new zoas not looking great - advice please?

[goldmaniac]

ok, I got about 8 types of zoas/Palys from a fellow RC'er

they came in last thursday, 6 days ago.

I acclimated them slowly with drip, temp was within 2 degrees F when i placed them into the display. I decided against a FW dip, as they were so small and I visually inspected them. they looked clean. closed up, but clean.

So far, only a couple have opened up, and only slightly.

Lighting: I had new, albeit crappy, dual "175 watt" HQI Odyssea 15000k bulbs for my Odyssea hood. Everything looked green, they were bad. they were in there until 2 days ago.
I put them on a makeshift eggcrate stand 2 inches off the floor of my 2 foot deep tank.

Monday, new Phoenix 14000k 150 watt bulbs came in and I switched them. I kept the zoas on the bottom of the tank.

Most zoas/palys still looking bad, one has a thick clear membrane skin surrounding all the polyps. I'm waiting for that one to shed, hopefully.

all water parameters are good. not great, but good.
Nitrates < 4
salt: 1.025
temp around 75 F
two decent-sized water changes within past month
new lighting, as I said
I don't have a skimmer but working on it. I have a big (24"x16")caulerpa refugium that has kept nitrates down, hence the lack of skimmer.

decent flow - about 1200 gph, plus a Koralia 4 is in there.

I already have two colonies of RPE's and a big (30+ polyps) colony of Eye of Rah, they all look fine.

tank is an established 120 gal with about a 50 gallon sump/fuge.

MY QUESTIONS:

could it just be the zoas getting used to the different lighting types? previous owner of these guys had LED's equal to 250 watt Metal halides, he said. and THEN after the first 5 days in this tank, i switched my lighting to Phoenix 14k's.

I should NOT put them close to the light, correct? or should I?

HELP!! i really don't want to lose all these guys.

TIA...

 

[650-IS350]

always start zoas in the bottom till the get acclimated to the light.

 

[goldmaniac]

ok, thanks

is this within normal experience for them to still not be open almost a week later?

I am making a guess that the different lighting these guys have gone under recently (original owner, my crappy 15k's, and now Phoenix 14k's) have the zooxanthellae all depleted. am I grabbing at straws here to understand what's maybe going on?

different lighting spectrums require different zooxanthellae, which need to build up in the tissues of the zoa's/paly's?

Just guessing. Hoping to explain myself out of a panic.

thanks again,
G.

 

[650-IS350]

just a typical thing, figure put you in a dim lit room for a couple days then all the sudden toss you into a super lit room..:eek2: It takes your eyes some time to focus and get used to the bright light... that's the best I could say in layman terms.

 

[goldmaniac]

ok, so don't sweat it, you're saying. I've learned patience in this hobby, so one (many) week's time isn't anything I'm not used to. I'm just unfamiliar with the range of time that zoas/palys need to get going, sounds like this is within normal experience.

thanks -

anyone else want to chime in?

 

[650-IS350]

I had some RPE's and PPE not open for a couple weeks. Moved them after a while in different locations the a couple days later opened up.