AOG's and Pink Palys Melting Badly

[dankoos]

My AOG's were healthy and happy until like a week ago. Now they, and in the last couple days a colony of pink palys look like this:

The rest of the corals look fine:

I did do two major water changes in the last month. i use a hydrometer and don't have a refractometer. Is it possible the salinity is too high or too low? If that is the case, how come it is not affecting all the other corals? i don't see any spots on the palys that don't look well. I will have to check at night to see if there are any pests. Both colonies were vibrant and spreading like crazy as little as a week ago.

 

[Augustus]

I think its really hard to tell when you have multiple zoas but only a few wont open. Afraid the only easy answer is to do some zoa trouble shooting. Did anything change? I.e. new lights, water parameters, more flow, new live stock, etc. If so you may look to that as the reason and if not I would start looking for pests.

I had a pair doing the exact same thing. About 10 sets of zoas and my oldest two colonies were always struggling to stay open. I had no idea why and after about two weeks I noticed a single nudi on one...

Unfortunately it doesn't look like it will be easy to remove those and dip them but that may be your only course of action even if you do not suspect them. At least I have heard people dipping them when they run out of options. I'm about to do the same myself. Have one frag that just doesn't want to stay open but 20 others that are happy...

 

[Augustus]

Just saw the part about salinity. I had the same issues before I got an auto top off. My salinity was jumping all over the place but it never caused my zoas any problems. I didn't see anything in your photos that looked like zoa poxs either. I've had that problem too and though it went away I bought some furan 2 for any future outbreaks.

Wish I had better advice but right now I'd say check for pests and disease. At the very worst I'd say let them go for another week and see what happens. I can say that the zoas I've had are pretty hardy and when I had the nudis they were getting munched on for weeks then got dipped and transferred to the qt setup and came out of it better than before.

 

[A. Grandis]

They look healthy to me. Some of them are closed, but healthy.
I don't think they are melting.
The hydrometer is enough for the purposes of our home reef tanks. The refractometer is a more accurate way to deal with the SG/ salinity, but the hydrometer should do it.
There are temporary wide variations in nature were zoas live, so if that was the case they would have to be exposed to the variation for a good while to show any symptom like that.

More info?

Grandis.

 

[A. Grandis]

Could be chemicals...

Grandis.

 

[fshaqrmman]

Same thing happened to mine. The only luck I had with reviving some was a 3 minute dip in the Melafix coral medication.

 

[pakirri]

try some vitamin C on a daily basis, that seems to help at least for my zoanthids

 

[xcorallusx]

could be chemical warfare, add carbon and get a refractometer. Why skimp on equipment with the amount of livestock you have in there? I used to use a few hydrometers in the past and they all ended being completely off, if you have corals do not trust them.

 

[dankoos]

could be chemical warfare, add carbon and get a refractometer. Why skimp on equipment with the amount of livestock you have in there? I used to use a few hydrometers in the past and they all ended being completely off, if you have corals do not trust them.

Never used carbon before. What does that do? How will it affect the rest of the tank? How do I add it?

 

[metalmulisha]

Generic definition to what it does is, it absorbs pollutants. You can buy a canister or you can just put it in a filtration bag in your sump and allow the water current to go through it. I suggest a canister if thats feasible.

 

[jeff@zina.com]

Post ALL parameters.

Jeff

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