Zoas not opening

[Scottanne]

I’ve been a quiet participant - up until now. I’ve learned a lot from postings and hoping you can help me figure out why Zoas are not opening. And mushrooms not expanding much. No Bernese’s snails found.

I had a heater malfunction 2 months ago and lost a couple fish and some corals. Everything appears to be okay now except zoas and mushrooms. Thanks for your input!

My experience: 10 yrs saltwater mixed

Biocube 32 gal. Mixed reef and fish established 4 years

Lights:
L1 11am - 7pm
L2 10:30 am - 7pm
L3 7am - midnight

Temp 78F

Salinity 1.025
KH 10 drops (179)
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0
Ammonia .25
High PH 8

All testing kits are still way within expiration dates.

Fish:
1 watchman goby
1 neon blue wrasse
1 clown
CUC: Various snails/crabs

Corals:
See photos

 

[Scottanne]

I’ve been a quiet participant - up until now. I’ve learned a lot from postings and hoping you can help me figure out why Zoas are not opening. And mushrooms not expanding much. No Bernese’s snails found.

I had a heater malfunction 2 months ago and lost a couple fish and some corals. Everything appears to be okay now except zoas and mushrooms. Thanks for your input!

My experience: 10 yrs saltwater mixed

Biocube 32 gal. Mixed reef and fish established 4 years

Lights:
L1 11am - 7pm
L2 10:30 am - 7pm
L3 7am - midnight

Temp 78F

Salinity 1.025
KH 10 drops (179)
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0
Ammonia .25
High PH 8

All testing kits are still way within expiration dates.

Fish:
1 watchman goby
1 neon blue wrasse
1 clown
CUC: Various snails/crabs

Corals:
See photos

 

[Scottanne]

Vermetidae snails not Burmese (auto correct )

 

[alindell]

Mine do the same. Could be many things. Too much flow, something stung it, fish picking on it, pest. Usually if everything else is doing good then it's probably not the water but something in the environment.

 

[Scottanne]

Thanks! I haven’t seen anything bothering them but I’ll watch even more closely during moonlight hours.

 

[kevgib67]

You didn’t list phosphate. How old is the tank?

 

[Swbvegas]

What is PAR and hours you run lights?

 

[Scottanne]

You didn’t list phosphate. How old is the tank?

Tank is 4 years old. LFS checked phosphate, magnesium, calcium and said they were “spot on”

 

[Scottanne]

What is PAR and hours you run lights?

PAR 140
light schedule in original post
Lights:
L1 11am - 7pm
L2 10:30 am - 7pm
L3 7am - midnight

 

[tankstudy]

It's probably your ammonia. It's sitting at 0.25.

During my earlier years in the hobby, I use to buy and dip a lot of frags at once. The die off from the dips would cause ammonia to hit 0.25 ppm and the new zoa/paly frags would start to close up. Once ammonia was broken down or removed, the frag tank specimens returned to normal.

Ammonia burns from my own experience so I wouldn't be surprised if your zoa/palys are a bit burnt from some exposure. Once you fix the ammonia problem it may take awhile before you see actual changes.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

If your ammonia is really .25 that is a problem. It should remain zero once the tank has cycled. Inverts, and even fish do not handle ammonia well at all.

 

[Scottanne]

I’m making 15% water change and doing a deep cleaning of equipment to hopefully alleviate the ammonia issue. I haven’t found anything dead in the last few weeks so hopefully this will take care of the ammonia. Thanks for your input!

 

[tankstudy]

I’m making 15% water change and doing a deep cleaning of equipment to hopefully alleviate the ammonia issue. I haven’t found anything dead in the last few weeks so hopefully this will take care of the ammonia. Thanks for your input!

If you can find a bottle of biospira that isn't expired, it should fix your problem pretty quickly.

Water changes aren't bad but if you are only removing 15% of the total volume, your only reducing 0.25 ppm ammonia by 15%. You'll still have plenty of ammonia left in the system to continue burning your sensitive creatures. You can do 15% water changes continuously but if you do the math out it's going to take quite a few water changes.

 

[Scottanne]

I’ll check out biospira at my LGS. It’s just strange (good but strange) that everything else is fine.

 

[ScottJ]

Out of curiosity, what test kits do you use? In particular, what ammonia kit.

 

[Scottanne]

API

 

[SomeHappyFish]

Mine would say 0.25 with rodi, you could try a different test kit.

Have you done an ICP test? Could be low trace elements such has iodine.

Do they have a slight algae film on them? Mine would stay close because of this.

 

[Scottanne]

Have not done ICP. No algae film. If they are not improving after addressing ammonia issue with biospira , I’ll get ICP test done.