what happened to my zoas?

[meredith1985]

I hope you guys can tell me what happened to my (used to be) beautiful zoas. They used to be a dark, almost black color with a vibrant pink inside. Now they are brown, with a very dull pink inside. This is happened over the course of a week. My tank is a 40 gal with 10 gal sump\fuge, fluval led light, tunze nano skimmer and one mj power head that keeps everything moving. I have my ifs test my water weekly and all is in order.

I put them on the sand bed when I first got them and they stayed pretty much closed for a week! I tried moving them to a lower light area, then on advice from my club, I moved them back to the center where there is more light. They started opening up after a week, but by then they were all dull. They are growing and sprouting new polyps, they are just not pretty anymore. I have a before pic and a current pic. I have had these now for a month or so. I also have some ding dangs that are doing fine. Edit: I also had somebody two weeks ago suggest I put them higher up for more light to help the color and because they are all stretched up like they are in the second pic. That doesn't seem to have done any good at all. Though it hasn't made it worse either.

I will say (full disclosure) that I had my lights (whites) on for something like 9 hours with an hour on each side of blues only. I recently changed that to 3 hours of blue, 5 hours of white, 3 hours of blue.... all in hopes that this will fix the problem. Please help me, I love zoos and want a beautiful garden of them, but I'm scared to buy more if they are just going to fade because of me.

Thanks for the help!

 

[meredith1985]

No ideas? Really? Hmm.

 

[reefwars]

my guess would be nutrients are too low and coupled by lights that are intense.

colors are mostly nutrient or lighting related...or both

 

[meredith1985]

Hmm. I thought about nutrients and have started doing water changes less frequently..... like every two or three weeks. My LPS are really happy with me, but those pink zoos are just blah. My lights aren't dimmable so I'm guessing I should put them back on the sand bed? I hate to keep messing with them, but I suppose its a balance for optimal health.

 

[reefwars]

Hmm. I thought about nutrients and have started doing water changes less frequently..... like every two or three weeks. My LPS are really happy with me, but those pink zoos are just blah. My lights aren't dimmable so I'm guessing I should put them back on the sand bed? I hate to keep messing with them, but I suppose its a balance for optimal health.

They are healthy just lost some of the dark colors , this can be gotten back quite quickly.

What are your water parameters exactly and how do you export nutrients?

Yes place them in a shadier area and try to keep just a tad bit of Po4 ( shoot for 0.02-4 and just a tad bit of No3 at around 1-2ppm


Good luck

 

[meredith1985]

I can do all those things. I couldn't tell you what my params are exactly. I'm out of town for the week. I will find out though and follow those guidelines when I get home. Thank you so much for the help! I'll update when I get results.

 

[Pimentinha1987]

The colors of zoas vary a lot according to the lights they are under...
I had a somewhat large rock of blahhh zoas (under fluval 25w in a 36 gallon tank) that I tried so hard to get rid of (for $35) and nobody would grab them.
Meanwhile, my other tank was ready and I decided to move them there and they just popped!!! (Under a kessil a360w)

I have since fragged that rock and made more than $200 out of the same exact zoas I wanted $35 for and nobody would take them...

It's a shame I don't have a before and after pic but the were just bland...

 

[IndyMatt]

Lights...that is what changed. You moved them up and they are starting to bleach, especially with it changing that quickly. Move them down and they will be fine.