All zoanthids bleaching...what's the problem?

Brock Fluharty · #1 12/21/2006, 08:25 PM

I've had some zoanthid colonies for a few months now, and they are all starting to bleach. I'm looking back at pictures of them when I first got them, and they are nearly colorless. One colony is completely whitish clearish. I am running 4x54 watt T5 HO's, the Nova Extreme fixture. I have 2 actinics, and 2 10K's. There are a few frags throughout the tank, at differing levels of height, so I don't think that it's my lights. I don't know what's going on with them...i've checked for zoanthid predators, spaghetti worms, etc., nothing. Anyone know what's wrong, and how to fix it?

pdwife · #2 12/21/2006, 08:46 PM

what size tank? I had some T5's on my 40 breeder and they were a little too much. So I switched back to my 250MH 20k and everything went back to normal. I had some Tek unit from PA-I think?

chrisstie · #3 12/21/2006, 10:28 PM

With T5s i think zoos should be near the bottom or have a little bit of an overhang.. mine even morphed color a little bit going from the LFS under MH to PCs but being up a little bit higher

MinibowMatt · #4 12/22/2006, 08:40 AM

I bleached almost an entire tank of zoos with new bulbs back in august. All my zoanthids have regained ALL of their color. My paly's however, are slow to re-color. At this point you need to change or lower your lighting, and/or move the zoos to shaded spots.
Give them time and good water, and they should recover.

Brock Fluharty · #5 12/22/2006, 12:58 PM

It's a 75 gallon. Thanks all, i'll lower them!