Zoa question.

[Supernova26]

I have one of my rocks in the tank with 4-5 different zoa frags attached to it. They were all doing great until about 4 days ago one of the orange zoa frags (sorry not good with zoa names) started to slowly disolve and in 3 days it was gone. I did not see anything eat or nip at them. There were about 20 polyps that just disppeared. The rest of the zoas look fine. I did some measurements and I found that my calcium was a little high. 500. Can anyone chime in on what this could be? I don't want it to happen again.

 

Thanks

[Der ABT]

Look at your alkalinity, might as well just put up all of your params, salinity etc

 

Alk is the largest cause of death imo. especially with the most likely imbalance with teh 500 ca.

 

what test are you using and how old are they.

 

Alot of times if there is something eat it its really hard to see.

 

ive also found that H202 dips seem to help them as well. There was just a thread on Reef2reef i think it was about a guys dip or it could have been reefcentral, i will see if i can find it.

 

but ill bet your alk is high or had a recent swing.

[Saltwaterworx]

Definitely check your parameters. Especially Alk. What fish do you have? You may want to examine the tank at night for tiny snails roaming in the colony as well.

[Supernova26]

Thanks guys. If Alk was the problem shouldn't other corals and zoas be affected. Maybe they are and I just don't see it.

 

My Alk is 8.0 (was 8.8 a couple of weeks back)

My MG is at 1500 and my calc is at 500. Sal 1.026.

I have adjusted my dosing to lower the calc. I would like to keep at 430-450 just to be safe. My MG has been 1500 for a while now so I don't dose MG.

I have Salifert test kits and they are all less then 6months old.

 

I have looked for tiny snails but I have not seen any.

[zygote2k]

look for Asterinas eating your zoas. I didn't believe it until I saw them eating PPE's.

[treesprite]

look for Asterinas eating your zoas. I didn't believe it until I saw them eating PPE's.

 

I've seen them do it also. (Rob, which ones did you see doing it? The ones that seem to be up to no good in my tank are the ones with the grayish center area and stubbier legs, while the standard-looking all-white ones don't seem to bother anything).

[Der ABT]

i have tons of grey, white, red dot and have had no such problem with stars, ive heard many claim it happens and many other argue that they only eat dead/dieing/sick skin....ive seen em crawl all over my zoas and once they moved on everything is back to normal...but stranger things have happened on a reef..

 

i still would bet alk or alk swing.

 

but if you want to rule out pests do a dip on a few of them and see if anything drops out

[Saltwaterworx]

To piggyback Der ABT dipping would be next on my agenda too. try to do it at night after your lights been off for a few hours. Your more than likely able to catch something.

[Supernova26]

The orange zoa colony is gone completely. No sign that zoas were ever present:sad:. The rest of the zoas seem fine and growing nicely. I spend an our serching the zoas with a flashlight last night and I did not see any stars. I kow they are small but I should have seen something. At this point I will blame ALK. I will keep an eye for any future developments.

 

Thanks guys.

[Der ABT]

the key to alk is consistency, alot of times when you get new zoa's especially if they came from a zoa only tank, they probably came from 10+ alk. Ive seen alot of good zoa keeps up around the 12 range which is a bit high for me

sometimes melting does just happen, sorry to hear about the loss. keep an eye on your other if you see anything starting look into dips. reef2reef has some good article.

h202, lugols, etc have saved a few new additions in the past for me (didnt help on some but did for some as well)

 

hope it was an isolated problem.