Zoa Pox on blue zoanthids (?)

RockStacker

Reefing newb
The large colony of my blue zoanthids appear to have some white spots that I think could be Zoa Pox.
None of the other zoanthids are showing these symptoms. Also, the smaller frags of the same colony in my 50gal frag tank are not showing these symptoms.

Other than having the white spots, the coral appears to behave normally and opens completely when the lights are on.

This colony has been in my tank for about 6 weeks.


Here are the water parameters as of yesterday's test:
Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate : 0
Specific Gravity: 1.025
pH: 8.0
Calcium: 450ppm
Alkalinity: 8.7 dKH
Mg: 1440
Temperature: 79F

This section of the aquarium is under a 120W LED fixture, Blues are set to 100% while the 20,000K whites are set to about 40%.
Could it be too much light for the blue zoas? My other zoanthids and palythoas seem to like that light combination.

My blue zoa frags in the frag tank are under 4x65W PC lights, and are about 6 inches below the water surface.

IMG_0956_zps8249f5a3.jpg


I have read that people have had successful results with using Furan-2 to treat Zoa Pox, but some people also said that the zoanthids will recover naturally as long as the water parameters are good.
Has anyone encountered or treated zoa pox before?

I am not sure what could have triggered this. I have not made any significant changes to the tank recently.
The only thing I could think of is that winter time kicked in big time and outside temperatures have dipped (Day, Low 50s / Nights Low 30s). But those are outdoor temperatures and the tank temperature stays stable around 79F.
 
I just now realized that my zoanthids are happy with much less LED light levels than I ever would of believed. My current thinking is LEDs really pump out "something good" we may not fully understand at lower levels than we think. .. with my PAR probe I'm now showing 85 on the sand, 105 mid level, and 160 at the top of my LR. At the bottom on the sand lives a large leather, and several zoanthids, a green clove, button mushrooms, and purple & red mushrooms. At mid level lives more zoanthids. At the 125 PAR level lives four small stonies and a what was sold to me as a mushroom but I am beginning to think is a carpet anem. At the top of the rock is a decent sized brain that is showing signs of appreciation of my cut back in light strength (while it was not responding anywhere it now is starting to extend at short lengths but with what I think is some kind of coral recovery enthusiasm).

Our water specs match about as close as you can get other than the LED power considerations. I too run at a steady 79°f.


I'm very interested in what other forum members have to say about the pox...
 
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Thanks Salty B, that was one of the pages I have come across when researching zoa pox.
At least there is consensus that it is not due to viral or bacterial pathogens that can be spread to other corals.

For now I have relocated the blue zoanthids to my frag tank where they will be under less light intensity compared to the display tank.
The plan is to let the coral recover in the frag tank, and then think about a more ideal placement in the display tank later on.

I believe the spots only started happening recently, because all the frags that were taken from this mother colony several weeks ago and are in the frag tank have not exhibited any pox symptoms at all.
 
I am going to start Furan-2 treatment on this colony.
I also toned down the LED's on the display tank as a precaution.

Here's a picture of the zoanthids today, before starting treatment.
I hope to have frequent picture updates so I can compare how the colony is doing before and after treatment.

I'm calling this picture Day-0 (Before Treatment)

bluezoanthidsbeforetreatment20130106_zpsac04c95c.jpg


I also took out that yellow sponge that was in the middle of the rock. That thing was bugging me.

None of my other zoanthids have shown any issues in the display tank. I guess these blues are just more finicky than the rest.
 
I see zoas that are doing much better when they are on the sides ... thinking lighting... may be an issue.. or light shock at some point.
Even the ones in the center-ish of the picture that were shaded by their friends look better.
..that is just reporting on my first impression without the full data set of history.
 
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Here's a picture shortly after the first 20-minute dip.
I will do another 20-minute dip tomorrow.
I plan to do a series of three dips and then let it rest for a week.

IMG_0964_zps5e37e481.jpg



For comparison, here are pictures of the blue and purple frags that were taken shortly after I bought the colony and were placed in the frag tank.
They have not shown any symptoms of irritation or pox syndrome.

IMG_0968_zps524c6cd9.jpg


IMG_0970_zps83a762b1.jpg
 
There are low light and high light zoas! Some zoas can be found down a hundred feet on the reef and some are in shallow water. Blues are low light and high light will melt them. I've made this mistake myself. There was an article about this in CORAL magazine.
 
There are low light and high light zoas! Some zoas can be found down a hundred feet on the reef and some are in shallow water. Blues are low light and high light will melt them. I've made this mistake myself. There was an article about this in CORAL magazine.

.... as I noticed with my VERY limited experience.. it seems to me the ones in this case are doing better on the sides where the light is less direct... I'm lurking this "experiment" intently.
 
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