problems with the hornets.

[cloak]

The first frag I bought was a couple purple hornets. They looked great for about and month, and then slowly withered away and died. This last May, I bought one red hornet, and two polyps of the blue hornets. The red hornet looked good for about two weeks, and then slowly withered away and died. The blue hornets seem to last a little longer. No growth, but they looked great for awhile. (almost 4 months) Within the last 10 days or so, they just look like they're withering away and dying as well.
Am I missing something with these? The tank has been set up for almost 5 years now. It's a mixed reef, so it's got everything from different varieties of zoanthids, to sps, to LPS ,and a few leathers. Everything seems to be ok except for these hornets. Any ideas? Is this just a common occurrence with these? Do I need to play the odds and keep trying? Any information would be great. Thank you.

Parameters:

ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 0-12.5 mg/L (Tetra test kit, no algae problems though)
phosphates ? (no algae problems though)
pH 8.3
Alkalinity ~9
calcium ?
magnesium ?

 

[Wolzen]

Do you dip them? When I have mine doing this I dip with coral rx. It seems to help out.

 

[Rob N Gab]

It all depends. Did they look good when you got them, like fully opened? Was there any clear white film on them? Don't no the source your gettig from but law ya dip your stuf. Also what type of lighting and flow did you have them under.

 

[rogersb]

I only have the purple hornets currently. Mine are doing fine mid tank under LEDs at full blast.

 

[cloak]

Do you dip them? When I have mine doing this I dip with coral rx. It seems to help out.

Sort of... My tap water is pretty good, been using it for almost 15 years now without any problems, but I do give them a good 30 second dip under the faucet.

 

[cloak]

It all depends. Did they look good when you got them, like fully opened? Was there any clear white film on them? Don't no the source your gettig from but law ya dip your stuf. Also what type of lighting and flow did you have them under.

They did look good when I got them. No funky stuff or nothing. The purple hornets were purchased from a LFS. The other two at a club meeting. (NVR) Good sources I believe. The details are in my signature. Just to give you an idea, here's an older picture of my tank, and where I usually put new additions.

 

[jda]

Did they get hot? Deepwater Z&P don't care for the heat much and will slowly waste away if you get much over 78 for too long, IME.

 

[cloak]

I don't know about hot, but my tank does usually top out at about 82, 83 in the summer. Everything else seems to be ok, but perhaps this was the reason. Thanks for the information. I think we have another swap meet at the beginning of November, so I'll give them one more try through the winter and see what happens. The temperature of the tank will be much lower. Thanks again.