zoos only open half way?

[sweet d]

all of the zoos in my tank will only half way open everything else in the tank is doing good brains,frogspawn ect.tank parameters are all where they should be and havent changed much in the past any ideas why this is happening would be appreciated thanks dave

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

When you say that your parameters are where the should be that doesn't help much. can you post what your parrameters are?
How old are your lights?

 

[sweet d]

ph is 8.3, sal 1024-1025, 0 ammonia, nitrates are about 10 water temp 79, lights are 4 mos old. want any more parameters?

 

[NANOYED]

what about alk and calcium?

 

[sweet d]

cacium is at about 450-460 and alk i dont have a kit for

 

[tkimmons85]

My zoos were doing the same thing and it was because my alk was really high.

 

[sweet d]

wow, i havent changed the way i dose chemicals at all but the last few days i havent dosed anything in a effort to see if that would help.i guess ill get a alk test any recomendations?anymore ideas has to what else could be wrong?

 

[zoagirl]

when my zoas were doing the samething i found that it was that the alk was too low, you should check the alk asap.

 

[suliaman007]

Have you done a water change? Thats the frist thing I do when my zoas-palys start to show stress.

 

[Reef Bass]

IMHO, knowing your alk level and keeping it stable is a very important part of reek keeping. Bad things can happen pretty quickly with out of whack alk.

 

[sweet d]

ok so what would you recomend for a good test kit?

 

[adambirk]

salifert!!!

 

[Reef Bass]

+1 for Salifert. Elos good too.

 

[sweet d]

ok thanks guys i use reef buffer which is supposed to also buffer the alk but what levels should alk be at to keep corals?

 

[Reef Bass]

Generally, the higher your calcium the higher your alk should be. Me, I like an alk of about 9dkh with a calcium level of 410. There was a thread about everyone's prefered alk level in the sps forum recently.

 

[cardiffgiant]

I like to keep my Alk between 9-10 with my Ca at 425. I personally wouldn't add an Alk buffer without being able to test the impact and determine your consumption rate.

 

[SIR PATRICK]

If your alk test proves to be good, IME, 1/2 open polyps tell me they are being iritated by somthing. Most of the time algea, mini brittle stars, or anything else very small on/near the polyps/mat. Usually its nothing major, just somthing minor bugging them.

Good info on checking alk though. It is a likely suspect.