Zoas and Toadstool leather not opening up

Hey guys, needed some prognosis on what might be happening. Some specs:
1) 66 gallon tank with about 115 lbs of LR
2) 1.5 months old
3) Params as measured today:
Temp- Between 77 and 78 (currently 77.2)
S.G. 1.026 (refractometer)
pH 8.4 (Red Sea Marine Lab)
NH4 0 (Salifert)
NO2 0.01 (Salifert)
NO3 0 ~ 2.5 (Red Sea Marine Lab)
PO4 0.03 (Salifert)
SiO4 0 ~ 0.03 (Salifert)
Ca 445
Mg 1430
Alk 3.84

About a week and half back I added some softies (One Mushroom Leather, One single polyp mushroom rock, 1 small frag of Zoas and 1 small frag of Green Star polyps). Apart from this I have two cleaner shrimps and one peppermint (which took great care of my aiptasias ) My Parameters have been pretty much stable. Been measuring it everyday. I also have a short tentacle plate coral which was on a LR piece I got. It was very very small. Been feeding it mysis and brine and it's been growing steadily. The GSPs have grown new polyps as well in the last week and half. All tank inmates seem happy except the Toadstool Mushroom leather and the Zoas. Attached are some pics

The leather seems to have just retracted all polyps and stays like that. Only ocassionally sending out the tentacles. It's placed midway in the tank with moderate flow (not directly in front of a powerhead so it gets secondary flow)

The Zoas used to open up initially but at this point they have been closed for a few days!! It has been placed at the bottom of the tank with low flow. I hope they are not on their way out. I even tried placing them up top at a high flow high light location and that did not help after 2 days either.

Any ideas what's going on with these two??

Also I am attaching a third picture. Anyone know what this is?? they are all over my glass. They look like baby brittle stars?? I used to have a ton of pods on my glass walls. Now they have disappeared to be replaced by a lot of these...

Any help will be much appreciated

 

zoas tend to like heavy flow IME.

 

First pic hydroid??....with the leather and zoas I would let them be for a few days,dont move them to much..they are both pretty hardy corals..I have zoas in high and low flow,both are doing fine..good luck..

 

+ 1 on Daniels comments on the Zoas and the toadstool leather IME

I have same species of toady in my reef and it is sat underneath and 6 inches in front a 3000 Lph K Clone - the polyps come out every day and enjoy the buffeting they are getting - I have a identical experience with a finger leather, whic has resisted 2 attempts to move it out of the K clone on the other ends direct path - it likes it there and closes down and stays closed for 3 days, until I relent and put it back ( see I read to many posts telling me it likes low flow so moved it, but it cant read the posts and does not know it should be happier in low flow)

I would say, try both those corals with a bit more water movement around them / over the top of them (not at them) and I think they will perk up

Steve

 

ok. Will let them be. Hydroids as in jellyfish? they good in the tank?

 

what are you using for mixing your water? tap or ro?

Also, from the pic of the leather, it looks to be eroding from the base. I can see two white spots near the base where it looks like the spicules are breaking apart. Check them, if you can run your finger on those white spots, and you get a lot of white spicules breaking off, its erosion. The coloration of the leather is also troubling, the yellow tint on the base and the algae overgrowth from the bottom suggests poor health. Could be a result of poor handling during shipping. If the leather is deteriorating, it could be causing the zoas to close up as well.

 

I am using 0 TDS RO/DI for top off. At this point the leather is back. It's opening up and spreading out pretty well. The zoas are slowly opening up as well. The huge white spot you see if epoxy I used. Or are you referring to something else? The leather has a pinkish part of the base which is what fills up and shrivels up. The other thing with the yellowish tint was like that even when I got it from the LFS. What are the spicules? And also there does not seem to be any algae. Maybe the photo i took is poor quality?

 

glad to hear that they are starting to come around for you. In my experience, most zoas love flow and high light for that matter. Most people don't think about them being light loving corals but this is how we get most of the killer morphs that we get.

 

Hello, looks like you have some decent advice here…much of which I agree with, but just one more avenue to explore first. When I read your post I re-read #2 twice “1.5 months old” then I figured you were referring to your toadstool age – but I looked at your 3Reef “join date” and you joined last month….eye’s opened a tad wider and kept reading.

Per your post, at 4.5 weeks you added Shrooms, Zoas and Stars (assuming your tank is 6 weeks per #2, and you added 1.5 weeks ago)….you are just dealing with a young tank that might be a tad rushed – I suggest you don’t add anything and keep monitoring and you will probably be fine provided you do not rush your tank. Once you are stable add one item every 10-14 days to ensure you don’t push your system. Good luck .