Zoas won't open... Need help

[Reef1121]

Last week my buddy had to quickly transfer all his zoas frags to my tank due to his rosebubble walking into his power head and crashing his tank killing all his corals except these. Since adding them to my tank they haven't opened at all. They were added about 4 days ago. I don't know if they're just stressed out or if there is something else going on. Please help.

 

[TampaSnooker]

4 days isn't that long after a stressful event. A pump failure just caused all mine to close up for a few weeks. Make sure his pump didn't seize and start to leak electricity. That would keep 'em closed. Frankly, they might have appreciated some ammonia/nutrients from the 'nem in the water. Do you have zoas/are they happy in your tank? That would set the tone for basic requirements. If not, check and post your chem parameters.

If you have a predator of zoas, it will often cause all to remain closed even if one colony is being irritated. The smell their relatives' pain. Predators can be fish, worms, nudibranchs, asterina starfish, crabs....

 

[Reef1121]

I have green bay packers, radioactive dragon eyes and red zombie eyes that are doing great in my tank and they're always open. My water parameters are as follows: sg 1.024, temp 78, calcium 450ppm, alk 8.4, magnesium 1380ppm, nitrate 4ppm, phosphate .08ppm, iodine .06ppm. My fish and inverts don't touch any of my corals the worst that will happen is that either one of my hermits or my cleaner shrimp will walk on one or so of the polyps but they usually don't close up from it.

 

[TampaSnooker]

I wouldn't worry for a while then. Your friend's zoas just went through a traumatic event. Keep them free of detritus and any bacterial, algae or fungal film until they start to open. If yours are happy, then it's logical that the others are just reacting and adjusting. You can use a turkey baster or small powerhead to blast any film off of the closed polyps. After my recent event, a lot of the polyps were nearly liquified and came back. Z's are strong corals, provided the environment is right and they stay attached after you glue them...

 

[TampaSnooker]

If you are the super cautious type, then you can use airline to siphon out any of the film that may grow on the polyps while they are closed up to prevent it spreading instead of basting/blasting. If so, it's still best to dislodge the film before siphoning it out so you don't further injure the polyps with a pinch of suction.

 

[Reef1121]

I went ahead today and cleaned the films off of his corals with some 1/4" airline hosing. I just was thinking I might as well be cautious of it just in case it might release something into my water. I think one of his plugs intro'd some red slime into my tank and now I'm battling that again. Any ideas for that?

 

[TampaSnooker]

Red slime will only grow if it can - that is you can prevent it with chem adjustments. .08 phosphate is enough to allow it. Got a reactor? Fresh media will help. For now, vacuum it out with the 1/4 tubing. If it is persistant, you can kill the lights for 3 days. That often works.

Keep at the zoas. Any film that collects on it will smother them and hinder recovery. As long as the polyps are still firm-ish, they should eventually be fine.

 

[natesreef]

+1 tampa snooker, definitely just siphon out the red slime, and with the zoas keep cleaning them and if they dont open in a week i would say doing a H2O2 dip wouldnt hurt.

 

[TampaSnooker]

agreed. just don't overdo the peroxide. 1/10 salt water of standard 3% off the shelf peroxide for 10 min will dissolve most anything that is on the zoas. overkill with strength or time can hurt them further.

 

[A. Grandis]

Siphon red slime out while doing a 10% water change.
Try to place a bag of ChemiPure carbon in the sump.

Wait a week and see what's happening.
If problem persists try one more 10% water change...

Try not to mess with your tank too much right now.

Grandis.

 

[Reef1121]

Ok. I sucked a lot of it out yesterday but its just taking over the tank like its growing over night. I'll take some more out today with the 1/4" airline hose and then more with my 10% water change on saturday. Should I get chemipure elite or just the regular stuff? Is there a difference besides price? Right now I just have a media bag of ROX carbon that I change once every 2 weeks and a filter sponge to catch any large detrius that might be in the tank. And I clean that out every week with water changes.

 

[A. Grandis]

If you've got ROX carbon you won't need ChemiPure. I use ROX when needed. It's really good. I think ChemiPure does a great job, but never compared both. Save your money and don't buy the ChemiPure then.

