Zoas are melting (help)

RJ F. · May 23, 2019

Hey yall. I have a few zoas that have started melting. I'm not sure why either. I run activated carbon. Do weekly water changes, and monitor parameters a few times a week ( salifert). I dose 2 tsp of baking soda in my 5 gallon ato reservoir and hand does calcium as needed ( not a high demand).

I got a few new zoa frags in. I took out my zoa rock and scrubbed it in tank water to rid off any algae and a previous paly infestation. I then reglued all my old zoas (on small rocks) and the new ones to create a zoa garden. For a couple weeks they looked great. Beautiful polyp extension and colors.

Now they are pretty closed. My rastas haven't opened for a week at all. I just noticed some are starting to melt as well. There are some that still look great. My nirvanas, utter chaos, and a few others look great.

I'm just looking for ideas. When I mounted them all I did it out of water. I read that zoas can be out of water for a good bit with no ill effect. Plus they were all doing fine until a week ago.

I have had an issue with algae so I really dialed back feedings and started cleaning the sand bed with every water change. I still see some algae so I dont think it's a nutrient issue.

All my other corals are doing great. Montis, birdsnest, hammers, Davis, blastos, bta, chalice, and acans are beautiful. I even have a mystic sunset monti taking over a rock. Its growing crazy fast.

The tank is 7 months old and I have never had an issue with zoas until now.

Temp 77-79
Salinity 1.025
Ph 8.2
Alk 8.6
Cal 415
Mag 1380
Nitrate undetectable
Phos undetectable

One last thing. I have cleaner shrimp that are all over the rock all the time. Could this be causing issues with them? They have become irritated? When I feed I feed over the rock. It's just the easiest open spot. All the fish go there when I turn the pumps off.

Thanks in advance yall

eggplantparrot · May 23, 2019

RJ F. said:
Hey yall. I have a few zoas that have started melting. I'm not sure why either. I run activated carbon. Do weekly water changes, and monitor parameters a few times a week ( salifert). I dose 2 tsp of baking soda in my 5 gallon ato reservoir and hand does calcium as needed ( not a high demand).

I got a few new zoa frags in. I took out my zoa rock and scrubbed it in tank water to rid off any algae and a previous paly infestation. I then reglued all my old zoas (on small rocks) and the new ones to create a zoa garden. For a couple weeks they looked great. Beautiful polyp extension and colors.

Now they are pretty closed. My rastas haven't opened for a week at all. I just noticed some are starting to melt as well. There are some that still look great. My nirvanas, utter chaos, and a few others look great.

I'm just looking for ideas. When I mounted them all I did it out of water. I read that zoas can be out of water for a good bit with no ill effect. Plus they were all doing fine until a week ago.

I have had an issue with algae so I really dialed back feedings and started cleaning the sand bed with every water change. I still see some algae so I dont think it's a nutrient issue.

All my other corals are doing great. Montis, birdsnest, hammers, Davis, blastos, bta, chalice, and acans are beautiful. I even have a mystic sunset monti taking over a rock. Its growing crazy fast.

The tank is 7 months old and I have never had an issue with zoas until now.

Temp 77-79
Salinity 1.025
Ph 8.2
Alk 8.6
Cal 415
Mag 1380
Nitrate undetectable
Phos undetectable

One last thing. I have cleaner shrimp that are all over the rock all the time. Could this be causing issues with them? They have become irritated? When I feed I feed over the rock. It's just the easiest open spot. All the fish go there when I turn the pumps off.

Thanks in advance yall

do the stalks have little white dots/specks on them?

RJ F. · May 23, 2019

eggplantparrot said:
do the stalks have little white dots/specks on them?

It's tough to tell but I would say no. They are just the normal white color. So specks or dots that I can see

eggplantparrot · May 23, 2019

RJ F. said:
It's tough to tell but I would say no. They are just the normal white color. So specks or dots that I can see

introduce any new livestock recently? maybe zoanthid eating hitchhikers

RJ F. · May 23, 2019

Only live stock is some zoas. I cant physically see anything. I will look harder tomorrow when the lights are on. I'm going to test my alk everyday to see if I'm dealing with alk swings at all

eggplantparrot · May 23, 2019

RJ F. said:
Only live stock is some zoas. I cant physically see anything. I will look harder tomorrow when the lights are on. I'm going to test my alk everyday to see if I'm dealing with alk swings at all

since zoas are soft corals I don't think alk swings would do much if anything to them.

