help, zoas seem to be melting away

J

jamest0o0

New member
To start here is some info on my tank:

Temp- 81-82 degrees
ammonia- 0 nitrates- ~0 PH- 7.9-8
salinity- 1.026

It was a frag I got at my LFS, the other frags I got seem to be doing well, but this one seems to just get worse, it is a yellowish gold color like a bumble bee

Flow- 110gph pump that has a turnover rate of 25x

Lighting-Modern Slim Profile LED lighting system 6.5W. Quad panels design with light output of 4000 LUX/Fc, equivalent to 48W T5HO lighting

only additives are kalk drip from ATO to raise PH

Any other questions about the tank just ask
 
jamest0o0 said:
To start here is some info on my tank:

Temp- 81-82 degrees
ammonia- 0 nitrates- ~0 PH- 7.9-8
salinity- 1.026

It was a frag I got at my LFS, the other frags I got seem to be doing well, but this one seems to just get worse, it is a yellowish gold color like a bumble bee

Flow- 110gph pump that has a turnover rate of 25x

Lighting-Modern Slim Profile LED lighting system 6.5W. Quad panels design with light output of 4000 LUX/Fc, equivalent to 48W T5HO lighting

only additives are kalk drip from ATO to raise PH

Any other questions about the tank just ask
Click to expand...

james , was the frag yellow sun polyps ?? i ask because my boss had recently acquired a small colony of these and they seem to be turning black , then shriveling up and disappearing . ????
 
No they were zoanthids, as for the specific kind I do not know, my LFS sells frags for $5 each with a free with for every four you buy so I just kind of picked out some different colors.
 
You said that you use kalk drip to raise your ph but kalk drip also raises the alk and cal. You should tell us what your alk and cal are, it could be very high.
 
I feel like your temp needs to go down a bit, your PH is too low, and you salinity may be better at 1.025.
 
You think? I thought my temp and PH were fine? And yeah I need to check my calc and alk, but I still need to grab the test kits. Also wouldn't that affect the whole tank? Why would just one tiny colony be doing bad?
 
Some corals are more sensitive to stuff like alk and cal swings, zoas are corals that are affected by alk swings.
 
around the same time i had flatworms(i think) explode and they are all over my glass, could this have something to do with it?
 
jamest0o0 said:
around the same time i had flatworms(i think) explode and they are all over my glass, could this have something to do with it?
Click to expand...

How did you treat the flatworms?

+1 on the temp and ph combo possibly being an issue, how are you measuring your salinity?
 
Did you dip the zoas at all? Are they wild caught frags? Where are the zoas located in the tank?

If you got a flatworm outbreak and they are planaria (red ones) they generally explode in population when your water parameters are not good.

Is this in the 8g CAD tank? Nanos are really tough with keeping steady water params considering how little water volume is in there. Dripping kalk could really swing parameters quickly which may be a reason why they are not happy. I would test alk consistently over a weeks period to see where you test out. What is your maintanence schedule on the tank?

+1 on your PH potentially being a problem.
 
I did not treat the tank for them and I'm not even sure if they're flatworms, but from the looks they are or very tiny isopods. They are white kinda clear. From what i've read it shouldn't be a problem?

As for dipping I dipped them like two weeks ago and just yesterday. They are located on my sand bed. I'm measuring salinity with a refractometer and my maintenance schedule is basically a 40-50% water change once a week. I feed random either every day or every other day.

What should I do about my PH issue? I dripped kalk because that's what most people told me to do and it did raise it from like 7.4 to 8. And yes this is the CAD 8g tank. Everytime I measure nitrates they come up less than 1 as well although I have just recently gotten a little bit of cyano and a tiny bit of hair algae on one piece of LR.
 
I think your water changes are a bit excessive, you should try and change about 10-20% a week. When you do large water changes you are also taking good bacteria along with the bad stuff out of the system and it takes time for the system to get those good bacteria back.
 
So I found a blue asterina star on my other frag and it looked like it was eating them, think that may have the problem?
 
The Ph is you're big issue, and also suggests a possible Calcium/Alkalinity issue as well.

I have never seen a Asterina eat a healthy Zoa, only dead or dying ones.

Test you're Alkalinity and Calcium, adjust Alk to about 4 meq/L and Caclium to about 400-425.

Odds are this will correct you're low PH, if it doesn't, you may need to test and dose magnesium to around 1300.
 
From what I see, you have a very small tank. I would never dose anything in an 8g tank. As for trying to get pH to a certain point, you are going to drive yourself nuts messing with it and also, drive your other parameters crazy. Use a good salt and doing a 1-2 gallon water change once a week should keep your parameters stable. What salt are you currently using? How old is your tank? Your temp is too high as well. It should be around 78-80. Mine is around 79 and things keep well in that temp. Sometimes, your tank can be doing fine and certain zoas don't keep well in your temperature (they could be collected from cooler waters). If it's a bunch of zoas however, I would say it's likely your water quality. Just get a good salt, do a small water change, and stop dosing stuff. Let your pH be and it should stable out on its own.
 
I use tropic marinpro salt. Also it does seem like others have had problems with the blue ones? Either way I'm committed to fixing this issue, I have a saliferts calc and alk test on order now so when it gets here I'll check out my params asap. As for the kalk from what I've read it really shouldn't be a problem just being dripped through my ATO which is probably less than half a cup a day... I understand my tank is small though so I don't doubt it either.
 
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