Zoas not doing well ...

[Sunshine]

My zoas are not doing well. And some mushrooms. I have lost some zoas, they were ok one day and gone the next. My mushrooms aren't growing. I have a green one, it was getting pretty big, now it is really small. The lights have been changed, 6 T5's. The only other thing is, I use to use Oceanic, everything was growing, never had any issues. My LFS don't carry it any more, so I bought Kent. That's about the time everything quit growing. Used about half the bucket, than got SeaChem. Things still aren't growing, my tote of saltwater, for water changes has brown in it, the salt doesn't dissolve, I've put an air bubbler in it and a 950 gph power jet, still don't dissolve. When I quit using the Kent, we cleaned the tote out before we started using the Seachem. It still don't dissolve. Why am I having all these problems ???

Here are my test results.
Ammonia 0
Phosphates .5
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
PH 7.8
KH 5 drops, 89.5 ppm I did add Kent Marine PH Buffer
Calcium 28 drops, over 520
Salinity 1.026
TDS on RO was 008 this is after we changed the 3 filters that hang from the bottom. The tote with the fesh RO water that we use for top offs is clear, no brown in it.

 

[yote]

Are you using the regular SeaChem or the SeaChem Reef salt?
I use the SeaChem Reef and my tank seems to love it.But had all kinds of problems when I tryed the Kent salt.
If you using the API KH kit for testing alkalinity,5 drops is WAY low.It needs to be 8 to 12 drops.

 

[Sunshine]

I'm using the reef Seachem. I posted on here before about the problems, I coulsn't find it. The buffer should bring the KH up right ? I just don't understand why nothing is growing. Or will the low KH do that ? Thanks Yote

 

[yote]

Low alkalinity will keep things from growing.Your buffer will bring that up though.Just dont try to raise it all at once.That can be worse than low alk.
Use this Reef Chemistry Calculator and raise your alkalinity just a couple of degrees a day until you get it somewhere between 8 and 12 drops.
Might also to a good idea to have your LFS test the alk.Just to make sure you dont have a bad test kit.

 

[Sunshine]

I'll do that, thanks Yote for all your help :)

 

[reeffreak]

Here are some suggestions and my own similar experience.Always fill your tote with water before adding salt.Sometimes it helps to add a little,stir to dissolve it before adding more salt.I've ran into similar problems using Kent and even the the Red Sea salt I use now.I cannot set the SG to 1.026 without something strange happening.It mix fine that day but the next day the water is cloudy and white particles in the water.What I realize was the saltwater is optimize at 1.020-1.021,raising salinity to 1.026 cause a calcium precipitation which caused the white particles and slightly hazy water.

I now make my water to 1.021 for waterchanges even though my display is kept at 1.026.A waterchange lowers my salinity to 1.025,I use saltwater for evaporation until it gets back up to 1.026.When I run out of salt,I'm going to Red Sea regular salt instead of the Pro.

 

[Sunshine]

I do fill it with water first. I even pour the salt in slow. They told me to do that in my other post about this crazy salt problem. Before, I would just dump it in.

 

[tankedchemist]

Here are some suggestions and my own similar experience.Always fill your tote with water before adding salt.Sometimes it helps to add a little,stir to dissolve it before adding more salt.I've ran into similar problems using Kent and even the the Red Sea salt I use now.I cannot set the SG to 1.026 without something strange happening.It mix fine that day but the next day the water is cloudy and white particles in the water.What I realize was the saltwater is optimize at 1.020-1.021,raising salinity to 1.026 cause a calcium precipitation which caused the white particles and slightly hazy water.

I now make my water to 1.021 for waterchanges even though my display is kept at 1.026.A waterchange lowers my salinity to 1.025,I use saltwater for evaporation until it gets back up to 1.026.When I run out of salt,I'm going to Red Sea regular salt instead of the Pro.

Weird. I've used red sea pro for over a year (always at 1.025), and not had any of these problems. Do yall heat up your water before adding salt? I always heat and aerate my water for appx 6 hrs-1 day before I add salt. Cold water doesn't dissolve things nearly as well as warm water. :)

+1 yote about the alk issue, though.

 

[Sunshine]

I never knew it would be so hard to buy salt !! The Oceanic that I used when I started the tank and never had a problem with, nobody sells it around here. I had to order it. My LFS is closed down so I can't have them check my alk. They sold it, so it's closed till the new owner gets everything settled.

Oh, and Amanda, I don't know if you were asking me the question, but yes I do have a heater in my tote. It stays on all the time.

 

[tankedchemist]

I have the same problem with my favorite salt, sunshine, and it's annoying. hopefully your LFS is open again soon.

I'm not sure why you have such a problem with precipitation with the red pro... weird. maybe try heating the water hotter until you use up all of this bucket. good luck!

 

[reeffreak]

Weird. I've used red sea pro for over a year (always at 1.025), and not had any of these problems. Do yall heat up your water before adding salt? I always heat and aerate my water for appx 6 hrs-1 day before I add salt. Cold water doesn't dissolve things nearly as well as warm water. :)

+1 yote about the alk issue, though.

Not at this time of year.Our water is still at 75F,maybe it's just the batch of salt but I'm on a second bucket,yet still the same thing.

 

[tankedchemist]

I heat my water to about 80-82 when I'm mixing salt, personally. I've not had a problem getting red pro to dissolve. but who knows? maybe my fresh water has less ions in it to begin with.

 

[sen5241b]

There was an article about Zoas recently in Coral Magazine (an online publication) and they talked about deep water Zoas and lagoon Zoas. If you put a deep water Zoa under too much light it will melt. I had this happen. Could this have been the cause of your Zoa problems?

 

[Sunshine]

I don't know. Could of. They were the long stem Zoas. I put them on bottom, they barely open. The other Zoas are just there. They look the same as the day I got them. Never grew. It's like nothing is growing. I hear other people buy corals and they grow and split like crazy. Mine do nothing. They don't die, they just don't grow.

 

[fastrd400]

I havea ton of zoas. They grow like weeds for me in my 120, not so much in my nano (but I think that is due to lighting). What I have discovered is the less freguently I do water changes, the more they like it. The water becomes super nutient rich and they explode. You have to be careful, and diligent on your water testing though as you don't want to lose other coral in the process. I also feed the tank Phyto-Feast, and Oyster-Feast.

 

[sen5241b]

I havea ton of zoas. They grow like weeds for me in my 120, not so much in my nano (but I think that is due to lighting). What I have discovered is the less freguently I do water changes, the more they like it. The water becomes super nutient rich and they explode. You have to be careful, and diligent on your water testing though as you don't want to lose other coral in the process. I also feed the tank Phyto-Feast, and Oyster-Feast.

Sounds like you have the lagoon zoas.

 

[Sunshine]

I had to order the Oceanic from Fosters. Cleaned the tote and filled it, added the Oceanic last night. Got up this morning and looked, it all dissolved. Strange that I could of got bad batches of Kent and Seachem. I'm still losing Zoas. They just shrivel up to nothing. I'm going to get a light today to replace the one that blew. Hopefully things will start looking better in my tank.