LouisianaReefer
New member
Greetings everyone,
I am following the advice of Mucho as much as I can at this time to relate the problem that appears to be zoa pox. Here is my current tank stats:
1. 75 gallon display with 30 gallon sump.
2. Tank temp- 78 degrees
3. Alk 10.5 dkH, Mag 1090, Calcium 400 ppm
4. PH 7.8 yet kit is old. Xenia are pulsing well, so Ph is likely stable.
5. Salinity 1.025
The problem I have is with about 10 small zoa colonies that I have had for 1 year. All were doing fine until I got a couple of coral frags added to the tank. Sadly, I did not do a coral dip! Never again! Anyway, within days of getting these new frags, I had an outbreak of what appears to be zoa pox. All the zoas are in moderate light with moderately high flow and opening up regularly prior to these new acquisitions.
Prior history with the pox: I had an outbreak of this about a year ago and was able to beat it with vit C dosing in A.M. and P.M. which I continued for almost a year... here we go again. This time the vit C is not cutting it.
I took all my zoas out of my 75 display, and then put them in a separate 10 Q tank and treated the entire tank per the API insturctions including the 25% water change after 2 cycles of the Furan 2. The zoas opened up fine yet started bleaching out. I did concentrated dips (1 packet for about 1.5 cups) for 2 days I moved them back to the 75 and they were doing well for about 1 week yet now have started to close up again. An API support person ensured Furan 2 was fine for the tank and fish. I only had one packet left so I mixed it with RO water and added it to the sump of my 75, this greatly improved the zoas again, allowing them to open up for about 3 days yet the are closing up again.
From prior posts, I seems the pox infection can be in my main tank. I likely need to keep the zoas out the more infected tank and put them in the small tank again either treating the small tank (perhaps with lower doses) again or dipping the zoas again. I did read somewhere that the use of antibiotics for humans has been tried on zoas before with some success. I cannot find that information now. Furan 2 has worked for many folks yet I understand it can cause cancer and is very stressful on the zoas and other corals. I have tried peroxide with water 50/50 mix for a 30 sec dip a year ago yet this was too radical and killed some zoas.
I am following the advice of Mucho as much as I can at this time to relate the problem that appears to be zoa pox. Here is my current tank stats:
1. 75 gallon display with 30 gallon sump.
2. Tank temp- 78 degrees
3. Alk 10.5 dkH, Mag 1090, Calcium 400 ppm
4. PH 7.8 yet kit is old. Xenia are pulsing well, so Ph is likely stable.
5. Salinity 1.025
The problem I have is with about 10 small zoa colonies that I have had for 1 year. All were doing fine until I got a couple of coral frags added to the tank. Sadly, I did not do a coral dip! Never again! Anyway, within days of getting these new frags, I had an outbreak of what appears to be zoa pox. All the zoas are in moderate light with moderately high flow and opening up regularly prior to these new acquisitions.
Prior history with the pox: I had an outbreak of this about a year ago and was able to beat it with vit C dosing in A.M. and P.M. which I continued for almost a year... here we go again. This time the vit C is not cutting it.
I took all my zoas out of my 75 display, and then put them in a separate 10 Q tank and treated the entire tank per the API insturctions including the 25% water change after 2 cycles of the Furan 2. The zoas opened up fine yet started bleaching out. I did concentrated dips (1 packet for about 1.5 cups) for 2 days I moved them back to the 75 and they were doing well for about 1 week yet now have started to close up again. An API support person ensured Furan 2 was fine for the tank and fish. I only had one packet left so I mixed it with RO water and added it to the sump of my 75, this greatly improved the zoas again, allowing them to open up for about 3 days yet the are closing up again.
From prior posts, I seems the pox infection can be in my main tank. I likely need to keep the zoas out the more infected tank and put them in the small tank again either treating the small tank (perhaps with lower doses) again or dipping the zoas again. I did read somewhere that the use of antibiotics for humans has been tried on zoas before with some success. I cannot find that information now. Furan 2 has worked for many folks yet I understand it can cause cancer and is very stressful on the zoas and other corals. I have tried peroxide with water 50/50 mix for a 30 sec dip a year ago yet this was too radical and killed some zoas.
