Who can I speak to / contact please
- Thread starter mucky1957
- Start date
Hi guys.
I have a real problem with my zoa's and before i throw them all out..thought a shout out to you guys might solve the issue.
Lets start with the technical : I have a 4' 240 lt tank with about 50gk of live rock. The tank is now 30 months old. I run an internal and external filter system and I have an internal skimmer. Lights are the 4' igalaxy led's. They come on under royal blue at 8am and eventually go off at 11pm. The whites start to come on at 9.30 and ramp up to 50% by lunchtime and then go off at 7pm..leaving the blues and UV's to go down slowly.
The water tests are as follows ( just done today ) water is 1.025, mag/cal are 1450/400, Alk is 8.9, Nitrate is 2, Phosphate is a little high at 0.1 and iodine is currently 0.03. I run 2 x wp25 jebao power heads.
I run nopox daily and have bags of carbon in both filters.
Hopefully thats all the info required....here goes.
I have a number of zoas and paly's in my tank ( see pics ). The paly's are 100% fine. The zoa's keep closing up on me. First thing in the morning ( under blues ) the zoa's are open and look great. As the day goes on so they start to close on me until they are pretty much 100% closed ( see pic ).
( oh...I'm in the Uk by the way..don't know if that is required information )
I have dipped the corals using a coral dip and very little has come out. A few asterina's but nothing else. No nudi's or creepy crawlies.
I have been given a load of reasons why this is happening from so called 'experts'. From too much white light...too little white light, zoa's are from Vietnam and are rubbish...not enough flow..too much flow...aaaaaaggggghhhh
Can anyone help please.
I have a real problem with my zoa's and before i throw them all out..thought a shout out to you guys might solve the issue.
Lets start with the technical : I have a 4' 240 lt tank with about 50gk of live rock. The tank is now 30 months old. I run an internal and external filter system and I have an internal skimmer. Lights are the 4' igalaxy led's. They come on under royal blue at 8am and eventually go off at 11pm. The whites start to come on at 9.30 and ramp up to 50% by lunchtime and then go off at 7pm..leaving the blues and UV's to go down slowly.
The water tests are as follows ( just done today ) water is 1.025, mag/cal are 1450/400, Alk is 8.9, Nitrate is 2, Phosphate is a little high at 0.1 and iodine is currently 0.03. I run 2 x wp25 jebao power heads.
I run nopox daily and have bags of carbon in both filters.
Hopefully thats all the info required....here goes.
I have a number of zoas and paly's in my tank ( see pics ). The paly's are 100% fine. The zoa's keep closing up on me. First thing in the morning ( under blues ) the zoa's are open and look great. As the day goes on so they start to close on me until they are pretty much 100% closed ( see pic ).
( oh...I'm in the Uk by the way..don't know if that is required information )
I have dipped the corals using a coral dip and very little has come out. A few asterina's but nothing else. No nudi's or creepy crawlies.
I have been given a load of reasons why this is happening from so called 'experts'. From too much white light...too little white light, zoa's are from Vietnam and are rubbish...not enough flow..too much flow...aaaaaaggggghhhh
Can anyone help please.
how much do you feed fish and corals??
what kind of foods for both,,plus frequencey ?
Skimmer ? how often how long?
Water changess,,how often,,how big of percentage of water being changed?
Do you blast off debris of rocks and corals or vacume sand during a water change ?
Filter socks? any known pest in the tank that would irratate zoas?
When did things start to go bad??? do you recall back to the point things started to get scetchy with the zoaspaly?
what kind of foods for both,,plus frequencey ?
Skimmer ? how often how long?
Water changess,,how often,,how big of percentage of water being changed?
Do you blast off debris of rocks and corals or vacume sand during a water change ?
Filter socks? any known pest in the tank that would irratate zoas?
When did things start to go bad??? do you recall back to the point things started to get scetchy with the zoaspaly?
BeanMachine
Active member
What fish do you have? I see a blue tang and they can't always be trusted. I had a yellow belly blue tang that would pick on zoas.
hi guys..thanks for the replies..
1. Fish are fed once a day..different mixtures used. Either lobster eggs or brine shrimp or other frozen food or flake or pellets or freeze dried brine shrimp. Corals are fed phytoplankton daily or a sechem coral supplement.
2. Small PS 1 skimmer. Timer is on from 10pm till 12.30pm. Its a little noisy so I dont like having it on when I am home.
3. There is about 190lt in the tank. I do a 25lt change every 12 - 15 days.
4. Interesting Q about blasting the corals. I use a turkey baster but have been told that it would be better to use a soft paint brush/make-up brush and brush the zoas. They may have a lot of micro algae on them which the turkey baster wont get to.
5. I use filter socks/tights to hold the carbon in the 2 filters.
6. The only 'pests' might be crabs or the regal tang and valentini puffer.
7. This started about 3 weeks ago. As far as I remember I didn't do anything out of the ordinary at the time..and there were no other chnages.
8. Too many fish in the tank..I know that..but my levels are fine. I have the regal tang, blue lipped tang, scopas tang, 2 x clowns, 3 x anthias, sweet lips, 4 x chromis, valentini puffer, blue cheek goby, yellow tail damsel ( devil fish )
I also have lots of paly colonies and these are fully open and don't seem to be infected in any way.
1. Fish are fed once a day..different mixtures used. Either lobster eggs or brine shrimp or other frozen food or flake or pellets or freeze dried brine shrimp. Corals are fed phytoplankton daily or a sechem coral supplement.
