zoas and palys turning brown

[blackthunda77]

I have a couple small colonies of zoas and palys and some started turning brown on me. Mainly the jokers, purple deaths, and fire and ice. Anyone know what causes this? I just tested water params and all is 8, calcium is 470, mag is 1350 and phosphates was undetectable on the salifert kit. They are in a 16 inch high tank with 250watt radiums with lumenmax elite reflectors. They are all opening up fine. Have AOG's , orange bam bams, yellow brick roads, red hornets, etc that have not lost their colors.

 

[JoshuAcOOk]

sometimes this happens with new lights. its basically an undersirable morph. its strange though that it is happening to all of them at the same time. its not unhealthy, just unlucky. someone else might be able to help fix it though...

 

[blackthunda77]

The person I got them from said he had them in a frag tank under cheap Chinese led lights and that they might need to be acclimated longer to the more powerful lights by possibly moving them down in lower light.

 

[reefer999]

How high is the tank in inches, I wouldn't put zoas very high up, did you recently get them?

 

[A. Grandis]

sometimes this happens with new lights. its basically an undersirable morph. its strange though that it is happening to all of them at the same time. its not unhealthy, just unlucky. someone else might be able to help fix it though...

?
Turning brown with new lights?
?
Undesirable morph?
?
Strange because it's happening with all at the same time?
?

I'm sorry but everything you've wrote is nonsense.
With all the respect.
Perhaps if you explain your points I'll be learning something new here.

Grandis.

 

[tmz]

Zoanthus like light but these may need time to adjust and may have a zooxanthelae production schedule suited to lower light, ie they are producing too much or have clade of zoox acquired under unaturally low light conditions.. In time they shoud setlle in. Try shading them a little for now . BTW, zoooxanthelae is brown. I have all three of those you noted. They are all pretty brightly colored under 20k 250 radiums only 6 to 12 inches down. How is your NO3,btw?

 

[A. Grandis]

The person I got them from said he had them in a frag tank under cheap Chinese led lights and that they might need to be acclimated longer to the more powerful lights by possibly moving them down in lower light.

The fact the zoas were under "cheep Chinese lights" doesn't necessary mean that because they were cheep the acclimation needs to be better or longer.

Bottom line is that most acclimation to light needs to be slow.
Under expensive lights too.

They are turning brown, not bleaching.
Please check your nitrates too.
Do you do water changes? How often?

Grandis.

 

[A. Grandis]

How high is the tank in inches, I wouldn't put zoas very high up, did you recently get them?

Zoas can be placed high, yes, even close to the surface of the water.
It is necessary to adapt them to such light. Any light.
If they are brown they've go too much zooxanthellae.

Also, how brown is brown to you.
Please post a picture. Maybe that will help...

Grandis.

 

[A. Grandis]

Zoanthus like light but these may need time to adjust and may have a zooxanthelae production schedule suited to lower light, ie they are producing too much or have clade of zoox acquired under unaturally low light conditions.. In time they shoud setlle in. Try shading them a little for now . BTW, zoooxanthelae is brown. I have all three of those you noted. They are all pretty brightly colored under 20k 250 radiums only 6 to 12 inches down. How is your NO3,btw?

Yep, the more zooxanthellae, more brown. That would mean normally low light. If they came from a low light source and are now under a brighter light source they should get the colors back SLOWLY.
Yes, adaptation to the radiums have to be slow, like tmz said.
:thumbsup:

Excess nitrates and Phosphates could help to turn them brown. So maybe the old tank had high nutrients in it also, besides the low lights. Make sure you do a good maintenance: water changes and skimmer...

Check your nitrates and keep an eye on the phosphates also.
Main thing is to adapt them very slowly to the new lights...

Grandis.

 

[blackthunda77]

Previous tank they were in had a cheap Chinese fixture so I'm assuming the par reading was not to great. I'm my tank i was getting close to 400-500 par on the sandbed. He also mentioned the tank suffered some Lack of maintenance at one point so I'm assuming that meant high nitrates and phosphates.

