zoos

[Guest alex wlazlak]

what all do you guys do to your zoos? i have had like the same amount for ever. just recently they have grown back their tenticle things after they pretty much were singed off after some high nitrates and ammonia. so what is the secret to having them grow? how often do they reproduce?

[rocko918]

not have any nitrates and ammonia works really well for me.

[davelin315]

Alex, there's something seriously wrong with your tank if you've got ammonia and high nitrates. What I mean is that your aerobic biological filter in place since it's converting ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate, but it's obviously way over taxed if you have ammonia that your system can't handle. You should not have ammonia and nitrates at the same time. That's pretty difficult to do unless you keep on overstocking your tank while it's still cycling. Anything that "singes off" the tentacles of your zoanthids is obviously bad.

 

I have not really chimed in before on your posts because you seem to make an awful lot of poor decisions as far as overdoing it in your system (something that I am guilty of at times as well), but the fact that you are melting zoanthids, which typically under stress will simply not open up, not melt, is indicative of the fact that you need to stop what you're doing, let your tank settle down for about a month at a minimum, and in that time reassess how you do things.

 

Zoanthids, when healthy, will reproduce like mad. Given enough room, they will double in a couple months time if not less. They also eat nitrates, so the fact that not only are they melting in your tank, but they are also not eating is indicating that they are not enjoying your system at all.

 

My suggestion, again, is to simply stop adding things for a while until your tank settles down. That includes adding rock, livestock, sand, anything at all, to your system until it tests clean for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, and the calcium, alk, and pH levels are all where they should be. You're doing the slow kill on very easy to maintain corals, anything else will surely suffer while in your tank as it is now. I've seen people preach patience to you before, but with how often you try and buy things from others, you're certainly not practicing it.

 

Good luck, and don't be offended by my strong words. I'm sure you could have a great tank, you just need to wait and be patient.

[Guest alex wlazlak]

i dont have any ammonia or nitrates, and the zoos arent melting!! sorry for the misunderstanding. they are really improving from how they did look, WHEN i had high ammonia and nirtite spikes. but all i have now is higher nitrates. but the few corals that i have, are doing great. my xenia has really taken off. my seabae looks pretty good and seems to be getting bigger already. but when i DID have the high spikes, the zoos looked like the tenticles were singed off, and i was just saying that they grew back now.

[davelin315]

That's good news. I would still wait before adding anything else for now. Zoanthids and xenia feed off of nitrates, so they will take care of your nitrate problem if you just wait and let your system balance itself. I had a 125 before I moved from Chicago with upwards of 25-30 fish and could never register a nitrate reading because of all the xenia I had in the tank. It was basically like keeping macroalgae because I could cull it out and get rid of it while it still did the job of keeping nitrates undetectable.

[rocko918]

but all i have now is higher nitrates.

39600[/snapback]

Alex, you are not listening to anyone here. You need to have NO nitrates. Don't add anything else, do water changes to help get them down. Just relax and let the tank settle. If everything is doing well now just wait until you do not have any nitrates.

[Guest alex wlazlak]

thanks for all the input guys. i will do what you guys said.