Zoas Dying PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!!!!

[LBBandit]

I'm kinda new to this forum stuff so please bare with me.

I have a 12 gal nano with a 10 gallon refuge. Refuge includes cyclone protein skimmer, mechanical filter and live rock. My 12 gallon nano has no filtration except chemi-pure and a 150 medal halide. Tank has been set up for about 8 months and things were looking really good.

Current Temp = 77
Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 0

Recently I left to go on vacation for the holidays and my brother was taking care of the tank. He was dosing Kent Marine Nano Reef Part A and Part B (Half dosage twice a week) and feeding with Salifert Coral Food 3 times a week (full dosage) and feeding my two fish (flake food) once a day.

When I got back I noticed half my Zoas were not opening and my mushrooms looked a little sickly. So, I did a nitrate test and levels indicated 0. So I checked the PH and the level was at 8.2 and salinity was at .023. I did a partial water change (R/O and DI water) and still no change.

My gut tells me there might be too much trace elements and the water might be contaminated. Please any help would be truly appreciated!!!!

Thanks in advance!!!

[ritter6788]

Could be the light. 150 MH is a lot for a 12 gallon tank with only zoas and shrooms. Good luck.

[LBBandit]

Well, that didnt seem to be a problem for 8 months.

[jparadise]

Your salinity is a little low. Needs to be 1.025-1.026. I had that problem once with high salinity. Everything closed up. Could be the same with a lower salinity.

[LBBandit]

I can try to raise it a little and see what happens, but before I left it was at 1.021 and when I came back it was at 1.023.

[noahm]

Run some carbon, do a water change and just wait it out. I have had bouts of zoa pox where those guys didn't open up for weeks and now are healthy as can be. As long as they are just closing up and not melting, they will probably recover fine. Probably just a little stressed from you being on vacation . +1 on slowly bringing it up to 1.025 as well.

[LBBandit]

you really think bringing the salinity to 1.025 is important? I had really good success with having my water salinity at 1.021 - 1.023.

[shroom101]

who told you to keep your sal. at that level?I think I speak for everyone here when I say that is way low

[LBBandit]

No one did. It was by experiment alone. The reason of why I keep it low is because when water evaporates especially in a small take the salinity will increase drastically and a small increase in salinity from 1.025 to 1.027 or 1.028 has had drastic affects on my tank. But if I keep it around 1.021 or 1.022 and water evaporates and the salinity increases to 1.023 or even 1.024 the affects arent so drastic.

[wrott]

Do a 100% WC, should take ~15 minutes to make 10g of water, clean off sand and rock. Polyps should love the new water.
When I go away for more than a week w/ other people feeding the tank, I find several large WCs are necessary.

[luv4paws2]

Do a 100% WC, should take ~15 minutes to make 10g of water, clean off sand and rock. Polyps should love the new water.

I don't think it is ever advisable to do that unless the tank has been contaminated with something. Small more frequent water changes will get the same end result without actually adding more stress to the tank. Do several 5-10% w/c's over the next week, change out your chemipure for a fresh batch. If you're worried about too much trace elements,stop dosing for a week, the w/c's will balance everything out if you are using quality salt. Oh yea, check the level in your flake food container to see if there is alot less than before your vaca.

[Glory71]

Zoas are very hardy. When I first started on this hobby I had a similar problem. At first I thought it might have something to do with the water quality.

Does it rot or something or do you loose one polyp at a time. Mine was the latter. If it is the latter, could be because of a pest. Mine was being eaten by a Gorilla Crab. I removed all my rocks and found out that I had 8 of these pest that came with the rock.

Could be whats pestering your tank too.

[ritter6788]

Originally Posted by LBBandit

Well, that didnt seem to be a problem for 8 months.

Are you testing for anything else, calcium, alkalinity, etc.? If not then you should probably not add Kent Marine Nano Reef Part A and Part B. Don't add anything you are not testing for. Just do small weekly water changes and it's safer and cheaper.

[sam11909]

Do multiple w/c over a couple of weeks and exchange the carbon. If they don't start looking better you might want to try shielding them from the light a bit. My zoanthids shrank away and finally all closed up after 2 months under my new light. once I put them in the shade they were happy again.

The salinity is probably not the whole problem but it is better to have it in the 1.024 to 1.026 range. It's not good for your salinity to fluctuate a lot. I suggest you get a auto top off or start toping off more often. The main thing to keep corals happy is to keep everything stable like salinity and temp. Testing for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium is good too.

[Stripe01]

Dosing is whats causing your problems, why are you blindly dosing without testing? Do you even have sps, or just softies?

[sam11909]

You don't have to dose if you just have softies, and definitely don't dose if you don't check Ca, Mag, and Alk.

[Jonny Roks]

Originally Posted by sam11909

You don't have to dose if you just have softies, and definitely don't dose if you don't check Ca, Mag, and Alk.

+++++

[tibob32]

whenever I have any problem with any coral, I check alk first