Zoas Closed Faded

[jcook54]

This is the fist time I've had to ask for help so please be gentle. I've always been able to get answers through forums searches but I'm kind of lost at this point. I had Friday off and when the light came on in my tank I noticed some of my zoas were "dull" looking. It got worse throughout the day and I also noticed that some of them were closed up as well. It's not a single colony but pretty much all of them at this point. I did a 20% water change yesterday but they look worse this morning. Here are the specs --> 65g standard tank, 15g sump, 36" 4 bulb T5 Aquaticlife fixture.

All tests were done with salifert kits:
PH 8.0 (normal & stable)
PO4 - 0
NO3 - .2 (low range used)
Ca - 430
Alk - 8.3
Mg - 1330

Here are the purple zoas that I first noticed.

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[jcook54]

I'll post some more pics of other colonies when the light some back up. I think I may know what the problem is and wanted to run it past you guys. I keep a pretty strict journal and on 11/18 I started slowly dosing Reef Builder to raise my Alk and help keep my Ph higher. My Alk and Ph have always been a little low in the with a Ph of 7.8 and Alk of 7.8 dKh. My Ca levels were always in the 450+ range so I didn't worry too much about it. When my Ca levels started getting lower I decided to raise the Alk. From 11/18 to 12/2 my Alk went from 7.8 to 9.5 dKH by adding 1/2 teaspoons of Reef Builder to my top off water. This had the effect of raising my PH to 8.2.

Was the change too fast? Everything else seems fine in the tank and that included my monti cap & bird's nest. The only other thing I've done different was add 3/4 cap of AquaVitro's fuel last Sunday. I wanted to start using it and I planned on starting slow with 1 cap a week for a month or two while my system adjusted to the new variable.

 

[ralph atl]

jcook54;589317 wrote: I'll post some more pics of other colonies when the light some back up. I think I may know what the problem is and wanted to run it past you guys. I keep a pretty strict journal and on 11/18 I started slowly dosing Reef Builder to raise my Alk and help keep my Ph higher. My Alk and Ph have always been a little low in the with a Ph of 7.8 and Alk of 7.8 dKh. My Ca levels were always in the 450+ range so I didn't worry too much about it. When my Ca levels started getting lower I decided to raise the Alk. From 11/18 to 12/2 my Alk went from 7.8 to 9.5 dKH by adding 1/2 teaspoons of Reef Builder to my top off water. This had the effect of raising my PH to 8.2.

Was the change too fast? Everything else seems fine in the tank and that included my monti cap & bird's nest. The only other thing I've done different was add 3/4 cap of AquaVitro's fuel last Sunday. I wanted to start using it and I planned on starting slow with 1 cap a week for a month or two while my system adjusted to the new variable.

I've raised ALK quicker than that, that's pretty slow, imho. I'm not a "zoa" guy though. I have 2 colonies.........if they are pissed off due to that, I'm sure they will be ok after they adjust.

I'm not familar with "fuel" (carbon dosing?), It doesn't make sense to dose once a week. That also seems like a lot at once. Why not just do bio-pellets or vodka?

 

[jcook54]

I use AZNO3 for Carbon. I would use vodka but my friend Bill Wilson recommends against fooling with it. I was going to try just vinegar but was worried that vinegar along would require too large a dose to be effective. Aquavitro's Fuel is "carbohydrate, vitamin, fatty acid and amino acid supplement for corals" according to their label. The recommended dose is one cap twice a week for a 30g system. I figured I'd start slow with 3/4 cap once a week just to be on the safe side.

 

[jcook54]

Here's another pic of the same group of formerly-purple zoas. You can see they are still open but are now more white than ever.

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Here's another example. These zoas had a red skirt and disk with a purple eye and now they're losing their color, most noticable in the skirt.

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[superclown]

what is your lighting schedule like? ive seen zoas look like this from over lighting, ive also seen them look like this after I found a frag that had been buried under sand for 2 months.

 

[jcook54]

I run the actinics from 2:30-9:30 with all bulbs on from 3-9. I haven't changed anything and that's what got me so confused. I changed two of the bulbs October 20th and the other two on November 4th. At the time I shortened the photoperiod for a week and everything was just fine. The lighting schedule has been exactly the same for years and everything was doing really well :sad:

 

[raisedonnintendo]

Those r keds reds Zoas got a ton of um. There on the bottom in the sand mine are about 3 inches from a mh light so maby move them up a little it couldn't hurt they have short stalks so they r used to being a little closer to the surface.

 

[jcook54]

At this point they have stopped getting worse. I may try moving them up when I do my next water change tomorrow. Light was my first thought but it's really odd that all of my zoas are showing the same symptoms at the same time. The only one's that still look healthy are a couple of eagle eyes that I have towards the top but under an overhang. I feel a little better because they aren't getting worse but the decline was so quick (2 days) I can't help but think it was something I did or changed. If it was one frag that would be different but 6 out of 7 colonies... jeez. On the plus side my monti, pocillopora, ricordeas and mushrooms all still look good.

 

[raisedonnintendo]

Your lighting gets old at the same time if it puts out less par it would put out less par equally to things in direct light. N there would be a lessened effect in shaded areas make sense I think.

 

[jcook54]

I know this thread is old but I think I've finally figured out what the problem is. Asterina stars. I went through all the possibilities and came up empty. I didn't even consider the stars because they were present when everything was doing really well and didn't cause any problems. However, I was doing routine maintenance over the weekend and watched a single asterina mow down two healthy zoa polyps and start on a third. I've seen them on polyps before but thought they might be taking advantage of unhealthy ones. This time I know they were healthy, growing and doing great until the star got to them. This may not have caused the universal fading event but it certainly resulted in damage so I'm clinging to this as the cause since I haven't been able to come up with a better explanation. I've been hunting them down so if anyone needs some I'll save them.