My zoanthids suck lately. Advice please?

You could bring a sample to your LFS and see if they could test for Ca, Alk and Mg for you. That way you would know if the test(s) is/are expired.
:thumbsup:
I wouldn't worry too much after the water changes. Once it's done correctly and the ionic balance is reached there should be nothing to worry about.
Please try not to disturb that substrate too much while removing it with all the organisms in the tank. Just in case...
Try to concentrate on the removal of the substrate first and getting the zoas back on track. Keep the stability of the system, so they could come back to normal faster. I hope the substrate is the only problem there, if so. :D

Grandis.
 
I don't think the tests are expired. They are pretty new yet and are the very good kind also. I decided to spend the money and get the red sea brand kit. I gues its supposed to be lab quality. Only about four months old.
 
I will try my best not to disturb the sand too much while removing. You know what I noticed though. The only life I can see in the sand is bristle worms. I'm my 29g when I started the tank up with live sand there were spaghetti worms, pods, all types of critters in the sand and I really don't see all that in this sand when I check the two out at night. Maybe it's bc the sand is too fine..
 
Nah it shouldn't be too fine or anything. Mine is sugar sand and that is like as fine as it gets and I have (had until recent crash but still have enough left to re-generate) all kinds of stuff. Copepods, amphipods, brittle stars, bristeworms, spaghetti worms, turbelids, vermatids, an oeonone fulgida (sp?) I don't even want to think about, lots of other worms. I dunno, your sand is just really screaming "bad" at me. Doesn't it just siphon right out if you take the big end of the tube off (just siphon with this?)

41p9JJO4ZHL._SY300_.jpg


I mean I could get all my sand out in 5 min with just some tubing.....it'll suck up gravel. It will take your sand, I can tell by the pic. And it will take the water around it too so there shouldn't be as much worry about stirring anything up. And it would be A LOT easier than scooping. Heck you might not even have to move your rocks.
 
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I am so stupid.. Why didn't I think of that in the first place?! I can take the big part off lol. I had it on there the whole time trying to suck the sand out. I guess next water change I will use my brain and take it off lol. Yea I do have a great diversity of life but it's all on the rocks. Not really too much going on in the sand here.

I thought I was testing it right. I'll try it again tomorrow.
 
Siphoning is different than vacuuming. LOL!!!
I was talking about siphoning...

1/4 or 1/3 every week would be great.

Grandis.
 
Kinda got my phosphate tested today at my lfs. They use a Hanna checker. His battery wasn't working properly so I didn't get a exact result but the water had just a bit of a blue tint to it which is a sign of phosphate. I'm thinking just a small amount. I will know by tomorrow I think what the results are.
 
With all the water changes you've done, I don't think Alk or Ca would be the problem. However, zoas will react negatively with low Alkalinity in my tank. Although I've never had swings to the high end, I have had swings to the low end (5 or 6 dkh) a couple times and both times the zoas were some of the first to alert me.

My observations with phosphates is a reduced growth of my zoas and of course increase growth of algae. However, they haven't closed up for days like my issues with alkalinity. Now with that said if algae or cyano irritates them they may close up from time to time.

As Grandis said, I'm one of those that seem to have good results with LEDs and like them. However, if I remember right from my reading, LED intensity drops by something like 2.5 to 5 percent a year depending on heat on the LED. For some of the newer CREE LEDs that's probably not a huge issue, but I would suspect it might be a problem for some of the older LEDs.

Hopefully, changing the substrate will work for you.
 
That is a tyree green montipora, an easy sps coral. Love it. Most of the time my yellow clown goby sits on it like its his own personal perch.

I plan on getting some supplemental led lighting to go with my marineland reef capable and see how that works. My lfs has this new inexpensive led fixture that I think will work good for extra lighting if that's my issue.
 
Man there is more sand in there than I thought!!!! I took the big part of my siphon off and just used the skinny tube to remove the sand today. Boy did that work a lot better! Lol I only removed about half the sand until I buy another bag of sand to replace it. Don't want the rocks to fall over. The sand is making them stable. Here's a picture. Rocks are a bit dusty. Also say hello to my new Scarlett cleaner shrimpie! Had some store credit and decided to bring one home. I love her already. Anyways, I will be gettin new aragonite sand and I found this new light fixture that has 3w LEDs that should be a good addition to my marineland fixture. Just to add some extra light to the tank.

D65B896C-903B-49AC-86E7-5C9320D95D6B-2817-000003278BEC3B9E.jpg
 
ah very cool, thanks for the quick answer. another question, since i have not messed with sps any yet, is that the same as a monti cap or will they grow different. i have seen several different variations on the name monti so i want to make sure i am looking for the right kind, that grow out to form "ledges"
 
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Yes this one will grow out to form a ledge . Just glue it to a rock facin out like mine and eventually it will plate out.

Got the results of my phosphates. .26! That's high right? What's the best way to lower them? Could that be the reason why my zoas aren't happy? Or just a contributing factor?
 
.26 is very high. Most likely why your zoas are throwing a fit.

I had a huge Algae bloom this summer, nothing I did was fixing it and my zoas had shrank to almost nothing. Come to find out my PO4 was .17, I'm surprised you haven't had algae problems.
 
I'm having a small algae problem as we speak but nothing huge. This is a small simple tank. I don't want to be adding reactors or a fuge to it... Will adding a skimmer bring the phosphates down enough to make it worth buying one?
 
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