Zoas getting smothered by brown crusty something

[Rostato]

Hi all new here but not new to the hobby.

I have searched and searched and even looked at a similar thread in this forum about a similar issue but I did not learn anything new.

My tank is currently doing great with the exception of my zoanthids.

A little background...
I have a well stocked reefer 250 woth lots of SPS and LPS that are doing great. I have good growth and have to up my dosing every week to keep up with alk demand. Because of that I know my tank is doing well and water should be good. I have not gotten an ICP text but I’ve been debating it. My tank has plenty of flow. It’s bare bottom with 3 mp10’s.

So, ZOA issues...I had ZOA Pox in my tank about 2 months ago, and treated with Furan 2 dips...3 dips, 1 a day then waited a week and re dipped as before. I got rid of the ZOA Pox with only a few casualties.

Currently, I have this brown crud covering all but one of my colonies.

They also have very faint, and very small white dots on them as well. These are not ZOA Pox, but look like white dust.

The white dots will brush off if I brush them with a makeup brush (I tried this once), but it doesn’t do anything for the brown crud. The brown stuff is kinda crusty and not like an algae. I dont know if it’s bacterial or fungal but either of those would be my guess.

I have most zoas on there own plugs or larger rocks so I could re dip them but with what?

I am debating moving all zoas to my frag tank and treating The whole tank with furan 2 or chemi clean for a couple days per instructions on the box. Anyone done this successfully with a similar problem. I’d just hate to lose all my zoas. I have like a grand worth or more invested in them.

I’ll post some pictures later tonight for reference. I’m at my wits end here.

 

[Thewatchmangoby]

Dude im going through the same BS.

Ive been searching online for the past week everyday trying to find a solution. Just when i think i found someone with a similiar problem, there is never any updates.

Its spread from frag to frag now with the exception of a few.

Ive got over 2k invested. Lol.

The brown crap i have only vomes off by lightly scrubbing with a q tip.

 

[Rostato]

Well I’m just glad I’m not the only one. I’m gonna move all zoas to my frag tank and use chemicals clean there. Wish me luck.

 

[Thewatchmangoby]

Well I’m just glad I’m not the only one. I’m gonna move all zoas to my frag tank and use chemicals clean there. Wish me luck.

Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[Rostato]

Pics for reference

Got all zoas into one tank.

 

[Rostato]

No one else has any input at all???

I’m starting the dose of chemiclean tonight

 

[danschoenherr]

I have had this from time to time, but I can't be of much help. I tried everything from ChemiClean, Furan2 dips, Hydrogen Peroxide dips, more flow, CoralRx dips, Dr.Tims bacteria in a bottle, and so on and so on........ChemiClean probably worked the best, but not a sure thing. I'm not sure if it is bacterial or fungal or an imbalance between nitrates and phosphates or ???? I just try to stay on top of things with everyday, if possible, visual inspections. If I notice the brown film start to develop, I take a very soft artist brush and brush it off. If you don't catch it soon, the polyps start to get small and thin. When it does pop up in my frag tank, it is only a few frags and not a whole system wipe out kind of thing.

 

[Rostato]

Almost 24 hours in...looking a bit better.

Lots of micro bubbles in the tank from the skimmer and air stone I put in.

These are the same corals I took pics of yesterday

 

[Kremis]

Yeah this happens to me every few months, I just chemiclean and that takes care of it. Zoas wont open with anything growing on them

I would chemiclean your display too otherwise itll just grow back

 

[Rostato]

Yeah this happens to me every few months, I just chemiclean and that takes care of it. Zoas wont open with anything growing on them

I would chemiclean your display too otherwise itll just grow back

Wow ok. I guess I’ll do my display next weekend. I plan to leave the zoas in the frag tank for a month or two anyway because I still see two frags with Zoa Pox that I’m gonna have to treat again.

 

[Kremis]

Sometimes for 1 or 2 chemiclean wont do it, and when that happens i take a toothbrush and lightly brush all the algae off the polyps

 

[Rostato]

Finished day two and did the water change. Everything looks about the same as yesterday so I did a 50% water change and did not start carbon. I’m hoping that helps a bit more.

I used a makeup brush (new and clean) to scrub the worst ones and that didn’t do much.

I guess time will tell.

Also did the first treatment of furan 2 on 4 colonies for ZOA Pox

 

[afuel]

Watching this thread hoping you find some answers for this. I don’t know if the exact problem exists on my zoas but they are the only thing not thriving in my tank. Seems like a quarter of them are closed at any one time

 

[Rostato]

Watching this thread hoping you find some answers for this. I don’t know if the exact problem exists on my zoas but they are the only thing not thriving in my tank. Seems like a quarter of them are closed at any one time

Same here. All sps and LPS are growing great in my tank right now. Coloration is probably as good as I’ll get with hydra 26s...I’m just at a loss here with the zoas.

 

[Rostato]

Day 4 and things look about the same as before. In fact, I now have cyano growing...I’m at a loss here.

On a good note, after 1 treatment of furan 2 the zoas with Pox looked fine...I did a second treatment yesterday and I’ll proba call that problem good.

 

[Siguun]

I have this same problem, following. Brown dust on zoas preventing them from opening even in the slightest. So far I have only done a h202 dip and it did rid the zoas of the brown stuff for only a little bit and was back in the next couple days and the zoas have been closed for weeks. I do have furan 2 and chemiclean on hand but am holding off to see the outcome from others to see if it is really effective before I proceed. Keep us updated would really like to see a resolution to this problem as I have already lost 3 frags to this and 5 more have that brown crud on them.

 

[Rostato]

I’m going to leave everything be for the next few weeks and pray!

 

[Thewatchmangoby]

You can also try blacking out your lights for 2-3 days and see if that does anything.

I dont think i have the exact same issue, but boy did my zoas react positively from blackout plus i lowered the intensity of my light by 40%.

 

[Rostato]

You can also try blacking out your lights for 2-3 days and see if that does anything.

I dont think i have the exact same issue, but boy did my zoas react positively from blackout plus i lowered the intensity of my light by 40%.

I’m going to let everything be for a bit and maybe a black out of nothing gets better. Blackouts haven’t worked for me in the past...the issues came back within days

 

[Rostato]

As an update I decided to treat for another 48 hours last weekend. Everything looks much better now.

I still have one frag that has not opened up but it was completely encrusted with this brown muck. I had to scrape it off with a metal pick. It’s still alive (somehow) but not opening yet. Pics later when the lights come on.