Zoos Melting :( How come??

[jimrawr]

My zoos for the last two days were not happy and didnt see to want to open. Today I can see that they are melting at the base. What would cause this?

I dosed Calcium last night from randys two part, and this morning I tested PH and it was really low 7.8 but I got it up to 8.0 dosing a little ALK(with the baked baking soda).

I am going to do a water change right now. What else could melt zoos? Could my Alk be high? I was testing with test strips but they dont work, and I found that out after dosing I only added about 5ml though from randys, so its not much.

Here are my parameters

SG: 1.025
Temp: 80
Ammonia:0
Nitrate/trites:0
PH:8.0 (was 7.8 until I just raised it)
Calcium: 420
Alk: Dont know, dont have a test kit yet its in the mail though

 

[TomD]

Did you dissolve the Randys well? Where did you add it?

 

[jimrawr]

Yeah I did I even used almost boiling water to disolve it. I just added it at the top of the tank where a powerhead is flowing so it was blown around real quick. There wasnt any visible undisolved particals floating around.

I got my ALK kit today and its at 8 dKHm and Calcium is at 400 after a water change.

Also I dont know why but most of my zoos are doing ok and its just this one small colony of about 15 polyps that arent doing so well... hmm..

 

[TomD]

Any cyano on it? Do you treat you corals? You may want to check for any nudis, sundials?

You may have sprayed some of 2 part right on it even if you don't think so.

 

[sharkobeach]

I had this problem this past summer. I never did find out why it happened. The good news at least for me was they grew back and look a lot better then before they melted.

 

[JohnK]

IIRC, zoa's can get a fungal infection (maybe bacterial?) which can cause "melting".

I don't know much about this, but it can be a serious problem. Try looking around on

www.zoaid.com

I couldn't find anything there in a quick look, but I bet it's there somewhere.

 

[jimrawr]

Thanks I will take a look

 

[FinzAquatics]

i would think that nudis are messin with you

 

[JohnK]

Yes, another thing to check for (nudibranch's). A not uncommon Zoa problem.

I'm sure there are pics of them on zoaid.com site.

 

[Mikeaveli21]

I've had on and off issues with various zoas. Some act up while others never show signs of distress. One thing you can try is a peroxide dip in a 1:10 ratio with RODI. Let it sit for 10 minutes rinse and place back in the tank. I've had fungal infections on certain zoas and doing this plus fragging the dying/dead ones usually has worked. Hope this helps a bit.

Mike

 

[jimrawr]

I have no spotted any Nudis I dont think thats the problem. Thanks Mikeaveli I may give that a shot if they dont get better soon

 

[Dragon2115]

I lost a frag of some really nice zoas not too long ago like this. No idea what went wrong. The frag was healthy for a week and then was suddenly covered in pods and then melted. The other frag that I got at the same time from the same person and was only an inch away never showed any sign of a problem at all and is still going like gangbusters. Several other people got frags of this particular zoa colony around the same time I did and they had no problem at all. I've since replaced the frag and the new one, again from the same colony, is doing fine.

This may be one of those times when you're not going to get a definitive answer on what went wrong. A good idea that was suggested to me is to keep redundant colonies in seperate tanks just in case one has a melt down.

Good luck.