lilalove
New member
Ok so...I was wondering if you zoa nuts know what is wrong with my colonies. They don't expand all the way....the skirts are rolled up, so only the mouths are visible. When it first started happening a couple of months ago, I thought maybe it was allelopathy from my toadstool. I did water changes and used carbon, nothing changed. I started dosing vitamin c. The only things that happened were that they started reproducing faster, and the skimmer skimmed more gunk. But the polyps were still rolled up. My bulbs were old....I changed them, and nothing still. The colonies aren't dying, and actually keep producing babies. They just don't open up all the way, and this started a year after they had been doing fine. To see if the bulbs were the problem, after I changed them, I bought a small frag of eagle eyes to test. A day after introduction, they were rolled up too. So obviously it's something in my water, but I've got no idea what. My older colonies have also paled out a bit. Here are my parameters after today's testing:
Ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5
pH 8.1 (is this low?)
dKH 8
calcium 500 (is this high?)
phosphate 0
I don't have a mag test kit yet, but I am adding epsom salt to the tank due to one of my wrasses having popeye. My 'fuge has chaeto and live rock. I do water changes of 25 gallons (tank is 180) every 2 weeks. I've placed poly filters in the sump, they turn brown but it does take a week or two for them to do so. I thought stray voltage, but I don't know how to check that. Also, all my other coral are doing fine. Toadstool, some mushrooms I tried to kill but they just came back, a couple of open brains, some ricordeas, a blasto frag that has 3 babies, and a small pink bird's nest frag. My purple deaths and yellow polyps oddly enough are fine as well. Just the zoas are affected. Any clues, insights, suggestions?? I love zoas and that's what I want mostly in my reef, but I'm not going to spend tons of money on frags when all they will do is stay rolled up like this. Thanks for any input.
Ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5
pH 8.1 (is this low?)
dKH 8
calcium 500 (is this high?)
phosphate 0
I don't have a mag test kit yet, but I am adding epsom salt to the tank due to one of my wrasses having popeye. My 'fuge has chaeto and live rock. I do water changes of 25 gallons (tank is 180) every 2 weeks. I've placed poly filters in the sump, they turn brown but it does take a week or two for them to do so. I thought stray voltage, but I don't know how to check that. Also, all my other coral are doing fine. Toadstool, some mushrooms I tried to kill but they just came back, a couple of open brains, some ricordeas, a blasto frag that has 3 babies, and a small pink bird's nest frag. My purple deaths and yellow polyps oddly enough are fine as well. Just the zoas are affected. Any clues, insights, suggestions?? I love zoas and that's what I want mostly in my reef, but I'm not going to spend tons of money on frags when all they will do is stay rolled up like this. Thanks for any input.
