What would cause my many many zoa colonies to start

[fours2many]

turning white? Not a fungus, but the actual zoa bleaching? The skirts are also getting shorter on some of my long skirt colonies. This is also happening to some palys. This has been happening over the past few weeks. This is happening in the shade and in the light. Some of the colonies had dark brown skirts that are now getting lighter. I know some of you will say this is useless without pictures. Maybe I can get a shot or 2 on later.

I checked all my parameters yesterday.

Alk 8.6 dkh
cal 390
mag 1250
ph 8.3 at 4:00 pm
no Am, Ni, Na

salinity is 1.023 (I usually run at 1.026, I don't know why it drop. This must be a new thing) I know last Sat (do a 10% water change every Sat) that it was at 1.026

I have a tek light T-5 6 bulb. All of my SPS are doing great, great color, great PE. This is just happening to the zoas and palys.

Any help or info would be great.

Kristin

I have never had this problem before. I am slowly increasing the salinity. Anything else I should do?

 

[Peter Eichler]

T5s seem to be really good at bleaching zoanthids. I've had some bleach even on the bottom of a 25" tall tank, Bams Bams, RPEs, GPEs, and others.

 

[ficklefins]

Ok, I am going to go against what Peter Eichler said. I have a T5 setup and my zoas are right beside my SPS frags and happy (2 inches from the surface from a 5x39w over a 50g which is 18 inches high). I have a great T5 setup that includes individual reflectors so I know that they are maximizing their light output. The only issue that I can think of is that the zoas you have may actually be lower light zoas. I'm not sure where you have them in your tank but that info may help. I may take a SPS keepers approach on this and frag off the bleach frags as a precautionary approach.

PM sent....

PM sent.

 

[geoxman]

feed feed feed JMHO I have zoos under 400w MH 20K some in very shallow waters. When I made the switch I had little bleaching. I am not a coral/marine biologist and I cant explain why it worked, but it did. I fed very heavy during the switch and had very little bleaching. good luck and happy reefing

 

[IBASSFSH]

geoxman what do you you feed your zoas?

 

[geoxman]

How is that shoulder feeling? I use to use Chromaplex, both DT's products, Reef plus, and cyclopleeze. I used 2-4 amount of the suggested doses, but I have more polyps than most. I just switched to this and I am very happy
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8791724#post8791724
I also add Chromapex and Cyclopleeze to the mixture. I do not use a blender but a food processor. good luck and happy reefing!

The beer squad needs you pitching!