2. Small PS 1 skimmer. Timer is on from 10pm till 12.30pm. Its a little noisy so I dont like having it on when I am home.
3. There is about 190lt in the tank. I do a 25lt change every 12 - 15 days.
4. Interesting Q about blasting the corals. I use a turkey baster but have been told that it would be better to use a soft paint brush/make-up brush and brush the zoas. They may have a lot of micro algae on them which the turkey baster wont get to.
5. I use filter socks/tights to hold the carbon in the 2 filters.
6. The only 'pests' might be crabs or the regal tang and valentini puffer.
7. This started about 3 weeks ago. As far as I remember I didn't do anything out of the ordinary at the time..and there were no other chnages.
8. Too many fish in the tank..I know that..but my levels are fine. I have the regal tang, blue lipped tang, scopas tang, 2 x clowns, 3 x anthias, sweet lips, 4 x chromis, valentini puffer, blue cheek goby, yellow tail damsel ( devil fish )
I also have lots of paly colonies and these are fully open and don't seem to be infected in any way.
cheers buddy 
So..my zoa' problem. One week on..and here is where we are up to.
I have 9 seperate zoa colonies..not sure of any names and as far as I am aware they are all 'basic' zoa's...nothing flashy at all. They have come from a number of places both lfs and private. At this moment (9.55am) nearly every single head is open but by 4pm later today nearly all will be closed except for one colony of pink centred zoa's.
I have had lots of advice as to what to do and what to try...
1. Dip all of the colonies and clean them out : so I did and very little except a few asterina's came out. I am aware that zoa's sulk after a dipping but if they were sulking, why would they be fully open right now ?
2. Add iodine to the water : as I only do a water change every 3 weeks or so there was no iodine in the tank when I tested the water. Having dosed with iodine for a week the level is now at around 0.06 which is perfect for the tank..so why then if the water is perfect for zoa growth will they all be closed inside the next 6 hours or so.
3. Turn the lights off for 48 hrs : no change at all.
4. Move the zoa's about because some may need more light than others : no change there at all either.
5. It has been suggested that both my valentini puffer ( been in the tank for 2 yrs ) and my regal tang ( about 12 months ) like a quick zoa snack and that I should get rid of them : if that IS the case then why has this closing only occurred in the last 3 -4 weeks or so ??
6. Change the lights as they might be too powerful : but they weren't too powerful a month ago, 2 months ago, 6 months ago etc.
DOESN'T ANYONE ELSE HAVE THIS PROBLEM ??
I think the answer is bin the lot and go with something else a little less problematic ( mushies and ricordias perhaps )
It would be great to hear from anyone who has had this problem ( and I know I'm not the only one )
I have 9 seperate zoa colonies..not sure of any names and as far as I am aware they are all 'basic' zoa's...nothing flashy at all. They have come from a number of places both lfs and private. At this moment (9.55am) nearly every single head is open but by 4pm later today nearly all will be closed except for one colony of pink centred zoa's.
I have had lots of advice as to what to do and what to try...
1. Dip all of the colonies and clean them out : so I did and very little except a few asterina's came out. I am aware that zoa's sulk after a dipping but if they were sulking, why would they be fully open right now ?
2. Add iodine to the water : as I only do a water change every 3 weeks or so there was no iodine in the tank when I tested the water. Having dosed with iodine for a week the level is now at around 0.06 which is perfect for the tank..so why then if the water is perfect for zoa growth will they all be closed inside the next 6 hours or so.
3. Turn the lights off for 48 hrs : no change at all.
4. Move the zoa's about because some may need more light than others : no change there at all either.
5. It has been suggested that both my valentini puffer ( been in the tank for 2 yrs ) and my regal tang ( about 12 months ) like a quick zoa snack and that I should get rid of them : if that IS the case then why has this closing only occurred in the last 3 -4 weeks or so ??
6. Change the lights as they might be too powerful : but they weren't too powerful a month ago, 2 months ago, 6 months ago etc.
DOESN'T ANYONE ELSE HAVE THIS PROBLEM ??
I think the answer is bin the lot and go with something else a little less problematic ( mushies and ricordias perhaps )
It would be great to hear from anyone who has had this problem ( and I know I'm not the only one )
why are you dosing NOPOX for NO3 at 2count and PO4 at a 1 count..they are good levels and should not need dosing of NOPOX..I would stop it,,do a 15% water change put new carbon in a REACTOR and set your skimmer on the dry side and skim til stops,,may take days....GFO popssibly ,,but after you see the results from this first
WillCole88
New member
I've been following your thread in hopes of finding an answer to my similar problem. So yes, at least one other person has the same issue. Mine do the exact same thing and are mostly open in the morning and all closed up and unhappy in the afternoon.
Even more frustrating is that this only affects one frag of green Dragon Eyes that I have had for 3-4 months. Everything else looks good. And to add insult to injury, the greens are continuing to grow and spread new polyps.
This past Saturday, I went by a local guy's house to pick up some frags. While I was looking at his tank, I noticed that he had the same green zoas and they were thriving. Polyps almost the size of a dime. Great color. And most of them were in the shade, out of direct light. So when I came home, I broke of a frag of 4-5 polyps and glued them to a rock in the bottom of my tank (only about 19" deep). The main frag I placed in a more shaded spot. I may even frag off a couple more pieces and set them in different locations. I'm going to wait and see which one does best, since they are all the same coral, just in different spots.
This may not help you a ton right now, but feel free to shoot me a message and ask how they're doing, or I'll try to update if I see any change. And maybe it'll help knowing they someone else has the same issue. Good luck.
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