Who can I speak to / contact please

[mucky1957]

I use nopox to keep the phosphate and nitrate low. I only dose about 2ml daily.

I did a 30% water change over the weekend and the carbon in the internal and external is less than 10 days old.

Nopox has been used for over 18 months now..the zoa problem is 4 weeks old. 2 hours ago all the colonies were wide open. Now they are about 75% shut. There is one ( a pink centred zoa ) that is still fully open.

Makes no sense.

 

[mucky1957]

....so..one of the message boards I am on has suggested I drop the light intensity and see if that changes things.

I don't buy it for a second as the colonies were perfectly fine for over a year with the whites, blues and UV hitting 100% for upto 6 hours every day...

that said..I have reduced the amount of light and now the whites hit a maximum of 45%, the blues 75% and the UV 80%...

we shall see

 

[Jone]

start your skimmer and set it to dry skim,,run it til stop skimming,,may take days,,youll be surprised if your skimmer is set correctly to dry skim,,the junk youll see in your skim cup..

 

[mucky1957]

I can try that...got to be honest here..not sure how to set it to skim dry...I use the FLUVAL PS1 skimmer.
will have to do some reading I think

 

[650-IS350]

Try do a gradual lowering of your LED maybe the PAR is too strong for them. Are the lights new or the Polyps new to the lighting,

 

[mucky1957]

lights have been in for 18 months now. The last of the zoa's were added aboyt 8 weeks ago.
I have reduced the blues and UV slightly and we shall see if that helps.

 

[jbvdhp]

That's odd, I would think it has to do with lights too. Is there any way you can swap out to other lights to experiment in the mean time , i.e. Using a T5 fixture from a friend or something? I've had Zoas close up and never open again, eventually withering away for unknown reasons.

Really weird. Tagging along

 

[mucky1957]

no other lights unfortunately...have re-set them so that the whites get no stronger than 40%, the blues no more than 60% and the same with the UV.

THAT SAID they were fine with 100% across the board for weeks/months.

 

[A1t2o]

Just because they did not show signs of distress does not mean the lighting conditions were ideal. You could have had the lighting barely tolerable then something affected them causing then to appear irritated. The trigger could very well have gone away but now your zoa's are in an irritated state where the lighting could just barely too strong to get them happy again. Same goes for pretty much all other variables. Most likely it is a combination of factors, where each one individually does not stand out as a red flag.

I would try different things one at a time and see what works. The fact that they close up after the lights are on for a few hours definitely points to the lights as potentially being the issue. Try placing some zoa's in the shade and see if that helps. They could also be getting too much flow, this could be the case where they start to open up with the light then get irritated by the flow and close up for the day.

I also think your nutrients are a little low for softies. Not incredibly low, but zoa's typically like dirtier water with more nutrients. Another thought that is less likely but worth mentioning, is that they may be filtering food from the water and closing when they have had enough. You have filter socks though so I don't know if this is the case here. If you can see a lot of crap suspended in the water then this may be the case.

Just try out different things and wait at least a week between changes to see if there is any difference.

 

[mucky1957]

hi

the water is crystal clear thanks in part to the carbon I use.
I have dropped three colonies to the base of the tank..slightly in shade.
I run 2 x wp25 powerheads that are set on the left hand side of the tank ..farthest point to all the colonies which are over on the right (if I get a chance tomorrow I will post a video)
what if I turned the whites off completely..it only seems to occur once they come on even tho they only go as high as about 30% ??

 

[mucky1957]

so this is 3 seperate videos of about 20 seconds each spliced together. No. 1 was taken at 9am with only the blue/UV on, the 2nd at 12 noon with whites on at about 20% and the third one at 3pm when the whites had been on for about 3 1/2 hrs or so. If you look at the zoa's bottom left and in the middle you can clearly see they are more open on No.2 video and pretty much closed again on No.3.
I have reduced the whites down to 30% and only have them on for about 3 hrs in total now.
I've bought some vitamarin C supplemet ( as I was advised to do ) and have started using that.
Some of the lower corals were only put there last night.

Not really sure what more I can tbh...

I would say the video looks sharper in HD..but I don't think photobucket allows videos to be watched in HD ( or at least I can't find the setting )

 

[mucky1957]

now here is a thought...and boy am I cluyching at straws now....I have changed the carbon I use in the filters.
I am aware of lots of people who have sourced the same carbon and no one has complained about coral growth tho....it couldn't be that...could it ??

 

[thepotoo]

Something changed 1.5-2 months ago. Go through your notes and see what. New salt mix? S.G.? Stray voltage? Did someone spray perfume near the tank? Do you have a continuous pH monitor?

Put some egg crate around them to keep fish away and make sure they're not being disturbed.

 

[mucky1957]

salt has been a constant for 30 months now
nothing is sprayed near the tank..no cleaner in the house and the boss won't go near it.
no Ph monitor but the levels are always the same.
carbon is new (ish) but that won't pull anything out of the water to effect them

honestly...I can't think of anything.

 

[Askthefishdude]

Expert help is here

Expert help is here

hi guys,

I have a serious problem with my zoanthid corals. Is there an 'expert' out there that anyone can recommend that I can get in touch with. I will post on the forum as well.

thanks in advance.

I've been in the aquarium trade for 25 years
Currently I maintain 58 aquariums with a crew of 4.
I work in NYC at Bloomberg .
Try dipping your Zooos in freshwater. They may be getting eaten by nudibranchs
Feel free to reach out anytime, the fish dude is here to help!

 

[mucky1957]

they have been dipped twice..once with tank water and coral dip and then dipped in unused salt water. Then I dipped them in freshwater as well..nothing came out.

 

[organism]

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

....so..one of the message boards I am on has suggested I drop the light intensity and see if that changes things.

I don't buy it for a second as the colonies were perfectly fine for over a year with the whites, blues and UV hitting 100% for upto 6 hours every day...

that said..I have reduced the amount of light and now the whites hit a maximum of 45%, the blues 75% and the UV 80%...

It's weird, I've never seen anyone demand "expert" advice and then actively crap on all the advice given to them by being condescending towards those same "experts" and their opinions. Don't alienate yourself from people who might know what's wrong with your tank.

 

[mucky1957]

wow

 

[Jone]

are you using RO/DI water to make new saltwater ???
what are the brand name test kits you using>>

 

[reefwars]

im certain they're getting annoyed with the lights , in the video seems the polyps most affect and closed are the ones in the brightest light spots , keep them down low for now and in a somewhat ambient light spot and walk away for a week ,the lower light will be harmless to them and the only touching or moving youll want to do is to clean or remove anything we dont want (pets,algae,detrius etc etc.) that may be on it.

it wont be an overnight fix they will likely go into a night mode for a bit but they will eventually open prob within days to a week or two.

since your acros are doing great with awesome color , plenty of fish with good nutrient export , the acros are loving the light the zoas not so much

if you could borrow a par meter would be helpful , but moving them down out of the light for a while will likely help this issue if not resolve it for you and is harmless to everyone else in the system.


fwiw- carbon can go bad there's been recalls on it before but your sps would likely be affected , everyone else's was

good luck man hit me up anytime