Can anyone tell me whats wrong with these zoos?

[whalloper]

Hello everyone,

I have this colony in my large tank under PC's, and they started acting weird a couple of weeks ago - I didnt worry much at first, but now they are looking worse.

They have that (sorry to say it, but I dont know how else) nipple appearance.

They will all just about open (at least until today) but appear smaller than they used to.

The skirts are also much shorter than before (even if fully open)

I dont see any nudi's, and the only thing externally that I can see is that little yellow round thing at the base of one near the middle of the picture.

Any input is much appreciated as I am upgraging to 250W MH when the system gets here. Although I may have to wait until they are healthy to install it. Everything else in that tank is doing fine, and I have at least a dozen different zoos in my other tank doing awesome with similar water parameters (but with MH).

 

[whalloper]

heres another sort of close up....that yellow round thing is in the bottom left

 

[dc_909]

How old are your bulbs? How often are you doing water changes?

 

[Azurel]

What type of flow do you have them in? What is the test results of your water? This info might help a little to figure out what it might be......

 

[whalloper]

I apologize for not posting the parameters, but everything is within normal range - thats why I cant figure out whats going on.

I am doing 15% water changes every 2 weeks. The only thing that was slightly high was my phosphates at around .1, but I have taken care of that, and nothing else in the tank (lps and softies) were bothered.

The PC bulbs are about 6 months old. I already purchased a 2x250W HQI system (72gal tank) to replace the PC's, but does anyone think the current bulbs could be causing that?

 

[Reef Junkie]

I'd hate to be a stickler for questions, but...
Please list your params.
Salinity:
Temp:
Calcium:
Alkalinity:
PH:

Also, how long have you had the colony?

Lighting shouldn't be a problem, but lets make sure none of the above params are the problem before turning to the lights.

 

[whalloper]

salinity: 1.022
temp: 78.5
alkalinity: 8 dkh
ph: 8.2
calcium: 400 ppm
nitrates: <1
phosphates: .05
iodine: .7

sorry, forgot to post flow earlier (Im not doing so well...I will learn). I had two rio 800's and my sump return, which is probably like another rio 800. They are rated at 200gph each

 

[Reef Junkie]

Alrighty then, looks good. Your dkh is a little on the low side, but not dangerously low.

So, how long have you had this colony?

 

[whalloper]

yeah, I know...I cant seem to ever get it past 9 - even dosing like crazy. Ive only had this colony for about 4 months and I think it was wild

 

[surfnvb7]

that colony looks very very similar to alot of the colonies sitting in my LFS. which are also under some very low lighting PC NO bulbs (T12).

make sure flow is optimal. and i would also try a freshwater lugols dip. the dip has amazing results at pulling zoas out of the gutter.

you also may want to raise your salinity. 1.022 seems kinda low. are you using a refractometer?

 

[whalloper]

I am using a hydrometer - I know...not the best. Is the mortality rate high with the dip?

 

[Reef Junkie]

Well, usually the dip will accelerate the process. So if they were gonna die, they were gonna die. Sometimes cutting out the dieing part of the colony will help the rest of the colony recover.
Like surf said, dip em.

 

[reefman2525]

take a target feeding tool and shot a fast flow of tank water at the zoos maybe they will free up or try moving the zoos over to another area lower or higher. some zoos are picky.

 

[whalloper]

hello everyone... I upgraded my lighting today. The package came, and I couldnt resist. I didnt think the zoos in the pic could get worse, so I installed it earlier today. They already look tons better!! Almost every polyp is fully open, and the skirts are longer already. They also dont have as much of that "nipple" look, and this just with ONE DAY of halide lighting!!! Looks like they are a lot happier - I will post some "after" pics in a few days so everyone can see what a difference the lights made. Once again, thanks for all your help!

 

[AngieN.]

I had a colony do the same thing a couple of months ago. I was sure they weren't gonna make it. I didn't do any dips or anything and they did slowly recover. I too made the switch from PC to MH about the time they were recovering. They are now back to normal and growing. Sounds like yours are doing well!!!

 

[whalloper]

indeed, Angie!! Day two looks even better than day 1. The only thing I did was blow them off quite a bit with a turkey baster (no dip). I just got all the dead flesh and detrutis off of the colony.

 

[Reef Junkie]

That's awesome!
Now, you know what you need to do, right?
Lets see some new pictures!