Zoos grow in one tank..but not another...

[czieler]

I have two tanks...a 46 gallon and a 65 gallon.

The 65 has VHOs, a corallife skimmer, and a maxi jet.
I do water changes on it once a week of 5 gallons.

I have a 46 with the old PC lights I had on my 65...and a BakPak smimmer.... as well as a maxi jet ( the same that I have on the 65 ). I do water changes in this once a week of 5 gallons also.

My zoos look great in my 65 gallon. If I put them in the 46...they close up and don't open..then start to melt away...

I've seen no nudibranches in there.... the anemone and clown fish, as well as my fire shrimp and coral beauty angel in this tank are all doing well.

The water parameters are pretty much the same in both tanks every time I test.

Any suggestions on what I could do? My LFS doesn't have any idea why they don't seem to do well in there...they said the PC's should be fine.

I've even tried dosing with Lugo's ( sp?) iodine and zoo max in there....no dice... I test out putting some zoos in there that I had in my 65..and they appear to start dying off after a few days.

Anything else I should be looking for?

I had originally set up the 46 gallon to be a zoo tank..so I'm bummed that I can't get them to grow in there...

 

[eyebedam]

Any chance there are traces of copper ine the other tank?

 

[czieler]

I've never dosed with copper in either tank.... would something else put it in there?

I do have a bacardi silver glass bottle I have in there as decor..but its glass..so I didn't think it would hurt anything...looks cool w/ the coraline growing on it.

 

[MarvinsReef]

what about flow?

 

[czieler]

I have good flow in there....I have one maxi-jet 1200 on the protein skimmer..and one on the other side of the tank...the same ones I use in my 65 gal. The current flows in a nice circular direction.

 

[javatech]

What water parameters do you test, What's the SG in both tanks
how old are the lights watts, ?
Some colors die off of do great under My HM lights and some love it in the back of an old sump with some pc lights that are two years old
you can try to rule out the water by starting to mix the two tanks water togther

 

[czieler]

Yeah I actually did start some cascading water changes a few weeks ago..I've been taking the 5 gallons I remove from my 65...and putting them in my 46.

I keep the SG between 1.020 and 1.022 in both tanks.

I test nitrates, pH, and calcium.

The bulbs are about 4 mos. old in the 46 gallon..can't remember the wattage..as my LFS got them for me..he says they are fine for zoos though.

 

[Polyptician]

I would raise your sg alittle.

I have noticed in my tank a couple times that zoas are the first to respond to a low sg.

Let me know if that helps

 

[MUCHO REEF]

I agree with BryanBusza. There is an easier way to find out what's wrong. Get a piece a paper and write down everything you have and do to and with the 65, then using a second sheet of paper, do the same thing, item by item on the same line as you did with the first tank and sheet of paper. Note everything, even the little things, type and depth of substrate, parameter levels, are you using a Grounding probe in one and not the other. Where are they located, and chemicals near buy, any smokers in the house or is smoke getting to the 46 gallon etc, anything. Are you using a reliable iodine/iodide test kit? Does it exceed 0.06 NSW?

Some do, but I would never trust a Coral Beauty with Zoas. Do you have any emerald crabs, sally lightfoots, sundials, sea spiders?

You could also do this. As you do your water changes, try adding the old water from your 60 to the 46. See if it makes a gradual difference over time.

Have you checked the substrate for contaminents? I found a dime, yes a dime in my substrate 3 months ago. I have no idea how it got there or for how long. There are a ton of possible reasons. I hope you can find out the cause. Hang tough my friend.

Mucho

 

[czieler]

I'll start slowly raising the SG a bit this week.

As far as differences between the two tanks..I do the water changes and maintenance at the same time... so no difference between what I do to them.

I don't have a grounding probe in either...but have never been shocked when putting my hand in either..and I'm never wearing shoes in the house..so I don't think there is electricity.

The substrate in the two is different. I have a sandbed of about 3-4 inches in the 65 gallon.

In the 46, I started out with crushed coral, and decided I didn't like the look of it... so I took most of it out..and only put a thin layer of sand down. Yesterday, I went and purchased another bag of sand and added it to the 46 gallon, so there is about 2 inches now ( of course this is around the live rock, and not under it ).

I'll see if this and raising the salinity possibly helps.

I've never seen the coral beauty around the zoos...but I admit I am not in this room most of the day... just at night...so I guess she could be bothering them... will try to pay more attention.

I don't have any sundials or crabs in here... I have some various snails, but no sundials...

Is there anything on a glass Bacardi Silver bottle that could be hurting things? I don't know what the writing was made out of on the bottle.... it has coraline all over it now...this is the bottle I have in there:

http://www.abwholesaler.com/WWSImag...verWatermelon/BacardiSilverWatermelonFull.jpg

I eventually wanted to glue some zoos on there...and have them grow on the bottle..thought it would look neat...