am dosing .9ml of RedSea’s No3Po4x a day as well as vibrant every two weeks. I bought 4 zoanthid frags from my LFS and dipped them all in freshwater iodine solution and ever since I got them they are not opening up. I noticed on some of them there’s a thin white slime coat and one of the small zoanthids there’s some stringy white stuff over the polyps. Can someone identify what’s going on? Maybe this is an effect of the no3po4x? The water I used to mix my salt in is from my LFS and the RO water’s tds is coming out as 3. In the frag tank I got it out of the tds is 0. Is that too big of a difference to keep coral from my LFS frag tanks?

 

[Jekyl]

Parameters? Seems like you have issues already if dosing nopox and vibrant.

 

[OutColdCRNA]

How long has it been since you added them to the tank?

 

[Alex’s Reef]

My parameters are close to 0 in both nitrate and phosphate. I dose vibrant to never have algae take hold and the same with no3po4x. There’s no fish in there

 

[Alex’s Reef]

How long has it been since you added them to the tank?

I added all the frags Dec 29th

 

[Jekyl]

My parameters are close to 0 in both nitrate and phosphate. I dose vibrant to never have algae take hold and the same with no3po4x. There’s no fish in there

This doesn't help. Need actual full parameters. Nitrate, phosphate, alkalinity, at minimum

 

[Alex’s Reef]

This doesn't help. Need actual full parameters. Nitrate, phosphate, alkalinity, at minimum

Alright sure, one sec let me test

 

[Jekyl]

Alright sure, one sec let me test

The other thought I had was the lighting. What schedule and intensity are you running them? Both of those seem like a lot for a small tank. I use 2 360 tuna blue on my 90 gal

 

[RC Reefer 5184]

From my experience zoas like a little dirtier water. With zero nitrate and phosphates that’s prob to clean.

 

[3429810]

My parameters are close to 0 in both nitrate and phosphate. I dose vibrant to never have algae take hold and the same with no3po4x. There’s no fish in there

having them bottomed out probably isn’t helping and may lead to dinos which is probably worse than any algae. I don’t know much about vibrant but I can’t imagine it’s a good long term solution to algae and may even have an opposite effect when you stop dosing. I would think it’s better to not be doing that and to get your nutrient levels under control naturally coupled with the proper clean up crew to keep algae under control.

 

[Alex’s Reef]

The other thought I had was the lighting. What schedule and intensity are you running them? Both of those seem like a lot for a small tank. I use 2 360 tuna blue on my 90 gal

I have the lights on acclimation mode right now but I had them on all blue and 65% intensity before.
my parameters are as follows:
dKH: 10.4
Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: .01
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Mg: 1350
Ca: 430

 

[Alex’s Reef]

having them bottomed out probably isn’t helping and may lead to dinos which is probably worse than any algae. I don’t know much about vibrant but I can’t imagine it’s a good long term solution to algae and may even have an opposite effect when you stop dosing. I would think it’s better to not be doing that and to get your nutrient levels under control naturally coupled with the proper clean up crew to keep algae under control.

I didn’t want a sandy bottom for the nutrient sink reasons but I do have some sand in there, you just can’t see in the photo

 

[Alex’s Reef]

I didn’t want a sandy bottom for the nutrient sink reasons but I do have some sand in there, you just can’t see in the photo

I’ve only dosed vibrant twice so far so I can stop, I might even stop the no3po4x dosing to see if that helps, I just don’t know at this point but I’m about to dip the Zoanthids in revive to see if that helps

 

[3429810]

I didn’t want a sandy bottom for the nutrient sink reasons but I do have some sand in there, you just can’t see in the photo

I meant having your nutrients bottomed out as in zero. Don’t think your substrate choice is going to affect anything directly here.

 

[Alex’s Reef]

I meant having your nutrients bottomed out as in zero. Don’t think your substrate choice is going to affect anything directly here.

Oh okay lol, that wasn’t really clear but it’s all good

 

[3429810]

I’ve only dosed vibrant twice so far so I can stop, I might even stop the no3po4x dosing to see if that helps, I just don’t know at this point but I’m about to dip the Zoanthids in revive to see if that helps

Before doing anything I would wait for some more knowledgeable people to chime in. To low or zero nutrients is bad news for zoas though.

 

[Alex’s Reef]

Before doing anything I would wait for some more knowledgeable people to chime in. To low or zero nutrients is bad news for zoas though.

Gotcha, thank you

 

[Jekyl]

I have the lights on acclimation mode right now but I had them on all blue and 65% intensity before.
my parameters are as follows:
dKH: 10.4
Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: .01
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Mg: 1350
Ca: 430

Stop dosing nopox and vibrant. Probably skip a water change also. You want your nitrate around 5

 

[OutColdCRNA]

I would hold off on the dosing. Light is my next thought. I had some finicky zoas and had to turn my lights down a ton and they slowly opened up. Then gradually turned them back up. We’re they open at all before? Potential for pests as well.

 

[OutColdCRNA]

How old is the tank?