Please help!

[feedmycorals]

Hi everyone
My green eye zoas and another (please ID if you know) do not appear to be as healthy as before. They used to open completely and bright in color..now the green one does not open much and got skinny..the second one is getting darker and some polyps fell off.
Thanks!

 

[feedmycorals]

Here is a pic taken when it was healthy.

 

[jerpa]

Have you made any changes recently? It appears you have other softies in the tank. How are they?

I'd check your parameters, salinity, and temperature. You could check pumps and heaters to make sure nothing appears damaged. If that doesn't show anything and nothing has changed I would run some activated carbon and do a 10-20% water change each day for a few days.

 

[feedmycorals]

Thanks for your suggestion. There is no big changes that I notice. Yes, the kenya, xenia, neon green, green star, toad stool mushroom, 2 red and organe mushrooms and some other zoas do just fine. I usually change 1 gallon a week (my tank is 10g). I will do more water changes this weekend to see if it helps.
My two clowns are fine and happy...
Thanks!

 

[rocsec1]

Is there something else close to it that could be stinging it?

 

[MondoBongo]

How often are you topping off fresh water to compensate for evaporation and what kind of lighting are you using?

How did you acclimate them to your lights? What temp does your tank run? How long have you had them? Are you dipping and quarantining new corals?

Have you observed them after lights out, looking closely for pests?

 

[feedmycorals]

Thank you for your replies.
There are nothing close by them so stinging is not an issue.
The tank has hood and we do regular water changes so salinity change due to evaporation is negligible...yah never top up with freshwater
No...I dont dip or quarantine new corals before acclimating them. We have the zoas in its healthy condition for about first 4 weeks , then last 2 weeks I observed that it does not pen as much..other zoas in the tank do well...even the one that does not get as much light as this green one.
Xenia kenya greenstar toadstoll flowerpot hammer and mushrooms are just fine.
I just did 20% water change yesterday...maybe tomorrow change more water again..

 

[feedmycorals]

I use a 14w T8

 

[fijisrfr]

What do you use to check salinity?
If you never top off with fresh water your salinity is bound to creep up.

 

[MondoBongo]

In my 20 gallon QT tank I lose about 16 ounces a day to evaporation that I need to replace.

I would be willing to bet your salinity is high.

 

[vlangel]

I've had good luck with most softies and LPS but ZOA's can be a mystery to me. They will diminish and slowly close up for seemingly no reason. All my parameters can be perfect and I am very regimented about faithful water changes and yet it would still happen. For that reason I've given up trying to understand what is going on with the ZOA's.

 

[MondoBongo]

any update on this, or your other params?

what about your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate readings?

 

[feedmycorals]

Updated:
I did water changes (about 20%) and the zoas seemed to be getting better. It opens up more. The polyps that did not open before, now open a little.
I measured the specific gravity using a hydrometer. I will need to calibrate it with reference seawater standard and a refractometer to check for its accuracy.
Unfortunately I don't measure either nitrite or nitrate. I have nitrate measuring kid but it does not really do any thing..show the same reading (close to zero) all the time..which means I never observe the water that nitrate is higher than the detection limit.

Hope my green zoas gets better soon...btw I just got a new 55G tank. Please pm me if you know where you shop for live rocks/sand with reasonable price. Thanks! I am quite into saltwater now...

Merry Christmas to everyone!

 

[MondoBongo]

How do you know your cycle is finished if you haven't tested for nitrite? What about ammonia?

Oddball pets in Baldwin has a nice selection of reasonably priced live rock, also corals and fish. Great knowledge too.

 

[feedmycorals]

can you recommend good test kits for nitrite and ammonia for less than 0.2 ppm? under oxic condition in the tank, well oxygenated and very low nitrate level, I don't expect to see either nitrite or ammonia at measurable levels.

Yes, I got some corals at Oddballs Pets and they do great. I'll check out that store again. By the way, Aquaworld has many cheap coral frags.

 

[MondoBongo]

I have seachem ones. They seem to do well. Salifert is also supposed to be a good brand, but I have not personally used them.

 

[feedmycorals]

Thanks! I moved the green zoas to my new 55g to see how it is doing. Other zoas in the 10g do great..have lots of baby polyps as well...