zoa issues...random problems on random colonies

[GQJake81]

ok. so my water is good. no ammo, ates or ites. calcium is 440. dkh is 8. temp is 79. salinity 1.025. do a 5 g WC every week or so, on a 57 g system.

my zoas are randomly opening and closing. and some are closing and staying closed. and growing algae on them.....

i decided to dip all the affected colonies in lugols. it's really random. one colony is completely closed. and they slowly closed over a week.

then another one closed on one half, then part of the heads opened afterwards, but not all.

yet another colony is normal one day, then closed some days.

and the last one has one polyp that barely opens. and about 15 that wont.

but i have another 4 or 5 colonies that are totally normal fine.

some of the colonies seemed like they had some kinda calcified dust down around the base of the polyps. but not all of them.

i have palys that are all fine.

the only thing i can think is that my pistol shrimp moves sand sometimes, not ONTO them, but it makes my whole tank hazy with fine particles from the sand bed. and those are landing on them and agitating them. but they were fine up until now.

they are all on the bottom of the tank. all colonies are about 2 months old and these problems have been coming and going the last couple weeks.

i've watched for nudis. couldn't see any. got nothing off of them in the RO dip. check them in the night, no isopods on them. no new fish.

i can try and get some pics tomorrow. my lights are off for the night.

any thoughts or ideas or articles, i'd greatly appreciate it. i have a fellow reefer coming to check them out (their original owner) tomorrow to see if he has any ideas.

 

[DEEC77]

Not sure some pictures would be helpful.

~Dee~

 

[Jacuzzi]

dip furan 2 I had the same issues and dipping furan 2 was the only thing that worked. Some made it some were to far gone but it will take a few dips to get rid of it. Good luck

 

[GQJake81]

I ordered some furan a week ago. Been trying to see if they come out of it on their own. Guess I can start it tonight. Think its ok to furan dip the night after a lugols dip?

 

[j.p. harrington]

could just be a phase they are going through any changes flow? lights? supplements?

i had my huge colony of fire and ice start looking like total crap couldn't figure it out turns out a few polyps had slightly let go of the rock and were agitating the whole colony.

also i have seen cyno grow around polyp b4 and they start to shrivle and close if this happens i always pic them off the rock put them in front of PH and let it blow it off the try to adjust the flow of the ph to combat the dead spots

 

[GQJake81]

so i never posted pictures...and i apologize. but a fellow reefer and i did some brainstorming and i think we have it figured out. TOO MUCH LIGHT. kinda why it SLOWLY came on. i TOOK pictures, and if they bounce back, i will post them so people can see.

so today was lights out till i got home today. then they got 50% white and blues from 5 to 8. 8 to 815, no white. 50% blue.

before today, when i went full actinic, i saw NO COLOR deep down in the polyps. tonight during only actinic i already saw little specs of orange, like the polyps are coming back.

just goes to show you how valuable it is to be part of your local reef club. i'm really hopeful and i'm far less aggravated with my tank now.

 

[Sinclair81]

More flow to blow off the cyano would probably help too!