Zoas Are Slowly Dieing (Red Fuzz, Pics Included) Please Help!

[jspine01]

I bought a bio cube 14 last Friday used it came with 3 shrooms, a tomato clown and about 20 zoas. The guy said it’s been up since January and everything has been very stable since, no losses. It came with 20 pounds of very well established live rock (tons of coralline), and some sand. So I moved the tank, which stirred up the sand a bit, but it looked like fairly clean sand. After replacing all the water (put the old water back in) and setting up the tank I went to bed.

Saturday I woke up and checked on the tank, the clown was very happy, 2 out of the 3 shrooms were open and the zoas were partially open. I also did a partial water change (with RO/DI water) Saturday cause the nitrates were reading about 15 ppm.

Sunday morning I went and checked on the tank, 2 shrooms were open, the third looked worse and the zoas were still partially open. So I went to the lfs and the guy told me not to worry the coral may have been shocked, give it time, they will open.

Monday â€"œ Not much of a change, I bought a small zoa rock and they were open and happy within an hour.

Tuesday night after work - The same old zoas were still partially open, only now they had RED FUZZ growing on half of them, the new zoas were completely happy, 2 shrooms were open, and the sick shroom looked way worse, it was disintegrating with a brown goo underneath it. So I tried to use a turkey baster to blow off the zoas, this didn’t do anything. When I blew off the shroom all the goo blew away, along with half the shroom.

Wednesday â€"œ The new zoas and both healthy shrooms look better then ever. The old zoas have more red fuzz but they are opened partially, and the sick shroom still looks bad but there is no brown goo. The tomato clown has been healthy the entire time.

Wednesday night parameters are as follows:

pH: 8.4
Nitrates: 15 ppm
Nitrites: 0
SG: 1.024
Temp: 77.2
Ammonia: 0 ppm
kH: 8
Calcium: 345

After taking the parameters a 30% water change was performed.

So what could the problem be?
What is the red stuff on my zoas? How do I get rid of it?

Please help!

I am using a refractometer to measure the sg.

Flake has been fed 3 times since friday, only a small bit, and frozen brine fed once.

and I'd like to add, the red fuzz is only on the one set of zoas, no where else in the tank

Here are some quick pics:

 

[650-IS350]

you could try and use a very soft toothbrush and see if you could gently brush them off. if it dosn't work it could be some type of fungus or bacteria ???? Have you tried to dip in LUGOLS solution or even FURAN2 ( used for zoapox ) ???

 

[coralfarm123]

The red stuff on your zoanthids appears to be cyanobacteria. You can remove the frag from the tank and swish it in fresh water for about 30 seconds and then place if back in the tank. It should fall off pretty easily.

 

[dustin Combs]

coralfarm123, wouldn't cyano be on other parts of the rock, sand? Just ?ing. It looks more like an infection of some sort. But I agree with the removing the frag from the tank and lightly brushing and maybe a dip in Lugols/rodi to see if it can be removed and placing it in a med/high flow area in a shaded area. Good luck!

 

[aquarius77]

Thats not cyano IMO Its on the zoos and only those zoos. Its a fungs of some sort and the pics clearly show a colony in distress. Delsol gave you some good advice up there. There is also a mod here who has alot of knowledge on zoas, mucho reef is his name. I would drop him a PM and link this thread to it.
Thats not normal, its not cyano and its killing those zoos. I would personally do the FURAN2 dip delsol mentioned and i would not try to "brush" anything off already super stressed zoos, use a turkey baster and blast it off if possible.
GL

 

[aquarius77]

I cant find him on the mod list but im almost sure hes team rc.

 

[impur]

It looks like cyano to me too, i can see air bubble in it. Did you recently move that rock? Dying shrooms nearby could easily lead to some cyano in that area. Cyano does cling to corals a bit harder than it does to rocks or sand. But if it doesn't come off when blasted with a turkey baster then its not cyano.

I'd do the Furan-2 dip as well.

 

[jspine01]

Isnt cyano a goo that would easily be blown off with a turkey baster? Cause this stuff isnt, it is ever so SLIGHTLY peeling off, like a skin more then a goo

 

[jspine01]

Sorry impure, you already answered that question, so we know now its not cyano?

 

[impur]

Yah doesn't sound like cyano if it doesn't come off real easy. Could be some fungus or bacteria, i've seen a lot of those and of all different colors.

I would do Furan-2 w/ RO water dips. My procedure is 1 cup RO water buffered to match tank pH and temp with 1 packet Furan-2 for 20 min. Then rinse real well and into QT if you have it. Rest 1 day between dips, for a total of 3 dips. I haven't lost any zoas doing it this way.

There are lots of ways to dip, this is what works for me so adjust it how you see fit.

Good luck.

 

[jspine01]

I just went out they only had regular furansol not furan2 so I got Lugol's instead, Im gonna try dips in that

 

[impur]

Lugols will not kill off the bacteria/fungus if thats what it is.

Good luck.

 

[jspine01]

Yeah the red fuzz isnt gone, but today when I got home from work the zoas looked great, they were open more then I have ever seen, the lugols did something at least, I was so surprised, I had pretty much considered them to be a lost cause

 

[650-IS350]

if it comes back you might want to try FURAN2 next time for fungal issues

 

[aquarius77]

Im wondering how your zoos are doing, any updates?

 

[jspine01]

The dips in lugols helped them ALOT but the red stuff is still there, im trying o find a lfs that sells furan2

 

[Appaloosa1224]

i'm having the same problem. i'm going to try and find furan2 as well. haven't seen it at the LFS but maybe they have it hidden. let us know your results!

 

[Peter Eichler]

I've had this start up as well the last couple weeks and it has me a bit stumped. I really think is is some sort of Dinoflagellate/Cyanobacteria. It's not growing on my rocks or substrate, but is growing on my zoanthids and the mantle of one of my clams if you can believe it...

 

[Blitz99]

before you do all these dips, do yourself a favor... pick up the rock and put it in front of a powerhead... GUARENTEE this is from lack of flow and a warning sign of bad things to come if you dont increase the direct flow on those...

give it a try, it's like a purple skin, right? i've had this, flow helps, flow prevents.

 

[jspine01]

Well, so far I have been doing the dips. I dipped them in furan2 on tues. The next day (today, wednesday) most of the red fuzz was gone but the zoos that were "infected" with the fuzz looked horribly pale, the others looked the same.

Tonight I got home, it was late and the lights were out, so I turned them on and dipped the zoas again. After the dip when I put the colony back into the tank there were immediately 3 little bugs crawling around on the zoas. They were EXTREMELY small, I could only tell that they were some sort of pods moving around, they looked like little dots, maybe like a pill bug but they are too small to say for sure. I don't think they could be related to the fuzz at all, but figured I better mention it.