Zoas Dying

bsstover · Dec 21, 2015

Last summer I had about a month or so of dealing with some SPS bleaching. Now that is under control and SPS is thriving again, I have another issue. On average of about 1 colony/frag per day, I am seeing my zoas just melt away. What makes is more irritating is that it is my higher end zoas (today's casualty my 15 polyp utter chaos) and not the boring zoas that hitchhiked on rocks.

I have dipped all of my zoas and not seeing anything come off of them that would raise suspicions (nudibranch, spiders, flatworms). My parameters are all in check/stable, with exception that PO4 is around 0.08 which I don't think is the culprit. Am I missing something to look for or is this just a cyclical thing? I vaguely recall losing some (fruit loops and rastas) about this time last year.

LostInTheDark · Dec 21, 2015

This the time of year we close all the windows and put the heat on. That drives down your Ph. Have you checked that lately?

Lenny_S · Dec 21, 2015

Try running some GAC or purigen. Sounds like chemical warfare from some of your other corals.

bsstover · Dec 21, 2015

Thanks for responses. pH has stayed consistent, we pretty much run conditioned air year round and rarely have windows open.
I have carbon and purigen in tank. I replace or replenish about once a month with these things. Just can't quite figure this one out.

TheEngineer · Dec 21, 2015

I don't know if you c an use chemiclean with SPS but it stopped a similar situation for me a couple weeks ago.

bsstover · Dec 21, 2015

icecool2 said:
I don't know if you c an use chemiclean with SPS but it stopped a similar situation for me a couple weeks ago.

Not sure either, but I will look into that. I don't really have a cyano problem, but maybe it can help if something else is underlying.

Interesting that you had a similar situation a couple of weeks ago, maybe builds on my theory that it is a cycle with zoas.