Zoas shriveled and shrinking

[spearo0352]

Hey everyone. I have a 1 year old 20 gallon nano with a pretty nice sized zoa garden. For the last month or 2 I've had insane growth with all my corals, mainly zoas, but over the last 3 days my zoas began to shrink and some are half closed in an asymmetrical way. I haven't changed anything in my maintenance routine however I just noticed my no4 and po4 had bottomed out. Im wondering if thats what could be doing it. I also have a duncan, some euphilia and gsp that arent opened as fully as normal as well as an acan which is extending further out of its skeleton. I also have a bleached anemone i have been working on that is improved despite the condition of the rest of my corals. So it seems the problem is not zoa specific.

Params
salinity 1.025
temp 78
alk 9.4
ph 8
calcium 400
ammonia 0
no3 0
no4 0
po4 0
lighting- ai prime led
i nornally feed corals daily with red sea ab+ and occasionally target with reef roids

Im hoping the problem is bottomed out nutrients because i did see an explosion in algae at the same time they ran out. I have removed gfo, turned off my skimmer and i am skipping this weeks water change. I will also be feeding my fish/corals a bit more heavily

 

[Jib]

What were you're nitrate and phosphate levels like when your corals were happy?

 

[vetteguy53081]

What test kits are you using for nitrate and phosphate?
Often too high of light and water flow will cause melting
They must have iodide in their water as well as a trace of iron
Take a turkey baster and give it gentle blasts and see if sediment comes off of them

 

[spearo0352]

What test kits are you using for nitrate and phosphate?
Often too high of light and water flow will cause melting
They must have iodide in their water as well as a trace of iron
Take a turkey baster and give it gentle blasts and see if sediment comes off of them

Api and salifert, also took water into my lfs to have it double checked. Lighting and flow is sufficient, most zoas sit in an 80-120 par and have been loving it. Forgot to mention i dose iodide weekly and with weekly water changes trace elements shouldnt be soaked up. My zoas were growing best after a round of chemiclean to deal with some cyano when my no4 spiked up to .50 and po4 at .25 about a month ago but before that im not too sure because I was using a bad test kit. They dont seem to be melting and still have good color, thankfully, but the shape they are while half closed as well as a few shrinking poylps is concerning.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Api and salifert, also took water into my lfs to have it double checked. Lighting and flow is sufficient, most zoas sit in an 80-120 par and have been loving it. Forgot to mention i dose iodide weekly and with weekly water changes trace elements shouldnt be soaked up. My zoas were growing best after a round of chemiclean to deal with some cyano when my no4 spiked up to .50 and po4 at .25 about a month ago but before that im not too sure because I was using a bad test kit. They dont seem to be melting and still have good color, thankfully, but the shape they are while half closed as well as a few shrinking poylps is concerning.

I’m doing guess work here.
can you provide a couple pics under white intensity?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Api and salifert, also took water into my lfs to have it double checked. Lighting and flow is sufficient, most zoas sit in an 80-120 par and have been loving it. Forgot to mention i dose iodide weekly and with weekly water changes trace elements shouldnt be soaked up. My zoas were growing best after a round of chemiclean to deal with some cyano when my no4 spiked up to .50 and po4 at .25 about a month ago but before that im not too sure because I was using a bad test kit. They dont seem to be melting and still have good color, thankfully, but the shape they are while half closed as well as a few shrinking poylps is concerning.

Also API very well known for false readings
The LFS that tested your water- do you know what test kits they were using?

 

[spearo0352]

I’m doing guess work here.
can you provide a couple pics under white intensity?

Yeah, i was going to add a few but my light just died so ive got another issue to deal with now

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yeah, i was going to add a few but my light just died so ive got another issue to deal with now

Oh no

 

[spearo0352]

got the lights sorted out, turns out theres some sort of software issue that doesnt allow my android to control my ai after it got disconnected prime so i just borrowed an iphone to get it running in the meantime. Ill post pics of my zoas once they begin to open up after being blacked out

 

[spearo0352]

for reference this pic was taken feb 14th zoas were open and multiplying up until the 25th

 

[spearo0352]

