Help! Sick zoos soon to be QT'd!

[SeaMountain]

The LFS confirms my own testing and water parameters are all fine. The only stupid thing I did was to dose Saliferts Flatworm Exit 4.5 times the dosage to remove a flatworm population. Enough was dosed to knock all 5 Astrea snails off the glass. This was almost a month ago. All zoos closed up, but came right back the next day and were doing fine up until a few weeks ago, when I noticed they were thinning.

 

Cleaner shrimp died a couple of weeks ago. And the emerald crab was gone this morning. The past few days he had been lethargic, and I thought he was going to shed. Pulled him out this morning.

 

Weekly 1g WC's have always been done. In addition a 25% WC was also done last week. All of my zoos have become thin and straggly, almost emaciated. Last week I also fed them mysis shrimp pieces which had been ground up.

 

They have gone from this:

 

To this:

 

All within the past month. The hermit crabs and ricordea are doing fine. In fact, the ric split itself not too long ago and feeds readily when I place fresh cut shrimp on it's mouth.

 

My chrisaggie Chartreuse Zoos are looking like this now:

 

and from the other side:

 

Notice how thin the stalks are at the base. They had been rich and full like the blue zoos above. I've inspected for nudi's and other pests but cannot discern any. This morning I picked up a 2.5g tank and am going to set up a QT. Also ordered TechD coral dip from Kent and Phyto for future feedings.

 

Once in a QT this weekend, I'll clean the LR and sand to try to remove all algae and stuff, and keep the zoos in QT for a few weeks. Fortunately I only have 6 colonies right now and a few frags which have been doing well.

 

Has anyone had their zoos look like this? Identify the disease or pest which may be causing it? Have had them bounce back with a specific treatment?

 

Thanks for any ideas and thoughts...

[tinyreef]

the fact that your other livestock are dropping like flies i would suspect something general and not something specific like a parasitic nudibranch. zoanthids/polyps are good indicators of quality (depending on the species, of course).

 

a stretch of a thought could be that something died (algae, sponge, plant, etc.) that had taken up some of that salifert chemical and re-released it upon death/decay (kinda a time release). this is an issue for algae die-offs releasing all they had absorbed within their bio-mass.

 

could also be something plain ol'died and is stinking up the joint but your tests don't show anything. hence, my wild guess of an undetected chemical-thingy. check around for any piles of crud on the LR/LS or filters. are you running carbon? Poly-Filters? chemi-pure? water source change? etc. hth

[SeaMountain]

Did run carbon for a few days after the Salifert treatment and the water comes from the same source, with the same weekly 1g WC coupled with a 25% WC last week. Even though, all my tests are fine and the SG is at 1.023-4. LFS did confirming water tests.

 

No other dead critters are in the tank. Just the emerald added in April/May and the cleaner a couple of months ago. No fish or other inverts. The snails are fine and are usually the first to show poor water quality signs. The hermits are active and spaghetti worms are still working the LR and substrate. Although the "chemical-thingy" is still an option, so I'll pick up some carbon and run it for a few more days while I get a QT together and wait for the coral dip medicine.

 

Thanks for your input. Might as well run carbon for a few days and see if the zoos perk up.

[Crakeur]

what about temp swings and ph swings (at night)?

 

I know you ditched the chiller after you rented it from me for a few months. Perhaps you are getting wide swings now that it is getting colder at night.

 

also, when the lights go out, the ph swings wildly. running a fuge, with alternate photoperiod to the main tank should help that a bit but won't completely resolve the swing problem.

 

something else to consider.

[SeaMountain]

Never thought of the night time ph swings. I'll test tonight. The temp is fine since we have radiators and hot water heat in the place. Even when it's sub-zero outside, it can be 80+ inside.

 

How much variance is there between night and day time ph readings?

[dickie52]

I am no expert.....you know that....

 

They remind me of a plant that is lacking food and trying to get more light......

 

can't see anything else from what you posted....

[Crakeur]

that's what I see too dickie but he has good lighting over the tank. I have zoos that look very similar in appearance (emaciated, not the color). I have recently reinstalled lights over the fuge with a photoperiod contrary to the main tank. this has been done for about two days now.

 

I'm going to switch my dosing to the time release sea lab things for ph and ca and everything else to avoid adding ###### to the tank (more lazy).

 

I would imagine this might help.

 

As for your question about ph swings at night, I've been told by someone who's knowledge far exceeds mine, that with the lights out the photosynthetic animals release something into the water (he told me I forgot - brain like a seive) that raises ph ( I think it raises it).

 

so, by leaving the fuge lights on, the fuge should take care of countering the effect of the tank lights being off.

 

does it work? is this true? who knows but it made sense to me.

 

Sea, if the ph is off by a large amount, you might want to check out the ph buffers that work constantly, like sea lab 14

[tinyreef]

photosynthesis balances out respiration during the day. at night respiration dominates and excessive CO2 is produced lowering pH (via carbonic acid, H2CO3). hence the use of RDP or 24/7 lighting in refugiums and/or sumps like crak mentions.

 

shouldn't see farther than 0.4 swings i believe, e.g. 8.4~8.0. shouldn't be a significant factor unless you have a significant amount of animals, which produce much greater respiration (CO2) than plants do (minimal, almost all things respire).

 

i would check the temp tho. room temp and tank temp may vary greatly.

[Crakeur]

leave it to a brainy asian to know the ins and outs of the biochemistry crap.

 

um, what tiny said hehe.

 

hey tiny, warmed caja up for you. also told her that she should call you by your real name and not tiny. at least not in front of the wife (wouldn't want the wife listening to you explain the name tiny and then have her explain that it isn't true. you know, like calling a tall guy shorty, or a black haired guy red). had to explain that in the real world, our avatars and screen names are not used.

[onthefly]

Sea - are you still dosing Reef Plus? did you tell me that you switched from 2x/week to 1x/everyother week.....maybe they're shocked?

 

That doesn't explain the emerald and cleaner though......

 

Do you have any macro algae? Caulerpa?

[SeaMountain]

No macro grew back after my last pruning binge. But I have dark cyano coming on. This morning one of my smaller frags had a 'blanket' on the LR chunk and it's noticeable in teh back corners where the flow is obviously not enough. Also noticing a hair algae breakout now. Probably right on schedule for the 8 month mark of a new setup...

 

Yesterday I picked up a 2.5g for a QT, and ordered a 12" JBJ Clamp-On PC 13w this morning from www.SouthBroadwayTropicals.com . I'm planning on breaking the tank down, isolating the zoos and rics in the QT after treating them to a quick coral dip.

 

Then hopefully Saturday, I can get to the tank and sift out the cyano, break up some of the larger pieces of LR, brush it down real well and do some decent WC's for a week or so.

[tinyreef]

had to explain that in the real world, our avatars and screen names are not used.

at least i'm not called Mr. Pink or Mr. Brown.

 

Mr. Blue is cool.

[CHICKfish]

i have the same thing going on with only ONE type of zoanthid in my all zoanthid tank.... all the rest are 100% fine.