Sudden colony die offs

[Ron448]

I started my tank for the second time in December, it was up for about 4 years but had to take it down for a couple months but since its been back up I've gotten a lot of zoanthids frags. Nearly every single frag starts out amazing. Many of them opened during acclimation, I see amazing growth, multiple new polyps within weeks on multiple frags, and then out of nowhere they just shrivel up and wither away sometimes they'll stay around shriveled up for a month or two and others dissapeared completely after a couple days. I've tried dipping in nearly every dip and still nothing. There was one frag that seemed to get better with dips of coral rx but then just went right back to shriveling up. Also pretty much every time I test my water the parameters are the same there was one time my ammonia was about .25 but I did a water change and that fixed the problem but everything other time I've tested my water everything has been in check. some of them have this film that they shed which Ive read to be fungus but I've dipped with the supposed cures and still no improvement. I am also pretty convinced that my amphipods eat them too. I see them crawling all over my colonies and I'm pretty sure I see them biting them too. my last resort is a frag tank that I just set up Im making sure there are no predators in the system so the only thing would be infections or that I'm just not caring well enough for them but I really don't think that's it because they all start out spectacular and polyps are the only corals that I have lost since I've set my tank up in December

 

[mushroomhead]

I lost all of my zoas over a period of 3 months. After multiplying like crazy, they just stopped opening then died off. I did find a bright yellow slug like thing on one colony which turned blue in fresh water. The rest seemed to be choked out by hair algae.

 

[JJ650]

I lost all of my zoas over a period of 3 months. After multiplying like crazy, they just stopped opening then died off. I did find a bright yellow slug like thing on one colony which turned blue in fresh water. The rest seemed to be choked out by hair algae.

You can use a H2o2 dip to take care of hair algae. Works wonders on that stuff and will not harm the Zoas.

 

[mushroomhead]

You can use a H2o2 dip to take care of hair algae. Works wonders on that stuff and will not harm the Zoas.

Unfortunately my aquascape doesn't allow me to remove most of my rocks. I have raised my mag level which has helped some, but too late for most of my Zoas. As a side benefit my chalices have exploded in recent weeks. Not sure if the added magnesium has helped or if it's coincental.

 

[triggreef]

Unfortunately, there isn't a healthy polyp. All have the same symptoms and I have not been able to reverse.

Any updates? I'm having similar issues with some colonies, big and small.

I hear chemiclean works wonders as a dip but there are no suggested methods. I tried chemiclean and lugol's together and it seems to help if caught soon enough but once the zoas are sloughing and falling off then its just too late.

One issue I noticed in my tank from triton testing is high levels of zinc. Had that before and a triton detox fixed it but just months later the zinc raised back up again. All other levels are in good ranges and stable for a long time.

 

[JJ650]

Any updates? I'm having similar issues with some colonies, big and small.

I hear chemiclean works wonders as a dip but there are no suggested methods. I tried chemiclean and lugol's together and it seems to help if caught soon enough but once the zoas are sloughing and falling off then its just too late.

One issue I noticed in my tank from triton testing is high levels of zinc. Had that before and a triton detox fixed it but just months later the zinc raised back up again. All other levels are in good ranges and stable for a long time.

I lost the entire colony. What was once hundreds of polyps reduced to nothing. I never could stem the die off. Dips did not help (lugols, Furan, etc.). Relocation did nothing (don't know why it would have as the colony was growing very well in their present spot). It was disappointing to say the least.