Its not as apparent since they are mostly closed now but you can see the ones on the bottom left are misshapen my rastas and the frag just in the middle top have shrunken polyps. pic is from just now. Cant use white lights because im still sorting out the issue with my light

 

[spearo0352]

bump, and i just ordered an icp test but im afraid i wont get results in time

 

[vetteguy53081]

Its not as apparent since they are mostly closed now but you can see the ones on the bottom left are misshapen my rastas and the frag just in the middle top have shrunken polyps. pic is from just now. Cant use white lights because im still sorting out the issue with my light

Now that im off work, some other things to keep in mind:
They seem to do best in the lower half to third of the tank in an area of low-medium to medium-high flow. Too much flow may make it hard for the polyps to open. You will know your zoanthids are ‘happy’ if they open up and are fully extended without seeming to stretch so far upright.. The majority of zoanthids have symbiotic photosynthetic zooxanthellae (I dare you to try and say that three times quickly) and are therefore best kept with at least moderate aquarium lighting as mentioned for production of zooxanthele.
Zoanthids require the standard water parameters that are good for keeping just about any of your corals healthy. You’re aiming for water temperature about 78 F, salinity somewhere around 1.025 specific gravity) and normal hardness 8-11 dKH) and a pH around 8.1-8.3.
However, if your polyps were previously open and have recently closed up, this should be taken as a serious sign of a water parameters issue. The first things I would check are ph and salinity. In my experience, zoas will close up if there are swings in salinity.
One disease that seems to disproportionately impacts these corals is something called zoa pox or zoanthid pox. Zoa pox is the name given to the zoanthid disease characterized by tiny growths on the side of the affected zoas. I’m not sure whether the growths/pustules themselves irritate the polyps and cause them to close up, or if the coral is otherwise sickly and closed up (therefore showing the zoa pox), but the bottom line is that if you see zoa pox, you have a sick coral.
Lastly, check for Super tiny spiders or nudibranchs which will take them down in No time. If you see these pests, start looking for eggs which are future pests to cause further problems. Hope this Helps !!!

 

[spearo0352]

Thanks for the reply, there have been no swings in my ph or salinity 8 for ph and 1.025 for salinity and I have not changed any of my husbandry routine so I either did something without realizing or something in my tank has changed on its own. I dont think its a zoa specific disease because most of my other corals seem to be suffering leading me to think its a param issue. My bloodsuckers seem to be doing the worst, my frog spawn has also closed up since my original post. I also see no visible signs of disease other than the wilting. Im really hoping that its just the bottomed out nutrients and that bringing them back up will resolve this.
I love this hobby but watching a tank go south overnight and not knowing why makes me want to pull my hair out.

 

[spearo0352]

a more recent pic of my bloodsuckers

 

[Bzelaznog]

Did you ever find out what happened? I am at the starting phase of a similar experience it seems like.

 

[spearo0352]

Did you ever find out what happened? I am at the starting phase of a similar experience it seems like.

I was never able to find out what happened. I sent out an icp test and everything came back within normal ranges. Other corals started suffering afterwards so I just broke down the tank and restarted it with new sand/rock and the frags I was able to save. My tank looks much better now but weirdly enough this specific colony in the picture came back and even started taking over my tank only to shrivel away completely while other colonies were multiplying insanely fast. It was very confusing because up until that point my bloodsuckers were my fastest growers. Now they are completely gone and my 3 polyp rasta frag is a 300 head rock.
Over all it was a super drastic move to restart my tank but I actually ended up liking the rock scape better afterwards and now that my corals have filled everything in im glad i did it.

 

[Tavero]

I was never able to find out what happened. I sent out an icp test and everything came back within normal ranges. Other corals started suffering afterwards so I just broke down the tank and restarted it with new sand/rock and the frags I was able to save. My tank looks much better now but weirdly enough this specific colony in the picture came back and even started taking over my tank only to shrivel away completely while other colonies were multiplying insanely fast. It was very confusing because up until that point my bloodsuckers were my fastest growers. Now they are completely gone and my 3 polyp rasta frag is a 300 head rock.
Over all it was a super drastic move to restart my tank but I actually ended up liking the rock scape better afterwards and now that my corals have filled everything in im glad i did it.

Typical zoa melting syndrome. Zoas like to melt and die it seems.