Hi,
I bought a small rock with a few zoas on it last week and they're going downhill. This is my first attempt at any coral and everything I've read/been told says they're very easy to keep. For the most part, many of the polyps are not opening at all after a few days and the ones that are open don't look healthy. Some are not upturned like a flower as when I got them, but are downturned like an umbrella. I do have an idea or two, and I'm looking for confirmation, or other thoughts.
I've been FO for 10 years and never tested for calcium. I was told that these zoas (and most soft corals) don't need calcium. Perhaps that's not true, huh? After they started declining, I had the water tested, and the calcium is 180ppm. I know that the magic number is 400, but how critical is that for this particular animal?
Also, I gave in and bought a refractometer and found out that my hydrometer was lying to me. What I thought was 1.024 was actually 1.028. How critical is that for these guys? I am lowering it by one point per day.
Those are the two possible problems that I'm seeing. Actual parameters are:
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-0
phosphate-0
calcium-180
temp-80
SG-1.025
The tank is lit by 4x39 watt T-5's (the Nova Extreme fixture without the individual reflectors), 8 hours of daylights, 10 hours of actinics. The flow is the strictly from the Ehiem 1262 return pump and the polyps are in an area with decent water movement. Below are pictures. Sorry, they're horribly out of focus, almost not worth posting, but I thought they might help with identification, if nothing else. Any help would be appreciated.
Grant
I bought a small rock with a few zoas on it last week and they're going downhill. This is my first attempt at any coral and everything I've read/been told says they're very easy to keep. For the most part, many of the polyps are not opening at all after a few days and the ones that are open don't look healthy. Some are not upturned like a flower as when I got them, but are downturned like an umbrella. I do have an idea or two, and I'm looking for confirmation, or other thoughts.
I've been FO for 10 years and never tested for calcium. I was told that these zoas (and most soft corals) don't need calcium. Perhaps that's not true, huh? After they started declining, I had the water tested, and the calcium is 180ppm. I know that the magic number is 400, but how critical is that for this particular animal?
Also, I gave in and bought a refractometer and found out that my hydrometer was lying to me. What I thought was 1.024 was actually 1.028. How critical is that for these guys? I am lowering it by one point per day.
Those are the two possible problems that I'm seeing. Actual parameters are:
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-0
phosphate-0
calcium-180
temp-80
SG-1.025
The tank is lit by 4x39 watt T-5's (the Nova Extreme fixture without the individual reflectors), 8 hours of daylights, 10 hours of actinics. The flow is the strictly from the Ehiem 1262 return pump and the polyps are in an area with decent water movement. Below are pictures. Sorry, they're horribly out of focus, almost not worth posting, but I thought they might help with identification, if nothing else. Any help would be appreciated.
Grant
