Zoas losing color and rics all died...Please Help

[My-eel-bit-me]

I am having issues with some corals in my tank and cant figure out what is going on. A little info about my tank. As far as the equipment its a 34g cadlight bareback, solaris LED light system, remora skimmer, 150g canister filter, reefkeeper 2, and (2) koralia pumps. As far as the live stock got a 15 headed frog spawn, various zoas, nuclear green, purple people eaters, purple death, tub blues, ect, and various mushrooms. As well as a cleaning crew snails, crabs, ect.

I use to have a bunch of rics but they all died. Some of the zoas are losing color and not openning. All my water parameters are up to par. I have no clue why the zoas are suffering and all my rics died. I had 30. The rics just one day started to shrink and then just shrank til they disappeared. My purple death are turning red and my purple people eaters wont open up. However my nuke greens and some others are just fine. Lights to strong maybe, idk? Any help would be most appreciated. I am a purdue student so if anyone lives near Purdue and would be willing to come help solve my problem I would be willing to compensate with cash or corals. Thanks in advance.

 

[suliaman007]

When did you get the lights? Did you light acclimate the coral properly?

 

[My-eel-bit-me]

Lights have been on the tank for 2 years....corals have been in the tank for a year and a half. Zoas just started losing colors in the past couple months.

 

[Timanator]

Sounds like temp swings?

 

[shackscs]

Post your water params.

 

[DaKineReef]

Have you fragged your rics or zaos laetly? My friend lost hundreds of dolloars after fragging hie zoas and Im not sure if there was some chemical warfare going on. But not a single ric survived.

Ike

 

[shackscs]

Have you considered dipping them? Something could be irritating them which might be why they are not opening. Dipping is the simplest and easiest way to help them out.

Also, run just your actinics at night and sit right up in front of the tank. Clook closely and see if you have Zoas eating nudies, they will be easy to see. Also look for tiny spirals on the glass or other surfaces, these are the Nudie egg masses.

And look closely for spiders or even sundail snails, these love nudies. It may benecessary to pull each colony out and inspect it closely. (Ideally this is done after you have dipped them.)

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

 

[zoadude]

were the ricordea yumas or floridas?

 

[My-eel-bit-me]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15652868#post15652868 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zoadude
were the ricordea yumas or floridas?

The rics were florida. The zoas seem to be doing better now that I turned my daytime whites down to 80%. I also moved the purple death to a more shaded area. As far as the rics, I hadnt fraged anything near around the time they all died.

 

[zoadude]

So the ricordea have been under the same lighting for over a eyar and then all of a sudden started dieing?

 

[fvandijk]

Are the rics just shrinking and disappearing?
Or is there an associated slime and are they sort of "dissolving", sometimes with an gaping mouth?
I've had the latter problem and this was solved by large water changes and significantly increasing flow.

 

[My-eel-bit-me]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15653590#post15653590 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zoadude
So the ricordea have been under the same lighting for over a eyar and then all of a sudden started dieing?

The rics were in the tank for 3-4 months before they started to have problems. Before then they were doing great. Some got slimy like the next poster said. However in general they just shrank and withered til they just disappeared. Nothing else in the tank was being affected just the rics dieing. The flow where they were at was probably not that high, I had a lot of them not mounted to a frag just in the sand. I will admit that during this period I was slacking on water changes. So is it possible not enough water changes and not enough flow would cause them all to die?

 

[zoadude]

I have seen one time in a tank full of ricordea florida in a LRS all of them melt away within a weeks time due to an infection and though rare will spread and kill off all ricordea with in the same system. The same tank now holds many ricordea and they are all fine. I believe it is a bacterial infection. I have read about it somewhere, I just cannot recall where, maybe Blane Perun's site, don't really recall.
Unfortunately it is too late for you, but cutting away the infected areas and reestablishing the good one early on into a new tank would probably have saved them.
As far as the zoas going dark, usually that is a sign of too intense a lighting, especially for the ones you mentioned. NG love intense light, PPE can't handle it and must be kept low light.
Ricordea florida love high light, that is why I asked if they were yumas or floridas.
Sorry you lost them.
It was probably just coincidence that the rics perished and some of the zoas went dark. Purple Deaths have to have low light also or they will go brown.