Supplement opinions...

C

czieler

New member
I was wondering what supplements everyone puts in their tanks? I currently am soaking mysis in Zoe before feeding...and put zoo max in my tank twice a week ( originally trying to feed a gorgonia w/ this...but my frogspawn is fat and happy from it ).

I'm having problems with zoanthids dying off ... and I was wondering if anyone has had any good luck with any supplements for these? I have adequate lighting and just upgraded my pump so now have good water flow...so I'm guessing they aren't getting some sort of nutrient they need ( I have seen no nudibranch in this tank ).

I was looking at the Kent line..http://cgi.ebay.com/Kent-Marine-PhytoPlex-Coral-Grow-Coral-Vite-16oz-Set_W0QQitemZ7746662778QQcategoryZ46308QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
but wasn't sure if its a waste of money or not.
 
Its a 46 gallon. I have a bakpaq skimmer with a pump (that I used to have in my 65 gallon...not sure what speed this pump is off the top of my head) and I just put a Maxi-Jet 1200 in there ( I had a small 500 maxi jet in there before and it wasn't enough).

I also have a bio-wheel going on there (had that before the skimmer and figured it wouldn't hurt to leave it)

Basically the setup I have on there now is what I had on my 65 gallon for a yr before I upgraded the skimmer to a coral life for 65 gallons...so it should be ok...because it worked well in the 65 gallon. I also have the old power compact lights from my 65 gallon in my 46 as I upgraded to VHO's in my 65...

Just seems like something isn't as good w/ the water quality...since the zoas are dying off.
 
Without knowing what tests have been done, age of the lights, W/C timing........ ? However, I did see that you worked with Rob's so why don't you take a water sample there. You could also give them the details on your tank.

I am not fond of the suppliments you have shown. I like frozen or freeze dried foods. Lots of options there. See what Rob has.

You really have no need for the biowheel so take it off. The filter gives you current which you need so I would leave it.
 
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I don't really work at Robs...I just do web work for him when he needs it :)

I took my water in there the other day and they said the levels seemed fine (although I still need to check PH...they didn't do that)

Since he is a small shop...I thought there might be some good supplements out there that he doesn't carry...I got his last bottle of Zoe...and he doesn't have a lot on the supplement side ( he might just be out of them..not sure) Anyways...thats why I wanted to get opinions...I thought someone might have found something at one of the other shops that is a good supplement.
 
You might try to talk to Jack or John at Bio-reef. They appear to have a full line of reef additives, supplimentatio, food etc and might be able to diagnose your problem. HTH
 
Are they yellow polyps that are dieing? I found that if they get put in too much current they just disappear, they seem to like alot of light and lower flow for some reason.
 
I agree with Kerri on the yellow polyps. As for my Zoos, and I have about 2-400 polyps in diffrent colors, I make sure they have mod to high flow, just below what would keep them from closing under to the pressure. I dose iodine and cal/alk/ph every 3rd day. Iodine in very small amounts. Zoos seem to love it though. As for light, I have not found any that can't tolerate high light. they will survive under pcs and vho, but higher light usually brings diffrent colors and more pronounced fringe extensions etc. Also, I use DTS PHytoplanton and frozen cyclopeeze. Although I dont think the zoos eat it, my shrooms, blastos and the like seem to like it. man, I am rambling...sorry

BTW, if you need some more polyps, if your are dying, when you find out the cause, I can donate some to you to get you going again.:D
 
I had some brown ones die off, as well as some pale blue. I also had half a colony of light green ones die off.... as well as some small 5-6 polyp frags I had gotten....that were all pretty neat color combinations ( I was pretty bummed about these dying off ... I had glued them to a beer bottle and was hoping they would grow all over it...I thought it would be neat looking).

This all seemed to happen w/in a couple of days, and after that, I put the rest of them in the 65 gallon. (Some small frags from the soloman islands, and some firecracker red zoos). I have noticed that a few of them are completely different colors under VHOs.


I'll have to get some iodine and try dosing with that...I think I read that mushrooms like that as well? ( I have two mushrooms in there...was hoping they'd take off.)

I appreciate the offer on donating some once I get it under control :)

I was actually going to post and see if anyone would want to trade any for pond plants ( I have a koi pond and both my yellow and purple water irises are going berserk in there, so I need to start splitting them... also by June... I usually have to start tossing caladiums out over my back fence as they go nuts too ) or some green star polyps ( assuming I can get some off of the rock they are growing on... I have a rock that has about 8 inches of bright green star polyps on it in my 65 gallon.)
 
hmm, I wonder if the beer bottle was leaching some type of lead into your tank? Let me know when you get it right, I will send you some zoos--free.
 
Beer bottles have lead in them? It's actually a clear bacardi silver bottle...I figured as long as I rinsed it out a few times (with water..not soap :p ) and left water sit in it it'd be ok.....anyways, I had it in the back of my 65 gallon tank for about 4 months....hiding it til it started getting some coraline growth on it... I then wiped down small spots and glued zoos on there w/ reef glue... and threw it in the 46 gallon when I got that in December.
 
