zoas in trouble?

i know theyre meant to be tough, but i think one of my zoas may be struggling :-/

they have seemed fine up until tonight.

the ones toward the front of the tank are closed bar 2 that seem swolen in the middle and their tentacle bits are retracted. one of the swollen ones looks to be excreting something from its centre.

top one excreting


tonight i fed some frozen food thats been in the fridge about 2 days, though i'm starting to think the fridge might not have been quite cold enough after getting a drink a min ago.
i also added a moonlight about 4 days ago that i have just been leaving on constantly as its just a few blue leds, and could be a coincidence but the ones that were directly in the moonlights path seem to be the ones that are closed.
also the biggest shroom looks a little sad to me?


tested ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and all seemed as close to zero as my api tests usually show.
what else should i test?

i cleaned the tank on the weekend and took the rocks out to scrub some algae but the corals werent stuck yet so i left them in the tank and did the rocks in a bucket.

just did ~15% WC
should i add some tap water conditioner incase there is ammonia coming from somewhere?

the rear side of the same colony seems ok still

 

Is there any detritus irritating the colony? You can use a turkey baster or power head to gently remove any build up.

I'm not sure about the moon lights. Mine don't seem effected by moon lighting. Have you tried moving them to a spot with less light?

 

Hi. My Zoa’s do this from time to time – they just close up for a day or two and then open up all sorts of crazy happy. I honestly think you have no worries

Oh yeah, on the lighting topic – Zoa’s can handle it all. Heck I see them all the time on shallow reef breaks when I dive – at lower tides they can be exposed to air and direct sun light for hours and they still live there. These are truly hardy – But on another note, tap water conditioner? Do you use ro/di, you should try to if at all possible. Conditioner can not help you with the dissolved metals and other compounds that may be (and probably are) in your tap water.

 

As for testing, there are more you should be testing for. Please read here:

Reef Tank Parameters:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php
Randy’s tank basics:
Part I: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/rhf/index.php
Part II: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php
Part III: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-05/rhf/index.php
Part IV: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/rhf/index.php

 

As for testing, there are more you should be testing for. Please read here:

Reef Tank Parameters:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php
Randy’s tank basics:
Part I: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/rhf/index.php
Part II: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php
Part III: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-05/rhf/index.php
Part IV: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/rhf/index.php

 

i've turned the moonlights off to give them a break for a bit just in case. they seemed to stay open alot longer with the moonlights, i was hoping that meant they liked it.
theres a bit of stuff scattered about them but i think its more random sea growth instead of detritus and not really loose enough to blow off. gave them a decent blast on the weekend.

was hoping i was just overreacting, but better safe than sorry.

the lights have turned off for the night and they are all closed up.
should i just wait it out and check on them in the morning?
i dont really have anything in the way of supplies on hand that could help much anyway and that water change has used the last of my water.
is there anything i should look to get tomorrow incase there is anythi
ng wrong?

 

Chappy, follow the links I provided to you - do a full spectrum of tests before you do anything. Never add water conditioner to your aquarium - as a matter of fact, never add anything directly to your tank that you can not test for.

My advice is to do weekly water changes, test everything (follow links to parameters on what to test) and then post back here with the results -- aside from that, yes wait it out. Moon lights are not causing your coral any stress. But you did say you removed to bucket and had to scrub rocks -- this says you have some testing to do ! maybe a phosphate or silicate issue, we will know after you test. You may have stressed the coral but putting it in a bucket.

 

sorry, i should know params are always the keys. i guess i was hoping for a 'that looks like a phosphate issue to me' kinda thing, next time will get my info together properly before posting.

i will definitely read through those links when i get a spare min (probably at work tomorrow lol)

but for now further params are:
sg is slightly above 1.026
pH is between 7.8 and 8.2 (API)
phosphate looks 0 to me (API)
cal 480 (API)
mag ~1400 (salifert)
~9.6 dKH (salifert)
only got the saliferts on the weekend so hopefully i'm reading them right.

thankyou both for your assistance, i will see how they are going in the morning and post a courtesy update tomorrow night.

 

I'm new to the hobby, and got some new zoas, a few different kinds.

One kind acted really funny, turning inside out, "melting" away. After a few dips, moving them around a few times, cutting off the bad heads, they're finally coming back around.

Another one (identical except color to a variety that stayed healthy) did the same thing, moved it into my clear overflow box, and now it seems to be doing great.

They may be hardy, but they can sometimes be fickle.

Rick

 

had a look at them this morning and they are looking much better, i may have just panicked.
turned the moonlight back on and the opened up quite quickly.

i'd like to hope mine too are just being fickle and its not a problem with my tank
what do you dip them in? i cant get any ro/di water so could only use conditioned tap (which i'm trying to keep out of my tank) or fresh salt water? maybe distilled water from the shop, but i've heard that is likely to contain copper.
also, i think there are pods or something living in that colony (amphipods?) that i would like to keep as there havent been pods in this tank before.

will look into how to cut off the bad heads, there are probably a couple dodgey looking ones that might be better off getting the chop.