zoas wont live

marcah

marcah

Reef enthusiast
Ok not sure why maybe someone will have an answer for me...
I cant keep a zoa alive in my tank if my life depended on it.. Acro's( few different types), milli, monti caps, open brains, sun coral, carnations,2 nems( bta and an lta), candy canes,bali coral, plus a few others are all trhiving and growing at a great clip.. Any easy care coral non stony I cant keep... The only one that I could keep alive is a hairy mushroom that is doubling its size quickly.. Corals (SPS AND LPS) that were doing very poorly that I took from people to get going again, popped right back to life and I gave back to the people, but most any non stony dies off..
ph 8.2 calcium 440, nitrate nitrate and ammonia at 0, dkh 10, mag 1500, salinity 1.026.
 
One problem with LPS and SPS and Zoas too is that a a lot of people overlook is too much light. There is a huge emphasis on getting enough light. I've put LPS and SPS less than 6 inches under my 150w MH and then watched them melt and die. At my LFS, which does marine only, they had to get UV filters over their MHs because their SPS was bleaching under too much light.

How deep is yoru tank and how much light do you have?
 
28 inch deep 762 total watts...I know that zoas require lower lighting and lower to moderate flow and have even tried putting them in caves with lower flow, bottom of tank set back in lower flow, to avoid just about all light with no avail..
 
hmmm I only had a problem with my zoa when I had the Nudibranch explosion. They ate half my zoa before I killed them all. when they did eat them they would leave all but the heads :( . But for you I'm not sure I would like to ask what may be a stupid set of questions.

1) Are your zoa turning white to clear? or getting really dark like an over ripe banana?
2) do you use coral dip on them before adding them?
3) do they look eaten at all?
4) do they look like jelly IE melted?

But If it is a light issue that can be fixed. Some folks I know just added some shadow casting ledges and they are just fine. Or if your tank is large enough you can dial down the light on one side for lower light corals. Sometimes that works. even changing your lighting times can help.
Other than that all I can think of is coral warfare or a pest of some sort.

-Kurt
 
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nope not turning clear or melting or jelly like and yes I always dip evrything before putting them in.. have tried under ledges in caves nothing is eating them ( that I have seen) they are open fully one day then next a few wont open then those start disappearing and the others follow suit.. what has me stumped is its mainly zoas I cant keep, forgot I do have another mushroom in there that is flourishing just dropped 10 small ones in the last month..
 
marcah said:
nope not turning clear or melting or jelly like and yes I always dip evrything before putting them in.. have tried under ledges in caves nothing is eating them ( that I have seen) they are open fully one day then next a few wont open then those start disappearing and the others follow suit.. what has me stumped is its mainly zoas I cant keep, forgot I do have another mushroom in there that is flourishing just dropped 10 small ones in the last month..
Click to expand...

do they ever get what looks like white buggers/slime on the heads then look pale at all?
mine did that then I started to spot dose them with my chems and they bounced back with in a week. also they could be attacked on a micro parasite level that you cant see. I hope they bounce back for you because I love my zoa they are probably my favorite coral ever right next to my Mushrooms and Hammer.
any who I'll keep picking around my brain for you and see what I can come up with to possibility help you out.

-Kurt
 
nope no white slime or " buggers" on them, I look through a magnifying glass at them and see nothing, I have been told by a few people I know that have been in this alot longer then me ( 25 to 40 years) the tank is set up for stony's and just wont support zoas and such. Didnt know that could even be.. lol
 
I would bet that your water is too clean for them. If you want to try them again, you might need to dose something like reef fuel to dirty up the water a bit for them.
 
perfect,.. that is what I was told by them also. thank you I just wanted to make sure before I did do that .. thanks again little_fish
I know I can throw zoas in with seahorses and my tank is ready for them was wondering how well they would fare at the colder temp?
 
yea figured that tank will have plenty of what they would want.. since seahorses can create quite the mess.. :D And I am going to keep the lighting lower in at tank anyway..
 
marcah said:
perfect,.. that is what I was told by them also. thank you I just wanted to make sure before I did do that .. thanks again little_fish
I know I can throw zoas in with seahorses and my tank is ready for them was wondering how well they would fare at the colder temp?
Click to expand...

That was the first thing I thought of. If you can keep SPS, and have it flourish, ans zoas melt, yeah, water is way to clean. I am in the same boat running bio pellets, except I am not losing my zoas.

FEED MORE, ADD MORE FISH! That will increase your bio load, thus giving the zoas their nutrients. Rods Food is a great frozen food, as it feeds the fish and the coral. However, if you are not running bio pellets, you need to be super diligent with your water changes. You can also add coral food in the form of Phyto Feast and Oyster Feast to the tank to help in feeding them.

Your lighting is not an issue. I have almost the same wattage with zoas from the sand bed to the very top, maybe 3 inches from the surface.
 
+1 on the rods food and feed feed feed. When I started I had been really worried about over feeding and mucking up the water quality. Figuring that the corals were feeding off the light I was mainly feeding my fish. I lost quite a few pieces with that thought process. I spot feed about once a week and dose the tank every other day. That said all of my corals (130-150 between frags and colonies) have responded very well. Good luck.
 
Sorry I did not get back to this thread sooner. But that is way too much light.

As far as putting them in caves with little light, well then they are not getting any light. Also, with many corals once STN or RTN starts there is no way to stop it even if the original problem is resolved.

At my LFS, which specializes in marine livestock only, they put two 250watt MHs about 24 inches over their SPS and it was too much --the SPS starting bleaching. They had to come back and add a UV filter just under the bulbs and then the SPS started recovering.

Again, this is something that is frequently over-looked in our hobby --too much light.
 
i highly doubt that. i have a ora pocillapora about 10 inches under 76 watts of 3 watt crees. and its flourishing. thats higher intensity than a 250 halide when its on full blast
 
This is 716 watts. My zoas frag rack is half way up the glass on the right hand side. I have a huge colony of Tubbs Blues at the very top, about 2" below the water level.

IMG_3880.jpg
 
I disagree. Many of the employees at my LFS are marine biologists. The whole LFS specializes in marine livestock only. They don't do anything else and they have been in business for years. I think they know what they are doing. I've discussed this issue with them more than once and there is absolutely a such thing as too much light.

As for Marcah's tank its always difficult to be absolutely sure what the problem is and sometimes even if you are there in front of the tank you still can't be sure.
 

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