Why are my eagle eye zoas dying? Please help.

[Polypnewbie]

I have one power head. The stalks did stretch because unfortunately the fish store I bought the polyps from had the rock on its "side". By side I mean it was wedged sideways in a larger rock. There was no way to keep it like that in my tank though I did try; I ran into a number of difficulties. So I had to turn it right side up, causing the stalks to have to slightly reorient in May. Ironically everything thrived for quite a while all over the front of the rock until these past occurrences.

I was wondering if keeping the tank less filled with water might allow the light to have more intensity in reaching the polyps?

[Polypnewbie]

I posted a response but it didn't seem to go through. I have one power head. The polyps are sadly stretched upward. The fish store had it wedged sideways into another rock which I could not replicate at home. So the polyps reoriented and grew upright in May. (I tried to avoid it but couldn't)

I took out the rock today and took a picture of how a few of the polyps are turning black. This has been the consistent precursor to them dying and disappearing within days. The picture should be attached.

After I took the picture, I tried gently scraping at the black polyps. Then more harshly. It shockingly came off almost like it was black tar. I don't know if this is another type of crazy algae that can sort of smother the polyps. Or if it's a coincidence and not what's causing them to die off.

I cleaned the tank of algae today. Added top off water. Added the reef1 and 2 alkalinity and calcium booster. My plan is to keep checking the alkalinity daily. I hope it keeps going up and the polyps improve.

[Polypnewbie]

My polyps have improved from the changes made. At the moment, it seems that mostly it was the alkalinity level being too low that was the problem. I'm going to try to post 2 pictures later.

[Polypnewbie]

Picture 1

[Polypnewbie]

Picture 2

[toothybugs]

What are you up to now?

[Polypnewbie]

I woke up this morning to find the polyps doing poorly. I had recently ordered a magnesium supplement and test kit. For the first time I tested the magnesium and it was at 960. I added one dose of the tech m magnesium supplement, but the rapid decline is still continuing.

Also, petco I told me I could dose more than the regular amount of reef fusion 1 and 2 if things were off. And things have been off. At first, the alkalinity raised to 7, now it's back down to 6, even with double dosing daily.

Also most disturbingly, the center circle of each of the polyps has become a raised bump. This definitely does not seem healthy. Two of the stalks in the front seem to have collapsed since morning. I keep testing. And nothing else is off. I just don't know what to do. The weird black stuff almost seems to be growing on the polyps from inside the rock out.

[happyhourhero]

What type of salt mix are you using? You should really find a source for reverse osmosis deionized water for your top offs and to mix your salt with. It will probably be cheaper than aquafina. If it were me in your shoes, it would do some water changes with a quality salt mix and get my parameters in check. I would not start buying a bunch of stuff to dose. A quality salt mix will get your alk and mg where it needs to be.

[mushumatt]

Why not just do a series of small water changes 10-20% daily till you exchange all the water out. That would be my first course of action. I would strongly suggest looking into a reef calculator to figure out how to get your CA/ALK/MG into acceptable ranges and striving to keep them consistent. It seems like things are fluctuating and its stressing the zoas out. Also I would look into putting another powerhead in their. I would look into getting another powerhead as well.

[Polypnewbie]

I tried every suggestion. Nothing has staved off this last wave of quick death wiping out my polyps. There are about 12 left. Maybe 4 of them open up all the way. The others only open up about halfway, scrunched up with just the tips of their green tentacles showing. At this rate, the whole colony will be dead in a week. I have no idea why. Someone mentioned the summer heat temperature fluctuation, but today is cooler and still there is deterioration in their condition. I just did a water change. Gently wiped off the black "algae" that keeps growing on them. Added the supplements. No good.

I alternated in the past between adding supplements and no supplements. High position in the tank verses old position. Different salinity levels.

It's hard for me to accept its over, but I don't know what else to. For the next week, I'm just going to turn on the light and leave it at that. I'm hoping if I leave the tank alone it will reach some sort of equilibrium, instead of trying to fight off this inexplicable downfall.

[Polypnewbie]

Ok. I tested everything for the last time.
Ph 8.25
Alkalinity 6.5
Calcium 380
Magnesium 990
Iodine .005
Nitrate, nitrite and ammonia all safe levels
Salinity 1.023

It seems like I might as well keep adding the supplements anyway. Everything is a little under with the exception of grave deficiencies of magnesium and iodine.

And I'm thinking of adding a daily dose of iodine so long as a I check it daily considering it should be .06 and mine is way way off.

If anyone has any input, I'd really appreciate it.

