Zoas and now xenia disappearing

StephNewman · 02/17/2008, 07:40 PM

First I lost many of my zoas but everything else in the tank was doing fine. The zoas just seemed to detach from their rock or just disappear. I have heard that this sometimes happens with zoas for no reason.
Now my xenia which was growing abundantly is now melting away. Is his just natural process for corals to go through, grow and then decrease in number, and then grow again as long as they don't totally disappear or is there somethign going on that I can ry to correct. I don't know what is causing it.
The only thing that is off is that my nitrates is 20, but my nitrates are always high without anything having problems. Sometimes the temperature gets over 82 degrees also. The only thing I can think of is the temperature is getting too high for the corals and causing them to melt and/or detach to try to find a cooler area. Is this likely?
Is it likely that the two things are due to seperate problems. For example I think soemthign in the tank might be eatting the zoos because all the zoa frags I put under an eggcrate in the tank do fine, it isn't til after they are placed somewhere on the rocks that they start disappearing.
The xenia just started melting while the zoas have been disappearing for over the past few months. I did several water changes to try to get the nitrates down about two weeks ago, could the lower nitrates be affecting the xenia's growth now?
I'm confused I just want things to stop dieing or disappearing. I have alot of other corals that are doing fine such as hammerhead, frogspawn, torch, bubble, ricordia, mushrooms, tonga mushrooms, galaxia, and some of my larger palys and my radioactive green zoas.
The only other thing that has been affected and diintegrating is my kenya tree. What can be causing this?

sugartooth · 02/17/2008, 07:44 PM

Try looking for predators after lights out.....

Good luck!

plummike · 02/17/2008, 07:53 PM

Sounds like a Zoo spider, Zoo's are very hardy. How is Alk? Zoo's seem more sensitive to low Alk than Mushrooms etc.

StephNewman · 02/17/2008, 08:08 PM

how do you find a zoo spider

briangg57 · 02/19/2008, 12:42 AM

I'm going through the same thing right now. My eagle eyes are dissapearing. I looked real close and found that I have dinoflagellates. I saw a brown algea covering the base. When I took a small piece out of the tank for close look, I squeezed a small area and the brown actually squirted out of it. I noticed my xenia has some on thier base. I hope I caught it in time.

02/17/2008, 07:40 PM	#1
StephNewman Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Arnold, Mo Posts: 1,467	Zoas and now xenia disappearing First I lost many of my zoas but everything else in the tank was doing fine. The zoas just seemed to detach from their rock or just disappear. I have heard that this sometimes happens with zoas for no reason. Now my xenia which was growing abundantly is now melting away. Is his just natural process for corals to go through, grow and then decrease in number, and then grow again as long as they don't totally disappear or is there somethign going on that I can ry to correct. I don't know what is causing it. The only thing that is off is that my nitrates is 20, but my nitrates are always high without anything having problems. Sometimes the temperature gets over 82 degrees also. The only thing I can think of is the temperature is getting too high for the corals and causing them to melt and/or detach to try to find a cooler area. Is this likely? Is it likely that the two things are due to seperate problems. For example I think soemthign in the tank might be eatting the zoos because all the zoa frags I put under an eggcrate in the tank do fine, it isn't til after they are placed somewhere on the rocks that they start disappearing. The xenia just started melting while the zoas have been disappearing for over the past few months. I did several water changes to try to get the nitrates down about two weeks ago, could the lower nitrates be affecting the xenia's growth now? I'm confused I just want things to stop dieing or disappearing. I have alot of other corals that are doing fine such as hammerhead, frogspawn, torch, bubble, ricordia, mushrooms, tonga mushrooms, galaxia, and some of my larger palys and my radioactive green zoas. The only other thing that has been affected and diintegrating is my kenya tree. What can be causing this?

02/19/2008, 12:42 AM	#5
briangg57 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 634	I'm going through the same thing right now. My eagle eyes are dissapearing. I looked real close and found that I have dinoflagellates. I saw a brown algea covering the base. When I took a small piece out of the tank for close look, I squeezed a small area and the brown actually squirted out of it. I noticed my xenia has some on thier base. I hope I caught it in time. __________________ Ain't like goin down to the pond, cetching bluegills and tommy cats. Current Tank Info: 75 gal.,20 gal. sump with wet-dry, also run carbon,75 to 100lbs live rock. 3&1/2 inch sand bed, 390 Watts PC. lighting and loving it!!!

02/17/2008, 07:44 PM	#2
sugartooth Reef bully Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: IL Posts: 2,832	Try looking for predators after lights out..... Good luck!

02/17/2008, 07:53 PM	#3
plummike Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: near Pittsburgh Posts: 271	Sounds like a Zoo spider, Zoo's are very hardy. How is Alk? Zoo's seem more sensitive to low Alk than Mushrooms etc.

02/17/2008, 08:08 PM	#4
StephNewman Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Arnold, Mo Posts: 1,467	how do you find a zoo spider