zoos problem?

[joshsafari]

hi im new here
im not sure what is wrong with my coral

 

[jbishop]

Sorry to hear / see about your coral. We are going to need a little more. what are your water conditions including alk ca and mag.

 

[joshsafari]

not sure. i dont have tests for that yet, ive been adding calcium everyday and doing waterr changes every two days

what could it be?

 

[afboundguy]

Sorry to hear / see about your coral. We are going to need a little more. what are your water conditions including alk ca and mag.

Also how long has the tank been running and how long have the zoas been in the tank? Some zoas just take a while to open up when they are first put in a tank.

Also if they've been in the tank for a while and just recently started closing up there is a possibility of zoas eating nudibranch. Here are some pics (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=zoas+eating+nudi&gbv=2) A quick and easy way to find them is when the actinic/blue lights come on first thing in the morning it looks like the corals are really glowing but it's actually the tentacles on nudis. Hopefully it's not those because they were a pain but just something to look for...

 

[afboundguy]

not sure. i dont have tests for that yet, ive been adding calcium everyday and doing waterr changes every two days

what could it be?

Do you have a test kit for calcium? It's not a good habit to add addatives without testing. IMO I'd stop with the daily calcium until you get a test kit for it (or have a LFS test it)

 

[joshsafari]

i've only had them in for a few days, the tanks been going for a month
i know its early to put stuff in but my shrimp crabs and anemone are doing fine

 

[joshsafari]

and i dont see any of the nudibranches in the tank, but with the blue lights all the tips glow
idk if that helps

 

[afboundguy]

Did you dip zoas before you put them in? It wouldn't hurt to give them an iodine dip and a ~10 second freshwater dip (I did this 2-3 times with the zoas eating nudis)

And as far as the tips glow is it all of the polyps or just a few around/in the polyps? If it's just a few it could be those zoas...

On a different note since they've only been in the tank for few days plus the new tank it could just take some time for them to open up which is hopefully just the case... Just keep an eye out for those pesky nudis...

Also I'd invest in some testing kits. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrates are 100% needed. If you want to dose calcium, alkalinity and magnesium are good to have especially if you're dosing...

 

[joshsafari]

ill try the freshwater dip tonight
i have no way of getting iodine tonight

the tip glow is all of the polyps

after a week maybe start doing iodine if no progress?

i have the ammonia nitrite and nitrate test kit

thanks for the help!

 

[marine mike]

you appear to be jumping the gun a bit with what you are adding to your tank. you say you are adding calcium every day but do you have anything in the tank that is using calcium up? without the ability to perform the proper tests you really shouldn't be dosing anything. you have to at least know what your sg (salt) is, the alk (kh), and is the nitrite/ammonia etc. all cycled out of the tank yet? approach things very slowly and test constantly until you reach stable parameters before you start adding things or you will end up just killing them....it unfortunately is the harsh reality of a marine tank until you learn and stabilize the environment....a little more on your tank would also be helpful, what size, any skimmer, how much rock, etc. would all give us more to go on as to what might be the problem. you might just have new zoos being finicky or you could have any one of a number of parameters not in check, but you have to know what they are before you can correct them.........

 

[marine mike]

definitely do not start dosing anything until you can test for it! iodine is something you could very easily be getting plenty of in your water changes. throwing things at the tank to try and solve a problem will only create more problems in the long run. slow down, run what tests you have and let us know what they show then go from there. if you are going to buy anything, make sure you have a refractometer or hydrometer, ammonia test, nitrate, nitrite, ph, and alk test kits at the very least. don't waste money on an iodine test there isn't a good one out there and that is probably the least likely cause of any issue. when you get anything that consumes ca then worry about a ca test kit. let's work on getting all your parameters in check and then move on from there.

 

[afboundguy]

Yes to clarify I was talking about dipping the coral in an iodine solution that is separate from your tank. You take some tank water in a specimen container/bucket and add the amount of iodine to make the proper solution and it helps kill pests.

Dosing Iodine is kind of a waste and it's one of those things that is easily replenished with proper water changes

 

[joshsafari]

ammonia-1 :/
nitrites-.25
nitrates-0
ph 8.2
alks 240

 

[afboundguy]

It sounds like your cycle might not be complete with detectable ammonia and nitrites... They need to be at zero in order for livestock to thrive.

Did you test through the cycle and see the rising and falling of the levels?

 

[marine mike]

ok, trying to decipher some of your figures, you say ammonia is detectable or 1, not good, should be 0 if your tank is cycled, as the same with nitrite which it appears you are getting a reading also. nitrates are fine but should be as close to zero as you can get. ph is fine, not sure what that alk reading is at 240? it should be a single digit like 2.6meq etc. or a larger single digit like 8 or 9 if you are reading dkh, what type of kit are you using? it seems you definitely still have some water parameter issues to attack at this point, what is the size of your system and how much rock and where did it come from when you got it?

 

[joshsafari]

yes, lately ammonias been at 2 and came down to 1 today from a 10gallon water change. and the nitrites have been at .25 since the cycle started
could it be from that? and will the coral be fine until that goes down?

oh its a 24g aquapod with roughly 5lbs of live rock

 

[joshsafari]

any suggestions on a skimmer?
ive been looking but dont know what to get

 

[marine mike]

ok, your tank is not there yet for sure as far as adding anything live. your best hope is keeping what is in there alive for now. first, a 24 gal. isn't tiny by any means but you really still need to keep track of the parameters closely as a small change will really effect 24 gals. quite a bit. you also need to add more rock than just 5 lbs. that will push the cycle through as well as improving water quality with things you want in the water. did you put some live sand in there to seed it when you filled the tank?

 

[marine mike]

are you operating a sump? if not, then a hang on back type would be sufficient on a 24, i am sure someone with more experience in the small tanks can suggest a good one for you. what do you have for filtration right now, or is it just the rock etc. at this point?

 

[joshsafari]

no :/
i put the rock in a few days after it started though if that helps?
how many lbs of it should i get? ill get it this weekend