Why?!?

[ClownFishGuy6]

Everyone says zoanthids are easy to keep but every time I get one it dies. I put it so it doesn't stretch for light. And it's in a good spot. Nothing eats it. But algae grows over it. I have a protein skimmer that works decently well. I only give them 1 cube of brine shrimp a day. And I have a clean up crew with 2 blue legged hermit crabs and about 20 snails from the bay by beach house. And a golden head goby. And I guess if you would call a tang part of a clean up crew then I guess that too. The algae I just keep wiping off of the rocks and zoanthids almost everyday. It's red slime algae and green algae that grows all over the tank. I'm not sure if red slime algae is bad or not but someone please help this problem.

 

[DrewHaus]

What size tank do you have? How long has your system been running? What are your water parameters? What is your lighting?

 

[DrewHaus]

Sorry for all the questions It could be a number of things.

 

[ClownFishGuy6]

55 gallon tank. It's been running for 7 years but it's the first time I've gotten corals. I started getting corals about a month or 2 ago. The lighting is just a LED light that I keep on high power. The parameters I will have to check later Tonorrow it's too late for me to check that. But from what I've told you do you know the reason?

 

[Saltine]

55 gallon tank. It's been running for 7 years but it's the first time I've gotten corals. I started getting corals about a month or 2 ago. The lighting is just a LED light that I keep on high power. The parameters I will have to check later Tonorrow it's too late for me to check that. But from what I've told you do you know the reason?

Curious as to your light specifications, if it is chinese LED box that is on high power you could be providing too much light and melting them away. I had some zoa's take two weeks to fully open in my tank, everytime I move something or a fish lays on them they close for days. They are just a PITA.

Salt

 

[DrewHaus]

Hmmm, it could be excess light. Zoa's typically don't respond well when placed in strong lighting conditions from my experience. I keep them in shady and/or lower regions of the tank. I've got 110 3W bridgelux led's over my 14" tall tank, and if I ran them at full power, I'm pretty sure most of my stuff would close up.

Have you checked your SG lately? Most fish can tolerate lower ranges (1.018-1.022), while most coral prefer it in the 1.024-1.026 range.

 

[duyhuynh]

1. Check your water for PH, ALK, CAL, Mg.
2. You indicated that algea is all over your tank. It means that your water has high nutition which leads to high Nitrate or Phosphate.
3. Do you do water change since you keep fish only?

 

[ClownFishGuy6]

No I don't usually do water changes by every now and then I take out about 10% of there water

 

[deus ex machina]

The red slime algae is likely cyanobacteria. Cyano needs light and nutirents to thrive. Most likely nutrients are an abundance of nitrate and/or phosphate. If you're are not testing for these you should be. It would be good to know your water parameters over the past month or so.

More frequent water changes will help to reduce the nutrient levels and blow off your rocks with a turkey baster to get all of the detritus and cyano into suspension in the water column before you siphon out water for the water change.

As to the zoanthids they could be reacting to poor water quality as well. I haven't found them to be particularly light sensitive.

 

[ClownFishGuy6]

Ok how often should I be doing the water changes? 10% every week or more then that