[happyhourhero]

I stand by my post above. You shouldn't be needing to dose anything at all. Ro/di source water mixed with a quality salt mix for at least 24 hours before going into your tank. Slowly get your sg to 1.025. Your salt mix and couple of water changes should bring all your lvls to where they need to be. As for the black algae, I have no idea.

[CStrickland]

+1
Your salt mix has a whole bunch of stuff that you can't test for. Iodine, mg, ca, alk are just part of the picture. I would think that if you are low in them you might be low in strontium, potassium, etc. so just adding back the ones you can test for doesn't seem like a good way to go. I keep my tank at 1.026, fish don't care as much but coral do and that's what they like. I guessing your black stuff is expelled zooxanthellae (sp.)

It may be that your zoa have just been through too many swings and changes. I hope this doesn't discourage you from trying again when you have decent water and lights. It's a big learning curve but you'll get there if you keep trying

Edit: I don't agree with all of the above post. I just mix my salt until it isn't cloudy anymore. I haven't seen much support for the 24 hours thing and when I tried it with my instant ocean salt the test results quit changing after 20 minutes. I think they make the salt better now so you don't have to bother with that anymore.

[oldbones]

Alk is 6.5?
Ca and Mg also both dangerously low.

I wouldn't expect ANY corals to do well until you get a handle on that.

[Dkuhlmann]

There is no reason for you to have to be dosing anything with what little you have in your tank. I would do the following.

Get some RODI water (your lfs should be able to sell you some)

Do 2 50% water changes a week apart then test after each wc.

It's very odd that you are dosing anything because you don't have anything in the tank that would eat the nutrients from the salt. I'm baffled that you are going through this with a tank with two rocks and a few zoa's. You shouldn't be having this issue if using good water and a quality salt mix.

[Polypnewbie]

Thank you everyone for your input and those of you encouraging me.

I understand that there is 100% consensus that water changes should fix the health of my polyps. However, as many water changes as I have done, carefully measuring out my instant ocean salt mix, it has never seemed to improve the health of the polyps once they started this downhill process.

The dosing is the only thing that seems to help. In particular, adding the magnesium and iodine. I have been adding iodine daily since Friday, also testing it daily. The polyps that are left now open up much more fully where before they would only barely open.

It is obvious based on what everyone says the water changes should remove any need for dosing, but it just hasn't worked for me. If I continued hoping water changes would fix things and stopped dosing, I'd be where I was before, with a matter of days left till they died. At least now it seems like a few may make it.

It seems like either my tank has something really odd going on or I just fail to get the basics down with water changes even though I do the basics as best I know how.

I'm sure i will very soon add posts with unforeseen problems. So for all of you who have responded, I really appreciate your input. I know this will be against what everyone wants but: the above mentioned strontium and potassium, maybe it would help if I added those. If possible, I would like to find out how much and what other types supplements may be helpful.

[CStrickland]

I'm glad to hear your zoa are perking up! I really thought they would have been too far gone, glad to be wrong

I mentioned strontium as an example of something that our tanks need in such small quantities that it is easier to rely on a good husbandry to balance them than trying to dose. Some others are boron, iodide, iron and even phosphate, plus amino acids and stuff. Since these elements can easily harm your coral if they get too high, you really need to be able to accurately test for them which is expensive. It's not like more is better, you just need enough. Plus, many of the doses you buy from an lfs have other stuff in them and dont give accurate amounts of the element. I think some people with big tanks that never change their water buy straight phosphate from Home Depot but that's way over my head.

Its kind of like how we need vitamins, but it's better to eat a balanced diet than to buy vitamin a,b,c separately and try to live off of pills. If your going to try that kind of scheme I would really research it well first and gain a deep understanding of the biochemistry involved beforehand. I have seen about 4 tanks that successfully manage trace elements, and about a hundred noobs who wrecked their tank by cranking in magic element potion from the lfs without any idea what they were doing. Good luck!

[Polypnewbie]

No sooner did I post my slight progress report this morning than did I make a startling discovery.

This morning I pushed my power head a little further back so it was not pushing water in between the polyps and the lights. This caused the polyps to open even wider and I thought great

Now, just under a few hours later, I see at the front of the aquarium, a multitude of small brown worm like creatures crawling up towards the water level.

How did they just come into being so fast and what are they? Could moving the power head make that big a difference or did I cause this another way? By adding my supplements and improving the water quality did I encourage worms to propagate? Are they harmful? What do I do?

Officially, the way some people are tone deaf: I am tank ignorant. I will never be good at this. I can do no right. I sincerely should change my user name to Polypmoron because at a certain point newbies get the hang of things.

I will attempt to post picture and video of them crawling around

[Polypnewbie]

Here is one picture

[Polypnewbie]

i can't get video to attach. Here is one other picture.