zoas still not opening :/

dandoozled · Dec 2, 2019

I've been having a problem with my zoas not opening, it started when my salinity accidentally rose without me noticing to 1.032 for almost a week, but that was around a month and a half ago... I've had my salinity stabilized since then, but I've been noticing that my alkalinity hasn't been as stable as I want it to be, going between 8-10.5... will that type of change affect zoas not wanting to open? Because they're clearly not dead, but I really want to get to the bottom of why they're not opening. I tried coral dip, I've tried moving to different spots of the tank... nothing.
my current parameters //
salinity - 1.025
calcium - 460
alk - 9
ph - 8.3

ahiggins · Dec 3, 2019

Just a fellow reefer who had the same thing happen due to a faulty refractometer. It took my corals a good 3 weeks to come back to normal after a quick salinity rise from 1.025 to 1.030 during a water change.

rkpetersen · Dec 3, 2019

There are many reasons zoas might not open. Rapid changes in alk or salinity can definitely do it. Annoyance by dinos or other algae. Too much white light. Zoa pox, or predators like nudis and sea stars. Phosphate or nitrate level too high or too low. Sometimes it's hard to pin down a reason.

BeejReef · Dec 4, 2019

You have a picture?

drivingmecrazy · Dec 6, 2019

Agreed, try to keep your parameters stable. How big is your aquarium? Evaporation alone in a small aquarium will keep everything bouncing around

Saltyreef · Dec 7, 2019

Yep agreed with all of the above. Stable parameters are key. Get your daily consumption down and setup some cheap and simple brs 1.1 dosing pumps for 2 part.
You never mentioned what your mag was.
Calcium and alkalinity dont get consumed by corals if the mag is out of range just fyi. You want your mag no lower than 1350. Atleast its the most stable of the macros and you likely wont need to dose again for a while. Keeping your alk stable is the biggest issue here and likely why your zoas arent opening. Next would be lighting to maximize PUR as mentioned above. You may have too much unusable PAR with your water quality not exactly spot on too.