zoas seriously not opening

[dandoozled]

for the last few weeks my zoanthids have just completely closed up, every single colony. I have a 13.5g nano. I checked my water parameters at the lfs a few days ago and was told everything is pristine but my salinity raised up at 1.31 for almost a week, I have lowered it back down to 1.024 again. But my zoas just will not open. I'm not sure why, nothing is picking or bothering either.
any ideas on what to do, I'm running stock lights from fluvo 13.5 tank, and the zoas were perfectly fine and even growing very quickly prior to a few weeks back, tank has been up for 10 months.

 

[Dine]

What changed recently? Any recent additions fish, coral, inverts? Any equipment changes or additions (gfo, carbon, etc)?

 

[ndrwater]

Zoas like most corals don't like change. Give it a bit of time. If things don't improve, look for other factors beyond a salinity swing

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

Did you change your lighting schedule at all? Can we get a picture? Maybe we will notice something.

 

[dandoozled]

What changed recently? Any recent additions fish, coral, inverts? Any equipment changes or additions (gfo, carbon, etc)?

the only real change occurred around when I noticed them not opening was that I added a mandarin dragonet, but I have recently returned it because I was worried about feeding it. Currently I have a occ. clown and banggai cardinal in the tank I also just added. There was a lot of algae covering the zoas I blew off with a pipette

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

What were your phosphate and nitrates levels at?

 

[dandoozled]

Did you change your lighting schedule at all? Can we get a picture? Maybe we will notice something.

the lighting schedule didn't change but I don't always turn the blue lights on at the same time everyday?

 

[muzikalmatt]

When your LFS checked your parameters, do you know what parameters they checked? High phosphates could be the culprit as could the salinity swing.

 

[BeardedMcG]

What did the algae look like?

 

[ahiggins]

Other than the salinity swing, don’t go changing anything. I recently ran into this problem in my rock nem tank because of a faulty hydrometer. Mine only spiked to 1.027-1.028 though. They’re still irritated after about 2 weeks. Give them time. Sometimes polyps close entirely and die shortly thereafter.
Did you mean 1.031? If you went to 1.3.....they may not survive.

 

[dandoozled]

What were your phosphate and nitrates levels at?

nitrates nearly zero, lfs guy said it was so low it was hardly detectable... phosphate not sure but I was told all the parameters were where they needed to be and I have been getting my water tested daily, I can ask for the paramteres tomorrow when I go. I'll post pics

 

[dandoozled]

 

[dandoozled]

Other than the salinity swing, don’t go changing anything. I recently ran into this problem in my rock nem tank because of a faulty hydrometer. Mine only spiked to 1.027-1.028 though. They’re still irritated after about 2 weeks. Give them time. Sometimes polyps close entirely and die shortly thereafter.
Did you mean 1.031? If you went to 1.3.....they may not survive.

yeah 1.031 not 1.3 haha that is crazy

 

[dandoozled]

What did the algae look like?

purple slimy stuff, or red slime algae I think it's called

 

[ahiggins]

Ok good! Lol I thought that’s what you meant. Can you show us a pic of your zoas in white lights? If we can see the heads we can give you a good idea of if they are too far gone or just being sassy.

 

[dandoozled]

When your LFS checked your parameters, do you know what parameters they checked? High phosphates could be the culprit as could the salinity swing.

they usually check nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, phosphate, salinity, mg, pH, calcium..

 

[dandoozled]

Ok good! Lol I thought that’s what you meant. Can you show us a pic of your zoas in white lights? If we can see the heads we can give you a good idea of if they are too far gone or just being sassy.

I posted a pic in daylights just now

 

[ahiggins]

they usually check nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, phosphate, salinity, mg, pH, calcium..

Did they give you numbers? “Clean” can be no phos/nitrates or under 10. It’s pretty subjective lol

 

[dandoozled]

Did they give you numbers? “Clean” can be no phos/nitrates or under 10. It’s pretty subjective lol

they said the number but I don't remember every exact param, it was under .05ppm or less

 

[ahiggins]

I posted a pic in daylights just now

They looks really good for what happened. I see what you mean about the reddish covering. Get your actual numbers for nitrates and phosphates from them. That will tell you a lot. If you have zero-it’s probably cyano. If you have some, it’s most likely something else.