Zoa colony closed up and growing brown "stuff"

JJ650

New member
I had a rather healthy colony recently begin to close and not reopen. I didn't think much of this at first, but 1 week in and still none of the polyps are opening.
I have had this colony for a while and never had an issue. I did notice it appears that there is a brown substance covering the polyps (not a zooxanthellae dump!). Not sure but maybe diatoms?
I did try to wipe some away. I also observed that these polyps are covered in small bubbles.... which I theorize this might actually be algae related?

I assume using a soft cloth to remove this stuff should be ok? Will be doing this outside of the tank by the way. Wouldn't be smart to spread whatever this is around the tank.

Water parameters are "normal". I did have a big xenia die off, so the 2 could possibly be related.

Any suggestions?
 
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Sounds like cyano or something along those lines. Could be your salinity, how are you measuring it? Also, are they getting enough flow? Higher flow will help them.
 
Sounds like cyano or something along those lines. Could be your salinity, how are you measuring it? Also, are they getting enough flow? Higher flow will help them.

salinity is in the 1.025/1.026 range and measured with a refractometer.
It may be cyano...there is in direct flow on this particular colony. I just grew suspicious when it happened so suddenly.

Anyone ever done a dip with Chemiclean? This is the only colony currently affected by this.
 
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