Hey all, so I purchased a clump of LR for my Pico from my LFS that had a teeny tiny colony of bright green zoas on it. At the shop they were all open and happy, and when I brought them home, I gave them and the rock they are on a FW dip to get rid of anything that may have come along for a ride.

Shortly after putting them in the tank, maybe an hour or so they were all open and loving it. They closed up that night at lights out and haven't opened since. During they day, most of them open halfway, then close up again repeatedly.

My parameters have all been good:

Nitrate - >5ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Ammonia - 0ppm
pH - 8.3
Salinity - 1.024
Temp - 78.4 Right Now

I'm running an AC70 on medium flow, with an 18w PC lighting setup. The zoas are about three inches off the bottom of the tank in direct light. The tank has been up for almost three weeks with parameters checking out after the first week. I have 3.5lbs of live sand and about 6lbs of live rock, with a heaping ball of Chaeto in my little fuge.

They all still seem plump and juicy, and they're even budding off. Two of them each have two new polyps growing off of the bases. I've checked for Nudis, Snails and all things of the sort. Why won't they open up again?

My Snail and Hermit seem to love the tank, why don't my zoas!! :*(

When I brought them home:


The next and every other day:


FTS for lighting views:

Zoa's will close for a few days every once and a while. They look pretty healthy.. How long ago did you put them in your tank? Also, I don't see what kind of flow they're getting in the pic. My zoas like moderate flow to help keep them clean and to bring them trace elements an food. Your tanks lookin good though

I got them last thursday, so exactly a week ago. The flow isn't super high, but it's not super low either, the pump is set at about halfway open. It's not high enough to stir the gravel at the front of the tank, just barely. If I turn it up anymore, my sand flies everywhere lol.

I've been blowing the area around them off with a baster every few days just to make sure there's nothing hiding in the crevices.

my zoas closed up for a while and i couldnt figure out why, i did a 2 min FW dip on them and within 1 hour they were all opening up...seems little bugs/pods were aggrivating them.....so now i keep an eye on them,

hope that helps

belle

I don't have enough RO/DI to submerge the rock again, but maybe when I get back to the office on Monday Ill do it. Going to refill my jug this weekend. Some others also mentioned pH shock maybe? But why would the LFS's tank be off is what I'm wondering.

What's the best way to pH match the RO/DI water when I do the FW dip so that when I do it I know I'm doing it right?

i didnt ph match it..i just put RO water in a container and dipped them for 2 mins....

it worked perfect for me...the zoas i dipped havent been open for weeks....and after the dip they were fine...

Can I use distilled water? I have a gallon of that, which I drink But I can use that to dip them. Also, we have a carbon filtered counter top water thingy at work that has 3 filtration canisters under the sink. I tested that water once on a whim and it came up with nothing, could I use that to dip them?

Also a little bit more info, I have the tank on a 13 hours lights on schedule.

Did you heat the RO water first or room temp:?

It's best to use RO water.Match your tank pH and temp.I use a buffer to get the pH up.It does not take much though.For gallon of dip water I use a tiny,tiny pinch of buffer.Have a pH test close to test.It may take a few tries to get it right.I also add Lugol's and FWE to the dip.After the dip put your zoas in moderate flow.I've always kept my daylights off when adding new zoas.Ijust run actinics that day.Most of my zoas open within an hour or two.Here is a link if they'll let me post it.http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=451720

I used room temp. water, my office is usually around 74-75 degrees.

And thanks for the info about the pH stuff, I'll pick up some more stuff when I go to the LFS this weekend.

an easy way to match temp is just ask your lfs for extra plastic bags and when needed fill with ro, set in tank for 10 min. I do this everytime I top off.

Just did a 3 minute FW dip, found this little guys. No Nudibranches though.


I also found some clams that fell off the LR piece, so I stuck them back in the display where I can see them. They were buried in the rocks on the backside lol.

They look more like Collonista Snails then sundials.

Did you get a positive ID on them?

Collonistas, sorry little guys.

So this is week 5 and the zoas still aren't open. They're produced 2 little polyps, so they're def. not dead, just not open. I have introduced 2 more "colonies" if you will, they're like the size of a dime and have 5-7 polyps. They've been in the tank for a week and a half, they're closed too. So aside from that, there's a yellow watchman, some new snails and a 10 polyp Paly Frag, which stays mostly open.. some of them stay closed, but the big ones open up.

The guy at my LFS suggested dosing iodide for a week to see what happens. I've been adding one drop every other day, (Monday, wednesday and Friday) since Monday, so I have 1 more drop to go before the PPM I want is achieved. I've already tried unplugging everything to test for electrical current, done water changes, tried dipping, no dice with any of these.

Any other ideas as to what could cause this?

Parameters as of today:

Nitrate - >2ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Ammonia - 0ppm
pH - 8.3
SG - 1.024
Temp - 77.2
Iodine - .03

What could it beeeeeeee!!

did you ever figure out what was happening this is happening to my zoas too.

What kind of lighting do you have???!??

me?

No idea, brought them home from work and they're happy as clams in my 24g

ive got these exact ones. they are pretty tempermental too. some open, some closed, some never open. idk either

My uncle had the same problem his zoas stayed closed for over a year. He started to dose iodine and they were open within days. Iodine is risky to dose so becareful if you do. He has 120 display and only adds a little every week. Hope you figure it out.