Oh if it is different types of zoos than it must be a predator. Have you checked with a magnifier especially in the evening for nudibranches? I have a foxface and a butterfly that tag team some of my zoos:mad2: Sundail snails can be hard to spot also and can do alot of damage overnight.
Carrie
 
When I read the post the same thing occured to me. Predation. Check at night with a flashlight and look for egg masses, not just nudis.
 
that would have to be some massive predation to wipe out the zoos that fast. Are they melting? You have checked your water so there are only a few zoo predetors, with them being named above. Nudi, prob the worst.
 
I don't see any eggs...unless they could be in the form of white flaky looking things...which have appeared on the brown zoos since they closed up.... I have a false eyed puffer in this tank...I kind of thought he might be munching on them..although I've never seen him do this ( I put mysis in there almost every day for him to eat... he doesn't like seaweed so I stopped putting in there for him) ...I'm not in this room most of the day... ( tank is in my bedroom ) I usually just enjoy watching it for an hour or so at nite... so he could be doing it when I'm not in there I guess.

Maybe I'll do a 20% water change this week instead of 10%...then start adding the calc and iodine as was suggested above. I have some calcium stuff that is in two bottles from Rob's that I keep trying to remember to put in my 65 gallon...heh..I'll do it in here as well... and try moving one of the zoo colonies back in there next week and see how it does...or pick up a small one out of rob's scrap tank and see if it lives... I think I like the ones I have left too much to chance killing them....
 
What does your PH, calcium, alkalinity, and nitrates test at?
What exactly is happening with your zoos? Are they melting? Are the detaching at the base and floating away? Or do you check the tank in the morning and your zoo colonies have fewer polyps? What other fish are in the tank?

The calcium stuff that you mentioned that comes in two bottles, do you mean ocean's blend? What are you using for calcium and alkalinity supplementation, how much do you dose and how often do you dose it? I don't think that your zoanthid problem is associated with the nutritional supplements like zoo max or phytoplex.

Sorry for all of the questions but the more we know the easier it will be to diagnose the root of the problem.

I would guess that you have either low alk/ph or predators of some sort.
 
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I did use the Prodibio products last month ... the Bioptim and Biodigest... I hadn't planned on getting more, because it didn't seem to help the algae growth in there ( sorry Rob ) ... I used the one month supply... they did start dying off during the third week of this... but I think Rob is using prodibio in his zoo tanks ( not sure on this ). I had a build up of redslime in there...which is why I started dosing with it...I blew the red slime off of the zoanthids each day...then finally dosed with red slime killer. I had put melafix in this tank, but the problem didn't occur til after this was out of the system ( easy to tell because the protein skimmer goes nuts and foams all over when its in there ).

Joseph... they were 'melting' away from what I can tell...first they didn't open in the morning..then the whole colony just started disappearing while not opening...the polyps don't seem to be disappearing one by one...which is why I didn't think that the puffer was eating them. Once I lost all the small colonies, which happened in a couple of days...I removed all but the brown zoos ... and put them in my 65 gallon...where they promptly opened back up.

I'm going to test the Ph tonite... at work at the moment... and will test the calcium too. The nitrates tested fine when I brought the water into Rob's the other day. It's probably a no no, but I usually don't check all of the levels as everything has been fine til now...but you are right..since I'm having the issue..I should take the time and test all levels...

I haven't actually been dosing this tank with any calcium or magnesium or anything like that.... ( I had started dosing my other tank with the Ocean's blend Calcium after my first hard coral started dying off, and Rob told me I needed to add calcium, also I put zoomax in the other tank for the frogspawns, hammer, and gorgonia I have ). I do weekly 10% water changes in both tanks.

I feed the fish in this tank a combination of flake food and pellet food, as well as soaking mysis with zoe almost every nite.

This tank currently has:

One LT anemone
One maroon clown.
Two McCosker's Wrasse
One false eyed puffer.
One coral beauty angel.
One serpent starfish.
One red mushroom polpy.
One blue/purple striped mushroom.
Hermit crabs and misc. snails.
3 inch queen conch.
brown zoanthid colony


I was thinking about taking some of the water I remove from my 65 gallon during my weekly water change and placing it into my 46..but I wasn't sure if this was a good idea or not. Most everything in my 65 gallon is fat and happy....
 
It is my understanding that Prodibio, like most other bacterial colonies in the aquarium, take between 1-3 months to establish a productive colony and as such it will take time to see the results. I'm no prodibio expert so maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Personally I am against the use of medications or antibiotics or algaecides in a stocked reef aquarium and have never used them so I can't comment on that. If I'm not mistaken then melafix is some form of tea tree oil, correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyways, I highly recommend the purchase of a salifert alkalinity and calcium test kit. I also highly recommend reading the following articles by Randy Holmes-Farley -

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters (a summary general article)
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

The Relationship Between Alkalinity and pH.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2002/chem.htm

What is Alkalinity
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/iss...2/chemistry.htm

Full List - http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102605

Also Calfo's Book of Coral Propagation has a good explanation of calcium and alkalinity.

If you are looking closely at night and cannot find any predators like sundials, nudis, or eggsacks then I would ensure that alk is within the correct range and stable before looking into other possible causes. It is important to develop a consistent alk and calcium dosing regimine. I have learned a ton from the above articles.
 
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