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Vic's 30 Gallon Shallow Reef


Withers

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My BF plays Destiny... <_<

Think of it this way.....while he plays Destiny, that gives you more time to spend with your tank! :lol:

(As you can tell, I'm not much of a video game guy)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

So no matter what I've done, I just can't keep zoanthids alive it seems. 80% of the colonies I've bought have melted away and the ones I do have are mostly closed up. I'm thinking it must be an alk problem. I ordered some test kits for alk and mag so we'll see, but I'm tired of losing my favorite corals over and over again.

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So no matter what I've done, I just can't keep zoanthids alive it seems. 80% of the colonies I've bought have melted away and the ones I do have are mostly closed up. I'm thinking it must be an alk problem. I ordered some test kits for alk and mag so we'll see, but I'm tired of losing my favorite corals over and over again.

 

I have the same issue, I recently discovered my mg was a bit low but not low enough imo to cause melting zoas at 1200... alk 9 ca 420... I think those params are good. My only conclusion is some zoas hate me, not all of them melt.

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So no matter what I've done, I just can't keep zoanthids alive it seems. 80% of the colonies I've bought have melted away and the ones I do have are mostly closed up. I'm thinking it must be an alk problem. I ordered some test kits for alk and mag so we'll see, but I'm tired of losing my favorite corals over and over again.

 

I have pretty bad luck with zoas too. They're "supposed" to be the hardy ones haha.

They either close up and never open again, start stretching up really ugly and weird, or just start to rot/melt.

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Yeah, I really don't get it. Everything else is doing fine, but zoanthids either slowly wither away and die or they just never open in the first place and melt. The tank seems to be running fine, there isn't a trace of pest algae anywhere, but zoanthids just hate it.

 

Which is unacceptable because they're my favorite corals. I WILL fix this somehow.

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Yeah, I really don't get it. Everything else is doing fine, but zoanthids either slowly wither away and die or they just never open in the first place and melt. The tank seems to be running fine, there isn't a trace of pest algae anywhere, but zoanthids just hate it.

 

Which is unacceptable because they're my favorite corals. I WILL fix this somehow.

 

 

The key to growing happy and healthy zoanthids is to ignore your tank a little more often... seriously.

 

Put them in the right light (not too shady, not too bright), make sure you don't have any bugs eating them (nudibranch, spiders, etc.), and let your water get a little dirty. I think if you skim the crap out of your water, and have perfect parameters, your Z's & P's are starving to death. I have a 12 gallon tank with a heavy bioload, and absolutely zero chemical or mechanical filtration, besides rock, sand and some softies, and my zoas grow like weeds. You can always squirt some phyto or zooplankton over them to supplement.

 

Love the tank btw!

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The key to growing happy and healthy zoanthids is to ignore your tank a little more often... seriously.

 

Put them in the right light (not too shady, not too bright), make sure you don't have any bugs eating them (nudibranch, spiders, etc.), and let your water get a little dirty. I think if you skim the crap out of your water, and have perfect parameters, your Z's & P's are starving to death. I have a 12 gallon tank with a heavy bioload, and absolutely zero chemical or mechanical filtration, besides rock, sand and some softies, and my zoas grow like weeds. You can always squirt some phyto or zooplankton over them to supplement.

 

Love the tank btw!

 

Your absolutely right I had issues with zoanthids on one of my previous tanks until i did this. They like the water dirty and i keep my alk lower than most around 7 and they like that as well.

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Hmm, I mean I pretty much ignore the tank, hell my protein skimmer wasn't even working well til this week. I had to break the pump down completely just to get it to finally produce some bubbles.

 

The main reason I'm concerned is because I bought quite a few frags of nice zoanthids in the last couple of months, and many of them never even opened up. Maybe I'm blasting them with too much light? I try to acclimate them slowly but I could be hitting them too much at first I guess. I'll test everything tonight and report back. Nitrates are probably around 10ppt now. I was about to do another water change actually. I do them once a month.

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Hmm, I mean I pretty much ignore the tank, hell my protein skimmer wasn't even working well til this week. I had to break the pump down completely just to get it to finally produce some bubbles.

 

The main reason I'm concerned is because I bought quite a few frags of nice zoanthids in the last couple of months, and many of them never even opened up. Maybe I'm blasting them with too much light? I try to acclimate them slowly but I could be hitting them too much at first I guess. I'll test everything tonight and report back. Nitrates are probably around 10ppt now. I was about to do another water change actually. I do them once a month.

If you only do a water change once a month, maybe it is possible that your problem is in a lack of trace elements. I "believe" I may be in that boat right now, although my problem is not with my zoas. Just another avenue to consider.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Alkalinity - 9 dKH

Magnesium - 1200

 

I'm going to try switching salts to see if that gives me any results, the last water change I did seemed to make it worse somehow. The zoanthids were starting to open a bit but have been closed ever since that water change.

 

Or maybe stray voltage. The only 2 options would be my heater or my skimmer so those are easy enough to test.

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  • 2 weeks later...

One of my news years resolution this year is to get this tank thriving, so I've ordered a new batch of salt (back to classic IO for now) and a new skimmer (RO 110INT). The skimmer will go first because I don't think the salt is the problem, but I'm out of other ideas. I'm currently using IO Reef Crystals and I refuse to believe it is my problem.

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  • 2 weeks later...

One of my news years resolution this year is to get this tank thriving, so I've ordered a new batch of salt (back to classic IO for now) and a new skimmer (RO 110INT). The skimmer will go first because I don't think the salt is the problem, but I'm out of other ideas. I'm currently using IO Reef Crystals and I refuse to believe it is my problem.

Can I ask the reason for the switch from reef crystals to regular IO? I know my RC mix with calcium uber high at like 520. I've considered switching and just dosing a bit more.

 

Ideally I want my Calcium at 440, and my alk at 9, but the RC mix makes that impossible.

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I honestly don't have a reason, it's just the last thing I know to try. If it doesn't help I'll be going back to reef crystals. I'm also getting my own RO/DI system so I can keep close tabs on the water quality.

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  • 2 months later...

Still running. I got my RO/DI system set up and the new skimmer is doing a lot better. I think there was something in the water I was using before because my protein skimmer would flip out every time my top off activated.

 

I'm testing it out with some new corals and so far so good but I haven't had a chance to take pictures yet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The new test subjects

 

This cyphastrea seems to be doing fine

16974757777_941858dd43_b.jpg

 

But the zoanthids are still struggling.

16559732154_f07596cb09_b.jpg

 

I've noticed a ton of bristle worms out during the day too, which seems weird.

17156231346_ef39bb30bb_b.jpg

 

Maybe this tank will just need to be all SPS/LPS, I dunno.

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Nah, I could take one but it still looks identical to how it did a year ago :( The corals are doing fine now so I'm about to start loading it up again.

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