Zoa dominated tank running Carbon?

[cbort]

I have a zoanthid dominated tank and usually do a little fragging every couple weeks. I am in no way a begginner, and have never ran into this problem, but some of my LPS has either taken turns for worse or see some regression. Do many of you with Zoa dominated tanks run carbon to absorb the toxins from the zoas? Was just thinking about what could be causing this, and i am basically left with this for an answer. Either way, I will be adding a reactor to my setup and will be running carbon, but would like to know your thoughts?
Thanks

 

[that Fish Guy]

I have a zoanthid dominated tank and usually do a little fragging every couple weeks. I am in no way a begginner, and have never ran into this problem, but some of my LPS has either taken turns for worse or see some regression. Do many of you with Zoa dominated tanks run carbon to absorb the toxins from the zoas? Was just thinking about what could be causing this, and i am basically left with this for an answer. Either way, I will be adding a reactor to my setup and will be running carbon, but would like to know your thoughts?
Thanks

I stopped using Carbon because it slowed down the growth.

 

[organism]

Zoas don't release toxins, if your LPS are looking bad they're not the reason... What are your water parameters? Low alk or salinity issues can do that to LPS.

 

[that Fish Guy]

Zoas don't release toxins, if your LPS are looking bad they're not the reason... What are your water parameters? Low alk or salinity issues can do that to LPS.

Um, yes they do indeed release Toxins!

Haven't you heard of Paly Toxin before?

 

[cbort]

Zoas don't release toxins, if your LPS are looking bad they're not the reason... What are your water parameters? Low alk or salinity issues can do that to LPS.

Params are all fine. Yes, I understand that the zoas probably aren't releasing toxins, but like I said, I frag as often as every other week, and generally make about 10-20 frags. Those are the ones I would presume are releasing the toxins. Whether they do it manually in defense, or when I cut into them when fragging. Either way, toxins are being released. I have checked all other options, which is why I began looking into this.

 

[cbort]

I stopped using Carbon because it slowed down the growth.

That was my next concern. I get great growth from my zoas, and don't want that to change.

 

[reelredfish]

So your saying that running carbon makes zoas grow slower?

 

[vanz]

Set up a new tank just for the lps [emoji3]

 

[Coralreefer1]

Zoanthids thrive in water not treated with carbon or other, nitrate removing resins. Sarcophyton corals release toxins into the water causing more problems to corals than Palythoas. Palytoxin is not to be taken lightly by aquarists, as they are affected to a greater extent than other corals.

 

[organism]

Um, yes they do indeed release Toxins!

Haven't you heard of Paly Toxin before?

I think you have very much confused the words "contain" and "release", because, again, zoanthids do not release toxins.

 

[organism]

Params are all fine. Yes, I understand that the zoas probably aren't releasing toxins, but like I said, I frag as often as every other week, and generally make about 10-20 frags. Those are the ones I would presume are releasing the toxins. Whether they do it manually in defense, or when I cut into them when fragging. Either way, toxins are being released. I have checked all other options, which is why I began looking into this.

Whatever the issue is it's not that you're fragging zoanthids in there, I'd look into other causes since the only thing focusing on palytoxin will do is take more time for you to find the real cause. Are you testing your salinity with a calibrated refractometer?

 

[cbort]

Whatever the issue is it's not that you're fragging zoanthids in there, I'd look into other causes since the only thing focusing on palytoxin will do is take more time for you to find the real cause. Are you testing your salinity with a calibrated refractometer?

Yes I test with two to account for any errors with calibration.

 

[that Fish Guy]

So your saying that running carbon makes zoas grow slower?

Yes, Carbon pulls out bad things in the water but it also pulls out good things that help them grow.

After I stopped using Carbon my Zoanthids started growing faster.

 

[that Fish Guy]

I think you have very much confused the words "contain" and "release", because, again, zoanthids do not release toxins.

OK, then please explain how my tank crashed from Paly Toxin?

SPS died immediatly.

LPS slowly died over a couple months.

The Zoanthids all Lived and are fine now.

 

[that Fish Guy]

I think you have very much confused the words "contain" and "release", because, again, zoanthids do not release toxins.

They may not release them on a regular basis like some corals may.

But stress them out and oh yes they release the toxin.

It is the Proto-Paly's that you need to be concerned with (Basically any Paly that will eat food like Pellets or Mysis)

Texas Trash Paly's
Purple Deaths
Mindblowing Paly's
Nuclear Green Paly's
Captain America Paly's

In my case it was a very large rock of Purple Death's that killed every SPS, Hammer, Frogspawn, Chalice, and Acan in that Tank.

Small Frags should be fine as I still have some and have not had any problems with those but I will never keep large rocks of any of the above in any of my tanks again.

 

[organism]

So your theory is that it wasn't water issues or something else, but that based on anecdotal evidence you're the first person in history whose Purple Deaths nuked their tank by steadily releasing palytoxin into the water column?

My prop tank is 36 gallons and I frag purple deaths, nuclear greens, captain americas and nuclear deaths all the time with lots of acros right next to them. Not to mention every hobbyist who keeps tons of them. Regardless of what you may believe, whatever crashed your tank it was not your palys releasing palytoxin into the water column.

 

[organism]

Yes I test with two to account for any errors with calibration.

I would try running carbon just to see if it helps. There could be a lot of causes, but if running carbon makes your LPS come back then you'll have narrowed it down and if it doesn't make any difference then you can check elsewhere.

How old is your tank and how deep is your sand? I've seen the same thing happen with old tank syndrome...

 

[that Fish Guy]

So your theory is that it wasn't water issues or something else, but that based on anecdotal evidence you're the first person in history whose Purple Deaths nuked their tank by steadily releasing palytoxin into the water column?

My prop tank is 36 gallons and I frag purple deaths, nuclear greens, captain americas and nuclear deaths all the time with lots of acros right next to them. Not to mention every hobbyist who keeps tons of them. Regardless of what you may believe, whatever crashed your tank it was not your palys releasing palytoxin into the water column.

Yep.

People said it was water quality (Everything tested perfect) or bad salt (I have 5 tanks and do weekly water changes - if the salt was bad all tanks would be affected).

See after every water change the next day everything looked stressed and receded in.

Day 2 all Zoanthids looked good but it took a few days for the Acans and Frogspawn to look 100 percent.

A few days go by everything good and I do my weekly water change and boom everything stressed.

I had about 200 Purple Deaths right under a powerhead.

I was pouring the water back into the tank over the powerhead to disperse the water.

After having no clue about what caused this somebody mentioned Paly Toxin.

So after 6 weeks of this happening I poured the water over the other powerhead and what do you know no problems since I was not pouring the water over the purple deaths stressing them out.

2 months went by and I forgot and accidently poured the water over the powerhead with the purple deaths and boom everything stressed again.

I then threw out the rock (I should have done this right away but I didn't want to waste a coral).

Now many many months later no problems now that there are no purple deaths.

So now you see that Paly's can nuke a tank.

I have talked to others who have had their tanks nuked (usually it is with Texas Trash).

So now you know.