zoo's dieing off....Whats up?

[hesstondc]

Don't understand this one, never had a problem with them until now. I have several different types some fine others not so good. I can't find the dang directions to my test kit but it has been well over a month since my last water change. I notice my salinity was up over 1.026 is that to high....I normally keep it at 1.024, not sure why the spike but I did a quick 10 gallon water change tonight and the salinity went down.....

temp is about 80 in the tank...Also noticed my macro was dieing off a bit, I normally have to prune it out of there but now its about half the size...Been traveling alot recently and not doing tank mantanice so this is probably all my fault...Anyone got any ideas, my vols orange zoos, and regualr green zoos have died off for the most part....I changed my bulbs tonight as well, I had some of the cheep ebay 20K's in but now I have the aqualine 10K's back in there. My caps, candycane and blastos look fine, as well as my LTA and fish....only thing I am loosing is the zoos, just weird...I thought they were super easy to keep, I had millions in my last tank with no problems....Oh and my xenia is still alive...It never dies.

Clay

 

[hesstondc]

most of the zoos that are dieing are on the bottom of the tank, I fiqure 250 watt halides on a 125 should be plenty of light on the bottom for a zoo, but I might be wrong here...I wonder of those bulbs lost par....They are about 4 months old or more...only cost $30 a pair though

 

[ct_vol]

I would doubt that your lighting had anything to do with it... I know Vols are somewhat of a more sensitive zoa... I would try to determine why you are having die off from your macro... If you have Caulerpa in there, that is one of the downsides... Macro die off can pollute your tank too... I'd test your parameters and see where you are at... 1.026 isn't too high... Thats where I keep my tanks at...

 

[Runner]

Just a few ideas...

What are you using to test specific gravity? I used a swing-arm hydrometer for a long time and thought I was keeping my tank at 1.025. My zoanthids closed up one day and did not open for 4+ months. After checking a bunch of stuff, I finally tested my water with a refractometer and found out I was running 1.019 s.g. for likely a long time. Fish were fine and candy cane was fine, but the zoas/palys didn't like it. A small piece of the paly pulled through when I corrected the problem.

The next time my zoanthids started disappearing, I had a large (2' long) worm eating them. He ate my vol oranges as well. I was hoping to sell those things locally, too. He tried to eat the EvilMel greenskirts, but they kept growing back in between meals.

Another thing to check is your thermometer. One of the floating kind or even the digital with an RTD that hangs in the water is much more accurate than those strip thingys. I was frying my tank once and did not even know it -- my two strip heaters were saying 80 and 82F, but the two glass floating heaters I put in right behind them said 86F (that's when I realized BOTH of my Ebo Jager heaters were stuck on permanently).

Also, if your macro is dying off, I would add a phosphate remover in for a week or two (I have used Poly Filter before -- you can find them at Coral Reef for like $10). And carbon filtration for a fews days can't hurt if you use quality activated carbon.

 

[fishdoc11]

Unfortunatelt zoas don't seem to be as easy to keep as they once were. There are tons of things that can go wrong with them. I would suspect something eating them, a bacterial infection or a fungal infection but I am far from an expert. As Randy mentioned the Vols seems to be very sensitive. Lots of people lose those for some reason....not sure if anyone knows exactly why. Heres a list of things that can irritate them......some can also cause them to melt:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1154238
Loosing Maro would also indicate something larger at play but I'm not much help their either. Maybe a few water changes to try and get everything back in line.....I know the tank is the least of your worries at the moment though.
good luck, Chris

 

[goreefer]

Have you added anything new in the last month or so?
I would agree with the phosphate removal and the carbon. I would also do a 20% water change to see if there is something that needs to be exported from your water.
If there is something in the water column that needs to be removed I can let you use my Diatom Filter. If you run it with both diatom powder and carbon it will remove tons of junk from the system, both chemically and mechanically filtering the tank.
PM me if you need it.

 

[hesstondc]

I am out of town in KY this week...

I had the wife go to the aquarium and do a full test....Two people there said that they wish their water perameters were as good as mine....everything is 0 even phosphate....I must have something eating them or they just don't like my water....

The plane oll green one's I got from Cap bay, as well as orange ones are not making it, though have done fine for well over 4 months now....I have changed my lighting to 10K though....I really thinks its the par of the bulbs.....

Granted I am not at home right now but my wife said the the LTA is twice the size it has been under 20K, cheep china bulbs....Thanks for all yalls help, hope to see you at the next meeting, can't wait to meet other fish nerds like myself....Been doing this since the Auburn days and that was about 9 years ago....Started with a walmart 55 gallon chocolate chip star, conde, and a a few domino damzels.....Haven't had any of those since then.....

 

[RevHtree]

Sounds like you could have a pest...

Need to look for nudis.