my zoas need help

[phishy2]

my zoas have been closed for almost a week now, at first i thought it might have been a change in the lighting, where i changed the MH to come on an hr earlier, and off an hour earlier, and the acintics to do the same, to shift the time an hr earlier....

this is a picture of my zoas

i only have this type, but i have them on 3 different rocks in the tank i have tryed moving them in different locations to see if it was flow, or lighting, but all act the same.

i dont notice any nudibranches on the rocks or zoas, but i DO notice small isopods or copods... dont see anything bothering them either.

i dont see any fungus or anything either but maybe i dont know what it looks like...

my water parameters are
salinity 1.024
calc: ~380 (trying to raise this)
PH: 8.2
nitrates, nitrites, phosphates, ammonia all at 0
temp 78

my lighting is a 250watt MH 14k pheonix bulb, i have it on 8 hrs, i then put on 130watt PC dual acintic for 3hrs (after the MH is out).

can anyone help me... i did no do any type of dip on these, should i think about doing it? will this make them worse since they arent doing well as is?

 

[phishy2]

noone has any info?

do the zoas look ok? i was reading that if the stock and mat look fine but the polyp is closed that i still have a chance at saving them... please offer comments so i can save them.

i had them in the tank for about a month they looked good until last week. i got cyno around then also, but the parameters i posted from yesterday were the same for then too...

 

[phishy2]

i took the zoas out and checked them over real well, i ended up noticing some type of very thin vine like algae around some of the zoas, this algae was pretty much interwieved around the zoa stalks, so i carefully removed it as best i could... it wasnt around the zoas on each of the three rocks i have them on though.

i also removed a brisleworm from one of the rocks.

they havent opened up anymore then in the photo yet. im hoping maybe this vine stuff was the agitator. i didnt notice any of the other preditory things, and i didnt see any fungus. they also did not smell at all...

 

[xxtriggermanxx]

what type of fish are in your tank? anything new?

 

[phishy2]

i have a midas blenny, tomato clown and a royal gramma... i also have a pepperment shrimp. none of these are new. none of them get too close to the zoas either.

they still dont open anymore then the photo

 

[phishy2]

i got some dip stuff from my lfs they didnt have lugols they had a kent D solution, should i do a dip on these? i wont be around for 10days over the holidays and not sure if it will hurt them or not, i dont want to come back to a dead tank because these zoas have gone south in that time, i do have someone taking care of things but they wouldnt be able to tell if they should remove anything....

 

[phishy2]

i used the kent marine tech D, unfortunatly i just noticed it says not to use on colonial polyps -=X

the zoas dont look any better or any worse however... should i be concerned? should i do a different type of dip?

im not getting many replies, where are all the zoa experts?

 

[impur]

Typically a FW dip will suffice, iodine helps but is not required. Have you done a FW dip at all?

You need to raise your calcium some. What is your alk?

 

[phishy2]

i raised the calc today, it is now at 420, and the alk is 2.5-3 meq/l

i have not done a fw dip. i dont see anything on the zoas. should i do a fw dip before or after my vacation.

 

[Reef Junkie]

In your first post you mentioned that you were raising your Calcium. What are you using?
Did you notice them closing after you first started raising it?

Try not to do anything with them unless they start to melt.
If that happens, frag them and get the healthy frags into a quarantine with fresh salt water.

 

[impur]

I always FW dip my zoos when something appears off. Its one way to be sure that there are no predators and coupled with some iodine usually can stop an infection from taking the whole colony out. Remember zoos in the wild are often expossed at low tide, and when its raining they get a healthy dose of FW so its not really anything new to them. I dip for about 5-7 min.

 

[phishy2]

i dose using oceans blend 2 part... i have used it before i had the zoas in there... i just found out on the reef chemistry forum that i can raise the calc to 420 in one shot, and then slowly raise the alk... this hasnt had any effect on the zoas. they still do not fully open, they open the same amount. i am going to leave them alone for now, i will be going on vacation and dont want to disturb them. they arent melting, smelling, or anything else so i will let them be until i get back, i did the kent d dip solution, i did it per the instructions however (using tank water) not using RO/DI like other dips.

they seem to open a little more with the acintic light then the MH but still not anywhere near fully open.

hopefully they are still hanging in there when i get back.

 

[Reef Junkie]

Enjoy your vacation, they will be there.
Have faith.