HELP! Please with bleaching zoas

[dal9906]

I have a 28 gal nano with compact fluorescent lighting (JBJ cf-quad). It has been up and running well for 4 years. I replace the lamp annually, latest 6 weeks ago. My first coral was a colony of green zoos (6 or so polyps) and over the years had spread to completely cover a large rock, guessing 500+ polyps! always looked great. Over the last week or so all the zoos have begun shrinking and bleaching. Only recent changes were adding purigen, heater (particularly cold winter, never needed one before) and the new lamp end of January. What could be happening? All my parameters are normal.

Picture is approx one month ago

 

[dal9906]

Current picture

 

[A. Grandis]

Could be all 3!!
Too much for the zoas at the same time!!!
I would remove the purigen immediately and make sure the lights aren't too strong for the zoas.
Reduce the photoperiod.
Also, make sure the heater isn't doing it's contribution to the bleaching!!!

Water at 79 - 80°F is what I would normally recommend, BUT...
In your case, I believe you need to bring it back to what it was!!

After that you'll need to wait until they get back to the color they were before.

I would do all that ASAP!!!
That's my opinion.

Grandis.

 

[nicholasb]

I had 5 zoa frasgs (10 polyps on each) When I started. Thay all seemed to be doing O.K and growing slowly. Then about 6/9 months later the green ones just started to disappear.
All the others are still going strong 2 years later. It is strange how zoas can just go!!.
Because thats the only coral you've got it is hard to tell, wheather something is realy wrong, or it's just the zoa's don't like the purigen. I used it once but had no problems. If you changed the bulb 6 weeks ago, that shouldn't be the problem.

 

[dal9906]

Because thats the only coral you've got it is hard to tell

Sorry I wasn't clear on that :hmm5:
I have (most from the beginning) superman shrooms, unknown red zoas, Kenya trees, Xenia, and a nice Duncan coral, all doing well and spreading/growing. The shrooms up towards the top of the tank are showing some sign of lightening up; more shrooms towards the bottom, as well as everything else, is unaffected.

The thermometer brought it up a few degrees, nothing too major, but I'll turn it down to 76. It's at 78 now, 75-76 before adding it.

 

[dal9906]

Looking closely after lights are off I see quite a few (8-10) amphipods moving around on the affected zoas, I see that they are beneficial for our tanks, but could they be scavenging on something else that is causing the problem? I don't see them in the same numbers anywhere else in the tank.

Thanks again for the responses, I'm fairly new at this and enjoy learning the ins and outs before I upgrade to bigger tanks.

 

[A. Grandis]

Based on the info you posted before I would think the bleaching is related to the new bulbs, Purigen and heater.

Amphipods would eat zoas or, at least, irritate them, not provoke bleaching.
Some species of amphipods don't bother zoas at all. I have many of them in my systems without any problems for years. Depends on the species.

Grandis.

 

[FWC]

Probably combo of light+heater. I can't see the Purigen bleaching them.

 

[dal9906]

Thanks for the advice. I have pulled the purigen, lessened the photoperiod. Any other thoughts to help get this very large, very cool colony on its way back to normal? Feeding, dosing, etc?

 

[A. Grandis]

Probably combo of light+heater. I can't see the Purigen bleaching them.

Purigen will remove organics from the water faster than most filtration products. It's a synthetic adsorbent.

When you place that in the water, new lights and a heater, the 3 together will contribute to bleaching.

Grandis.

 

[A. Grandis]

Thanks for the advice. I have pulled the purigen, lessened the photoperiod. Any other thoughts to help get this very large, very cool colony on its way back to normal? Feeding, dosing, etc?

I would just wait and keep the maintenance schedule like before.
Make sure the system is stable and keep doing basically what you were doing before the bleaching, because they were growing/reproducing well and with a healthy colorful appearance.

Use common sense to bring the photoperiod back to normal throughout the course of a few weeks.

It could take a while to come back to normal, but it should, eventually.

Grandis.

 

[dal9906]

Thanks a lot for the advice!

 

[A. Grandis]

You're very welcome!

Perhaps others could also chime in with other tips for bleaching recovery.

Gradis.

 

[dal9906]

:headwalls:

Soooo,.. Upon reading quite a bit more about 'REGENERATED' purigen, I've found a lot of folks who have had the same problem. Bleach being used in ANY WAY concerning my tank didn't sound good from the beginning, but I thought b/c so many people use it it would be ok. WTH was Seachem thinking? And yes, I rinsed it MANY times, soaked w/dechlorinating solution from LFS, rinsed a lot more before putting back in the media basket. If anybody wants to try to regen purigen, I can tell you what dechlorinating product to NOT use! Better yet, don't regen at all!

:furious:

 

[A. Grandis]

Yep, that's why I don't recommend Purigen, GFO and things like that...

Hope your zoas get better soon!

Grandis.