If you really, really want to get the ChemiPure for some reason, I would think the cheaper would work fine. That's the one I've used before. It works fast!!!

By the way you're saying it's probably cianobacteria and you'll need to give more flow to the tank. You can turn off all the lights for two days and see what happens. Come back very slow with the lights (less hours a day, trying).
Make sure your skimmer is working good and remove most of the detritus from the system (display+sump) without making a lot of mess on the substrate.
Keep changing the ROX every 2 weeks, that's fine.
Make sure your water changes are done with a good salt, like Red Sea, and the fresh water is free of junk (phosphates, nitrates, silicates).

If it's really ciano it could take months to be under control. Sorry.

I've got many types of cianos in my sistems and, once introduced, they will always be there, belive me. You just need to control and keep the organics in check.

Please avoid overfeeding now. Keeping the alkalinity in the higher end could help with the problem too.

Pictures? That way others could help you also. Let's see what people say...

Grandis.

 

[Reef1121]

I'm pretty sure its Cyno. I don't have a reactor or a very good skimmer on the tank. I'm looking at buying a HOB refugium to run with lights on when my tank lights are off and encourage the growth of different macro algae opposed to the stuff that's growing in the tank. I'm also going to get some chemipure elite today, which I've herd will help with the over all quality of the water phoshate included. One of my other friends uses chemipure elite and purigen in his tank. Would that be over kill since they do basically the same job.

 

[A. Grandis]

There are many posts with the ChemiPure lately.
Carbon is basically to remove the excess of organics and other chemicals.
ChemiPure would speed up the help to a system, in the removal of chemicals, but it is very important to know that any carbon media are not the "miracle solution", never!!!
I don't believe in carbon reactor and therefore never used.
Just place the carbon bag in the sump, or display, and watch the results.

There are many other things that can contribute to problems, including cianos and algae, and we need to deal with what is causing the problems, not to have a "carrying along solution" to them.

ChemiPure, and other good carbon media, will just help some chemical problems in a short period of time, as a relief, but carbon is not supposed to solve the problems. Sorry.

A good skimmer will help you a lot in the long run, yes. I have a good skimmer and still have ciano here and there, but they are very much under control. Don't feed too much and try add to the water flow. Suck detritus out of the system and do 10% water changes every two weeks while you remove the detritus. Use pure water to mix with a hi quality salt.

Please don't think cianos can just disappear from your tank in a day.

Let's see what others will suggest...

Grandis.

 

[fishpoop]

For the Zoas, just give them time, they were poisoned and they will either survive now that they're in a healthy tank, or not.
As for the ciano, If it gets real bad, I turn off my lights for three days and it's gone.
No fish or corals suffer.

 

[Reef1121]

Ok thanks for the help guys. Im going to turn off my lights after my 10% and suck out as much as I can get. I have 2 circ pumps in the tank now, 400 koralia nano and a 250 koralia nano. Ill redirect there flow to maybe get things stirred up and moving again.

 

[TampaSnooker]

Been away for a few days. Hope you are getting the issues under control. Don't be intimidated by cyano. It comes on quickly and explosively, but is easy to deal with. If there are no nutrients, it won't grow. Also 3 days with no light reaching the tank will kill it. Removal of detritus via small water changes helps; carbon, chemi-pure or bio chem-zorb will help remove nutrients, too. Just be sure to remove carbon after a week or 2. It acts like a dry sponge on a puddle of water - it will soak up nutrients, but if left alone will seep them back out.

Are the zoas opening up yet? For minor slime on them, you can just blast it away.

 

[Reef1121]

I just finished getting as much cyano off as I could and tomorrow will start the 3 days of no light. One of frags is starting to open up a little bit but just the outer skirt is showing. I hope the no light for it photosynthesis doesn't hurt it too much. I also just changed the carbon yesterday and I didn't dose any extra nutrients to the tank this week as I normally would to help kill it all off. I have to wait till later in the week though for the chemipure elite for when its in stock at the LFS

 

[blufgan]

Would dipping in Coral RX or Coral Revive in a container help dissolve the slime?