Zooanthid problems

[tooldini]

Hello,, I have had my reef set up for over 10 months but lately some of my zooanthids and glove polyps are staying closed or barely opening. No one seems to be able to really help me. I do have nice cyanobacteria problem that I am trying to manage but it is still around. I don't understand my reading are like this
PH= 8.3
nitrite= 0
nitrate= 0
ammonia= 0
My Blastos and acanthastrias are doing great and growing as are my star polyps, frogspawn, other button polyps, Candy cane coral, brain and many mushrooms I have. Any idea what i need to look for to stop this from happening? I really like my zoo's and one colony is the first I had in the tank. The green ones have double the colony size in a few months but are now just not looking as happy. Any ideas would be GREAT before its too late.

thanks
Jeff

 

[tooldini]

Oh I forgot to mention that the lower pic of zoo's used to be up near the top of tank in the back. They grew like crazy then started looking bad. I moved them thinking maybe there was not enough current on them so now they are at the bottom with a better current.

Jeff

 

[demodiki]

Do the zoos in the lower pic open up at all? How much flow do you have in the tank? How big is the tank? How long has the tank been set up. Have you added anything new in the past couple of months?

The cyano may be encoaching on the zoos. I had this happen and it seemed to "irritate" the zoos for lack of a better word. I got rid of the cyano and the zoos were much better.

You may be having some chemical warfare problems. It sounds like you have a garden type of reef.

 

[Brenden]

Do you have any GAC that you can run in the tank?

 

[tooldini]

They used to all be opened up so you couldn't even see the spaces between them. The tank is 30 gal with two power heads running thru a wave maker that pulsed them different times on and off for differnt time periods. I also move them and point them different directions randomly thru the week. The tank has been running for over 10 months with the zoo's in the bottom pic being some of my first corals. They grew from 5 to what you see on the rock plus about 15 that tore off onto other rocks when I move them down to the bottom of the tank. I have added some new items after they were already acting up. I have a feeling it is the cyano thats causing it. Brendon I do have some granulated carbon that is in the bio wheel 200 but I do need to replace it.

Jeff

 

[ellisz]

Make sure there is nothing bothering them. Examine the polyps with a flashlight ... blue lens helps too. Check them at night after the lights have been down awhile. There could be some kind of pest bothering them.

 

[tooldini]

Thanks I haven't seen anything other than an occasion brittle star but they never cause them to do this.

Jeff

 

[Brenden]

If all else fails do a WC and see if there is any difference. How often do you do water changes? It can only help the tank even if it does not help the zoo's.

 

[seaham358]

Im going throught the same problem... I lost over 600 zoos(thats a low guess) , which was almost everyone in my tank. I still have no idea why. The only thing I can think of is some kind of bacteria? All other corals are doing fine. I lost them all over a 6 month period. It was strange how it happened, it went from one side of the tank to the other. I looked for sea spiders and never saw any of them, no other coral eaters in the tank that I know of. They just closed and never opened again.
I took them out and did a reef dip on them and that did not help either.

 

[Brenden]

seaham you are scaring me.

 

[Guest]

What is the temp of the tank during mid/late lighting?

If your parameters are what they display up in the start of this post, that is good, but you do not mention the salinity or sg or Phosphate. Zoos do not like high Phosphate from my experience.

What if any supplements are you feeding, or trying to feed?

The problem with the zoos to me is that the Zooxanthellae is dying off. When this happens, the colony starts to die. Basically starves to death. While there are many things that can cause the symbiotic algae to die off, Detritus, Phosphate, and Temp can be factors to its demise.

Do water changes as others have mentioned, and get them at least mid way up and out of the cyano.. Nurture them with a turkey baster to get any unwanted algae or detritus off of them... and hope for the best..

I will be hoping with you...

 

[MarineFlake]

Mine started doing the exact same thing after I placed some leather (finger leather, pretty chemically agressive) frags near them. Some corals use chemical warfare to make space for themselves. I would recommend a good couple wc and running some good activated carbon (to help remove any toxins) as well as phosban or the like to insure against any po4 issues. Just shooting from the hip here since you didnt post po4 levels or if you were running any chemicals. I have other zoos in my tank but only the one colony that was close to the leathers shows signs of fatigue. If you have any other corals near by consider some relocation. Once they are on the mend it may take weeks/months for them to pick back up.

Peace.