In my tank the phosphates are undetectable with a salifert kit as per the original post, also the tank is 16 in high, also as in original post. Nitrates I'm not sure but last time I checked them about a month ago they were 0. I'm.
waiting on my nitrate test kit to arrive. I do weekly or bi monthly water changes so don't see nitrates being high.
I Adjusted my photo period to a shorter one staggering the 2 bulbs for now. One comes on at 5 and off at 8 the other on at 7 and off at 10. Lights are about 18in off the surface.

Thanks for the input guys, keep it coming.

 

[A. Grandis]

Previous tank they were in had a cheap Chinese fixture so I'm assuming the par reading was not to great. I'm my tank i was getting close to 400-500 par on the sandbed. He also mentioned the tank suffered some Lack of maintenance at one point so I'm assuming that meant high nitrates and phosphates.

In my tank the phosphates are undetectable with a salifert kit as per the original post, also the tank is 16 in high, also as in original post. Nitrates I'm not sure but last time I checked them about a month ago they were 0. I'm.
waiting on my nitrate test kit to arrive. I do weekly or bi monthly water changes so don't see nitrates being high.
I Adjusted my photo period to a shorter one staggering the 2 bulbs for now. One comes on at 5 and off at 8 the other on at 7 and off at 10. Lights are about 18in off the surface.

Thanks for the input guys, keep it coming.

Yep, that's what's probably going on.
The old tank had high nutrients and low light.
If you're careful they should be great after a while.
That will depend on how long they were exposed to the poor conditions.
Some times, if for too long, they cannot recover to their original colors.
I would place them on the sand for now and in a partially shaded area, if possible. Bring them out after a week or so, very slowly.
The slower you adapt them to the new stronger lights, the more chances you'll have to avoid bleaching an therefore they will eventually show their beautiful colors, if they still can make it.
Good luck!

Pics?

Grandis.

 

[tmz]

The jokers can be touchy, ime. The other two are pretty hardy. I think you have it covered pretty well.

 

[JoshuAcOOk]

?
Turning brown with new lights?
?
Undesirable morph?
?
Strange because it's happening with all at the same time?
?

I'm sorry but everything you've wrote is nonsense.
With all the respect.
Perhaps if you explain your points I'll be learning something new here.

Grandis.

i just remember reading somewhere that a guy was tracking a group of zoas under several different lights and different depths and the zoas would slowly morph and at one point were turning brown. one of the ways people get their zoas to morph iis by changing the lights. if i come across the thread i'll put a link to it.

 

[blackthunda77]

Thanks guys, I guess I'll just lower the ones in question and keep an eye on them. I'll try to post some pics tonight of them.

 

[tmz]

I think under differnt lighting they will produce more or less protective pigment and more or less zooxanthelae. They may also pick up a different clade of zooxanthelae to suit the environs over a long period of time. I supposed this could be characterized as some type of metamorphosis.

Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some insects, amphibians, molluscs, crustaceans, Cnidarians, echinoderms and tunicates undergo metamorphosis, which is usually accompanied by a change of habitat or behavior.

per wikipedia.

 

[blackthunda77]

I'll let you guys chime in and let me know what you guys think. These were taken today.

 

[blackthunda77]

Now that i look at these pics on my computer, maybe im over thinking it? Either they colored up in the last day or so or i dont know what im talking about. I just could sworn the purple deaths had a deeper purple center and more neon green skirts. to me they started looking more reddish/brown. As for the fire and ice i thought they were supposed to have a more blue center extending almost all the way to the skirts.

 

[milesofreefs]

Now that i look at these pics on my computer, maybe im over thinking it? Either they colored up in the last day or so or i dont know what im talking about. I just could sworn the purple deaths had a deeper purple center and more neon green skirts. to me they started looking more reddish/brown. As for the fire and ice i thought they were supposed to have a more blue center extending almost all the way to the skirts.

John everything looks good. the purple deaths tend to have more of a grey skirt. the purple with green skirts are the jokers and they look pretty good the last ones im not 100% if there really fire and ice.. but really theres a million morphs that people say are fire and ice. the orange mouths with orange skirts i gave you were sold to me as fire and ice.. i do agree that on real fire and ice the blue extends through the face to the skirt.