RJ F. · May 23, 2019

I read it in another thread. Talking about alk swings. I haven't thoroughly researched it. But what your saying makes sense

eggplantparrot · May 23, 2019

what are you using to test phos and nitrate? i hear soft corals like some nutrients in the water. my zoas were all either growing super slow or didnt look to be growing at all, I have also 0 no3 and po4 as well so I have been feeding more heavily recently and am seeing a bit of growth now.

eggplantparrot · May 23, 2019

also some zoas/palys like more light than others. for example it seems utter chaos seems to like more light than others, I had 3 heads melt away when I had it in the corner of my tank with the other zoas. I have a newer frag that I am keeping in an area with more light and it seems to be growing and looks brighter.

RJ F. · May 23, 2019

I use salifert to test all parameters. I have a hard time reading the results because they are so low. I contribute this more to algae using the no3 and po4. I have cheato and algae growing in the tank. Not a ton of hair algae but it's still there. So if that is growing then I have to have some lvl of no3 and po4.

As far as light goes I use a 300w black box and it is on 75 blue 15 white. It's very strong so I do not think it's the light. I also tried dif flow patterns to see if that worked. Finally I just left them alone with my normal flow set up because I didnt want to change too much at once.

I just read an article about zoas liking higher lvls of alk. I may slowly increase to see if I can find a positive affect on them. Most were saying between 9.5 to 10. It's more science then I can explain but the zoox exchange the c02 in bicarbonate to help feed the zoa from what I could understand

Willu · May 23, 2019

look at night, when lights have been out for a few hours, you may have zoa eating nudiis or zoa eating spiders which you won't really see during the day. I've had spiders and I found that they only went for specific strains which is why you may have some sort of pest as well since you have some that look like they are doing well. lucky for me it wasn't that bad and I spent a week looking at night and picking them off and they were gone.
Have you tried to/considered dipping, maybe it'll help.
Other than that your parameters seem pretty fine too me.

RJ F. · May 23, 2019

I agree about my parameters. I really try to keep up with husbandry and testing.

I will look for those posts too. Are they easy to see at night? What's the best way to spot them?

Also what dip would you recommend

clm65 · May 23, 2019

From what I understand, you need some amount of nitrates and phosphates. If you are truly at 0 on both of these, that could be a problem.

RJ F. · May 23, 2019

clm65 said:
From what I understand, you need some amount of nitrates and phosphates. If you are truly at 0 on both of these, that could be a problem.

I agree. However I still have algae growing so I believe it's being taking up by the algae giving me false readings. I have hair algae in my refugium too.

RJ F. · May 23, 2019

Ok so I just checked with lights off. I think its zoa pox. I can see small white bumps on them. It took me a while to tell but with my normal lights on it would be impossible. I'm going to try a furan 2 dip.

Any ideas how to dip? Just follow instructions?

RJ F. · May 24, 2019

So I looked this morning. I also have these little black mites on them. They are small. If I didnt see them move then I never would have seen them. Any ideas on those too?

eggplantparrot · May 24, 2019

RJ F. said:
So I looked this morning. I also have these little black mites on them. They are small. If I didnt see them move then I never would have seen them. Any ideas on those too?

I don't know about the mites but for what think was possibly zoa pox (honestly still not quite sure what I had...) I used 2 cups of water to 1 packet of furan-2. I dipped all of the zoas/palys for 30 min (they say don't go over 30 min but I didn't see any ill effects), during the dip I agitate the water with a dropper/turkey baster. I also used the bags that your lfs gives you when you buy livestock from them to dip in so you can swish the water around in there. I use a SOFT toothbrush and lightly brush the zoas during the dip also. I do the dip 4 days in a row and then let the zoas rest for 1 week while watching if the pox is going away. I then treat again for 4 days after the week.

I wasn't quite sure if what I had was zoa pox as it didn't exactly look like the pictures I'd seen online. however after the treatment the zoas did do better for a while. eventually I got sick of treating over and over only to have it come back after a while so in desperation I cut off most of the Constellation colony that I felt started the whole situation when I added it, and the problem has gone completely away.