zoa problem

[chessmanmark]

My once beautiful zoa garden is starting to deteriorate. Here it was a couple of months ago-


I added these pinks shortly after that picture-


They were beautiful but never completely acclimated to my tank and shortly started to deteriorate. I should have removed them quicker than I did but I was busy at the time and was hopeful that they would survive. The pinks went downhill followed by all the rest, exept some bright green palys which seem immune to the problem. Yesterday I took most of my zoas out and gave them a 3 minute freshwater bath as a precaution. Some zoas are growing on the glass or major rocks in my tank so I couldn't treat 100% of the zoas. Today they look the same. The center opens but not the outer skirt of the zoas. I just tested my calcium and alk. Calc=440 while alk is high at 5.03/14.1. I'm wondering if high alk levels would cause this problem or if someone has a suggestion on what my problem may be related to.

[killingseed]

well one day's time may not be enough time for the zoa's recover even from the dip. it can take weeks even months for zoa's to recover. do you have more pictures of some of the other zoa's acting this way? i asume those sps's are still look fine and doing well? first image is nice sorry to hear about you problem.

[Agu]

I notice you have SPS,LPS, and other softies in your tank. Do you do water changes and run carbon ? There could be chemical warfare going on and the pinks showed it first because they were unable to acclimate.

I have a coral Q tank for frags and sick corals. If you set up something like that and moved a few colonies you could find out if it's an environmental issue in the tank. It's also easier to do water changes and maintain water quality in a smaller Q tank.

Good Luck,

[geoxman]

Agu-- so many posts in the zoanthid forum in a few days?? You should leave the dark side and spend more time over here! We are more fun!
He is very right in what he stated and I would look into it as the cause. good luck and you have a beautiful garden!!!

[chessmanmark]

Originally posted by Agu
I notice you have SPS,LPS, and other softies in your tank. Do you do water changes and run carbon ? There could be chemical warfare going on and the pinks showed it first because they were unable to acclimate.

I have a coral Q tank for frags and sick corals. If you set up something like that and moved a few colonies you could find out if it's an environmental issue in the tank. It's also easier to do water changes and maintain water quality in a smaller Q tank.

Good Luck,

Thanks for the encouragement, that's what I'm planning to do. ( I just need to get through this next week) I have two spare 15 gallon tanks that I will utilize and try a lugol's dip as a pretreatment for one tank and Furan for the other. Then some new SW and a little QT to see if I can revive any of these species.

[Hypertek99]

Check for nudis and zoa spiders.