Diseased Green Zoanthids?????

[RossTheReefer]

Hello,

Everything in my system is doing very very well except for an issue I seem to be having with the zoanthids.

I have three colonies of green zoas and one colony of yellow zoas. The yellows are doing very well, growing slowly, but healthy. One of the green colonies has pinkish white spots showing up on the polups, which seems to be keeping them from being able to close properly. There are two or three kinds of sponge that are growing up into the zoas. The other two colonies of green are much more healthy, but I have noticed just a couple pollups with the same spots.


My main tank is a 100 gallon peaceful reef with a 45 gallon refugium and a 45 gallon sump.

Lights on the main tank are three 250 W 20k Metal Halides and 2 pairs of T5s.

Filter system is mainly biological, macro in the refugium and live rock in the sump. Also have a UV sterilizer on the system and the water runs through one filter bag.

Here are my water parameters:

KH: 10.0
Ca: 410
Sal: 1.0245
MG: 1400
PO4: 0
NO3: 0

Please let me know what you think and let me know if you need any more info.

Thank You!!!

 

[RossTheReefer]

more pics

more pics

here are a few more pics of the colony with issues

 

[Fishypapa]

At first thought I was wondering if the sponge and zoa weren't playing nice but since you've seen it on the others I'm not sure.

Have you planned to take them out and into a quarantine tank and check?

I'm curious what others have to say.

 

[RossTheReefer]

I wasnt going to since it's on all three colonies at least a little... And they are on too much rock to take out all of them.

I checked if there was sponge under the polyps in the other two colonies, showing the same symptoms, and they do not have any sponge in or around them.

Anyone else have any thoughts? Pleeease

 

[A. Grandis]

Feed those polyps small amounts of dry coral food, like Coral Franzy and Reef Chili, and remove the white things (which I believe are sponges) with tweezers.
You don't need to go crazy about it. Just do as much as you can when you find some extra time.
Those Palythoas are pretty hardy and they will get back on track after feeding.
Not a big deal at all!!
Make sure your temperature is around ~79.

Grandis.

 

[RossTheReefer]

Grandis,

Thanks for your reply. I ordered some coral frenzy yesterday, so i will give that a shot. I'll also try to get the sponge off.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again,

Ross

P.S. Temp is set with a heater and chiller to 79 all the time.

 

[A. Grandis]

You're welcome!
:thumbsup:

Grandis.