Zoa shrinking....
- Thread starter SPotter
- Start date
SPotter
Active member
It's been in the tank for about 6 months now and it has probably tripled in size since then. It was the very first piece of coral I got for the tank. I've been having a hard time getting my alk higher than 8 so I started adding kalk try and bring it up. That had no effect on the tank so someone on here suggested that I do 25% wc's for 3-4 days straight and that should help. Well, my alk is still at 8 and I'm going to just let it be. I did the last wc on Monday and it was shortly after that the colony started to shrink.
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kichimark
Μολὼν λαβ
Alk at 8 is not bad. Why do you want to raise it higher? (just curious). 25% WC for 3 to 4 days straight is changing a lot of water and its chemistry very fast. This colony may have an adverse affect to that. I would hold off the WC's and see how it recovers. Everything else looking good?
jc-reef
New member
You may want to dip in Revive or something....very well could be a pest munching on it or pathogen (ie pox).
I had a colony that after doing very well suddenly started to 'melt' away and slowly shrink. It was still on a plug/small rock....I ended up taking out and dipping it in Revive w/ a baster moving the water through the polyps & nooks and crannies pretty firmly during the entire dip....then rinsed in cup of tank water and placed back in. They opened up a day or so after and ever since have been back to growing new polyps. Never knew what was the issue, but the Revive dip seemed to work for me.
At this point, its worth a shot.
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I had a colony that after doing very well suddenly started to 'melt' away and slowly shrink. It was still on a plug/small rock....I ended up taking out and dipping it in Revive w/ a baster moving the water through the polyps & nooks and crannies pretty firmly during the entire dip....then rinsed in cup of tank water and placed back in. They opened up a day or so after and ever since have been back to growing new polyps. Never knew what was the issue, but the Revive dip seemed to work for me.
At this point, its worth a shot.
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SPotter
Active member
Jc---thanks for the tip. I didnt have any coral but I had read on here that someone used a solution of hydrogen peroxide and RODI to dip there corals. So, I carefully cut the colony on the plug away from the lr it was spreading onto and dipped it for 1 min and then dipped in plain RODI for another minute. I couldn't believe all of the little critters I saw coming out if it... Mostly pods but some other things too. I now have it in my frag tank where the hermit crabs and snails can't bother it. it's in a corner where the flow isn't too strong and the light is just bright enough. I'll post some pictures in another day so.
What's even more weird is I just remembered that I had another zoa frag there before this one and it did the same thing. There's nothing around it that could sting it. I wonder if there's something in the lr.
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What's even more weird is I just remembered that I had another zoa frag there before this one and it did the same thing. There's nothing around it that could sting it. I wonder if there's something in the lr.
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ReeferBill
New member
Zoa Shrinking.
Zoa Shrinking.
Hi SPotter ; I am glad you found out what the problem was and I hope you got rid of the pests . Good Luck and Happy Reefing!!!!!:beer:
Zoa Shrinking.
Hi SPotter ; I am glad you found out what the problem was and I hope you got rid of the pests . Good Luck and Happy Reefing!!!!!:beer:
SPotter
Active member
Thanks Bill! I hope this works. Its funny how attached we can get to a $30 frag.
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SPotter
Active member
Just an update...the hydrogen peroxide dip has seemed to work this colony seems lime it's on the road to recovery. I'll leave it in my frag tank for a while. It looks better under the LED fixture on there too!
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SPotter
Active member
they mostly looked like spiders but it was hard to tell because the hydrogen peroxide was bubbling up. I have to say it seems like its coming back very nicely too! Even the polyps that I left behind on the LR are bouncing back too and they didnt get dipped. I noticed some hydroids growing very close to where the colony was, I wonder if they are stinging the colony.
SPotter
Active member
This was based on what I had read on another thread here and I will see if I can find it again. I used three cups...one for 3% hydrogen peroxide and two with rodi. I used enough hydrogen peroxide to cover the colony and left in there for 1 minute. After that, I put it in the first cup of rodi for 30 seconds and then took it out and put it in the 2nd cup of rodi for another 30 seconds. Then I just put it back into my frag tank and it took probably two days for the polyps to start opening up again. I was nervous about using this method but I was out of coral dip and the colony was not looking good at all. I figured I had nothing to lose and so far it has been an incredible recovery. I will try to post a new picture of it tonight.
