Zoas dying Help!!!

[Noah_88]

Your cyano is so bad because the frag plug you bought is literally caked in thick layers of Cyano on your Blastomussa colony. Your snails are acting weird because they don't want to eat the cyano which takes over everything. Happened on one of my nano tanks (10g) from an online purchase at TSA (same caked layers of dark red cyano) and it nuked it. I had to start over. Even though it was an established tank, being so small could not handle so much poison and it took over. Remember cyano is not algae. It's bacteria. As it takes over, corals will begin to die.

I don’t have any blastos and I’ve bought no frags with cyano already on them. It’s a mix of dinos and cyano. Dinos form the long slimy strings with oxygen bubbles attached. Both will kill corals

 

[Noah_88]

Dinos are frequently caused by low nutrients. If it is them, upping your nutrients will help with that as well. Get your nitrates up, and don't worry about phosphates.

Okay will do. Heavier feeding here I come

 

[Labora]

I don’t have any blastos and I’ve bought no frags with cyano already on them. It’s a mix of dinos and cyano. Dinos form the long slimy strings with oxygen bubbles attached. Both will kill corals

Nope those are Cyano. And that frag (whatever it is, looks like a blastos) is literally caked in cyano.

 

[Noah_88]

Nope those are Cyano. And that frag (whatever it is, looks like a blastos) is literally caked in cyano.

Yes there is cyano on a lot of frags but I didn’t buy it like that. I haven’t added new coral in about a month besides a tiny acro that’s doing fine. There are also dinoflagellates in both tanks

 

[tankstudy]

What did you dip your frags in?

Also did you do a magnesium test?

 

[Noah_88]

What did you dip your frags in?

Also did you do a magnesium test?

I dipped them in coral RX. And no I didn’t do a magnesium test, my LFS said I didn’t need to worry about it

 

[MrDLHughesY]

I would raise your alk aswell zoas have better growth rates in higher alk

 

[Noah_88]

I would raise your alk aswell zoas have better growth rates in higher alk

Sounds good

 

[Noah_88]

I’m going to get a UV sterilizer on both tanks to get rid of the dinos and see if that helps

 

[mermaid_life]

I battled algae, cyano, dino issues nonstop in my first tank. I don't even know how I put up with that tank for 5 years. When I started my second tank, I started with dry rock thinking that I would be able to avoid all of the uglies. Well.... not the case. Still got uglies. This time I discovered Vibrant. I cycled through chemiclean, fluconzole, NOPOX, bacteria supplements, etc. When I finally tried vibrant, it got rid of EVERYTHING for me. I kid you not. If you are desperate like I was, try vibrant. You can't really overdose (I accidentally did one time) and it hasn't hurt any of my coral or inverts or fish at all.

Good luck!! I know how painful this is.

 

[Tired]

Dry rock is actually worse than live in this aspect, since pest algae gets in anyway and finds itself with no competition.

Vibrant, if it works, only works temporarily in many cases. As soon as more pest algae is introduced somehow, the same conditions that allowed the first outbreak will allow a second. Time for the tank to mature, and anything that helps it balance (biodiversity increasing measures like live rock and pods, appropriate cleanup crew, appropriate nutrient levels), are the two best things you can use on any pest algae.

You should be turkey basting any algae that grows on the frags off, so it doesn't smother the corals.

 

[mermaid_life]

Dry rock is actually worse than live in this aspect, since pest algae gets in anyway and finds itself with no competition.

Vibrant, if it works, only works temporarily in many cases. As soon as more pest algae is introduced somehow, the same conditions that allowed the first outbreak will allow a second. Time for the tank to mature, and anything that helps it balance (biodiversity increasing measures like live rock and pods, appropriate cleanup crew, appropriate nutrient levels), are the two best things you can use on any pest algae.

You should be turkey basting any algae that grows on the frags off, so it doesn't smother the corals.

Yeah I know that now. I was explaining my thought process before. I still believe in vibrant but I wish this uglies life cycle and subsequent algae cycle was better explained to me than "just wait it out."

 

[Noah_88]

The 14 looks good today when I came home to check on the tanks. Cyano on the sand bed but the zoas have gotten a little better. No sign of dinos. The 10 looks gross still but I added a UV sterilizer and adjusted the powerhead so hopefully that will help.

Here is my lighting schedule for both tanks.