Zoanthid Issue

[Majority_Rules]

Anytime I put a zoanthid in my tank it only ever half opens up. I thought they weren't getting enough light with the Kessil A80 so I bought a Prime HD. Well all of my other corals love the new light but my zoas didn't do much. A few nubs have popped up, but still none of them are fully open. I should mention this is a 3.7g tank. Temp sometimes can swing from 78-81. I do weekly water changes since I don't have a protein skimmer. My parameters are always the same and always good. I use to dose sodium ascorbate in another tank and I had crazy happy zoas so I just ordered some more. Has anyone else experience half opened zoas before?

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[650-IS350]

Did you light acclimate them properly? is there a dimmer on that light? Probably light shock. 3rd pic shows light really intense on some polyps?

 

[zoeth]

Looks like too much light, especially the white channel. Try and move them lower or raise your light, whichever is easier.

 

[dublo8]

I just saw this and made another post. Same light, different issue. I just get no growth. Mine is on a Nuvo 10. This is a zoas only tank. It's not too much light. It's only 15 watts. Maybe too much direct light? Not sure. I threw a monti and an acan in there and they did just fine for a month. I'm testing out some other softies too but everything is fine. Just not the zoas. I also had problems with zoas in my mixed reef under AI LEDs

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[ozmosis7]

How long have they been in there? Zoas take a while to adjust, but to me, that looks like too much light. They'll trumpet when they have too little and close up when they are irritated.

 

[Majority_Rules]

I took everyone's suggestion and lowered the intensity of the light. But I can't get it tuned in perfectly. The skirts are open but the stalks seem stretched out now on a few of them. Do zoas like prefer clean or dirty water? I don't have a skimmer. All of the other corals in my tank look great except some of the zoas. I have the uv at 5% now. I literally have no clue if that's still too high for 3.7g.

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[Majority_Rules]

Here are some pics of them stretching. Not all of the zoas are doing this.

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[MuShu]

What livestock do you have?

 

[Majority_Rules]

Two hermit crabs, a nassarius snail, two cerith snails, a barnacle blenny, a clam, zoas, acans, gonioporas, and clove polyps. The zoas are driving me crazy. I keep tweaking my light hoping it fixes the issue.

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[sh4rkbyt3]

I talked with Dr. Mac of PacificEast Aquaculture last week about this very thing. I was having a similar issue with 2 frags of new zoas I'd just bought. I too am using an AI HD Prime.
Two things he said A) On trips to Indonesia and Thailand he found most of the zoas near village waste runoff areas. B) They were in areas where there really wasn't much bright light getting directly to them.

After that conversation I went home and lowered all of my spectrum except the two Blue ones (Royal Blue, Blue). White especially doesn't seem to be their favorite color either until after they're acclimated. I've left the two blues at 40% for almost a week now and the UV and Purple around 14%. Reds at 10% and green at 8%. White was absolutely zero and the new zoas finally began opening up after a day or two.
Most places (that I've seen) that sell fragged zoas keep them under almost exclusive blue lighting which is low in brightness to my eyes anyway.
A previous frag thats been in my tank for at least 3-4 weeks of Green Dragon Eyes came from another reef tank that was using full on T5 and MH. When I dropped them in they opened up immediately to my AI LEDs with no problem at all.
I assume it just depends on what lighting they came from as to how you have to acclimate them? And even while dropping the lighting down the Green Eyed Dragons didn't suffer at all.
I'm slowly bringing the lowered spectrum back up over a few weeks time and everything seems to be doing well including my Purple Gorgonian and my Red Goniopora. All the zoas are responding very well too.

 

[Majority_Rules]

That's very interesting to hear. The place where I buy my corals also keeps everything under blue lights and all of the corals look amazing. The guy at my shop said the skirts are tucked in because of too much light and told me to turn down the white and uv. Since then I've been slowly doing so. I'm at 1% uv and 10% white right now and the skirts on some still seem curled in. The ones that are curled also have long stalks like they are reaching. I upped the cool blue to compensate for the low uv and white light. But still I have pinched skirts and raised stalks on some of them. My clam, acans, clove polyps, and gonioporas are all fine.

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