New Zoa Melting or Damaged? Vivid's Raging Inferno

[CARBON]

Last week, I got in my first 4 corals, all Zoas. This morning I noticed the Vivid's Raging Inferno Zoa looks as if its damaged. Is this what people refer to when Zoas melt?

 

May 20

 

 

May 27

 

I have them in a 10 gallon coral/invert only QT, with cheap LED lighting. I have Ammonia Alert badge that showed no ammonia, however decided to test and had 0.50 ammonia and 2 PPM nitrite. I did a 6 gallon water change and added Seachem Stability.

 

I removed the 6 snails I had yesterday, so only other habitant is a skunk cleaner shrimp.

 

Could the zoas appearance be due to the level of ammonia? Not sure if I trust that Ammonia Alert anymore. Thanks!

 

 

 

[ReefWeeds]

Was your tank ever fully cycled? If you had free ammonia, your skunk cleaner shrimp would most likely be dead. They're very sensitive to ammonia from what I've read. Ammonia alert measures free ammonia (the harmful kind) so that may not be showing any ammonia but your API test kit might.

 

That aside, back to the first question. Was your tank fully cycled? How long have you had the snails and skunk? Zoas are funny - they may not open fully one day then are fine the next or might just melt away. Hard to tell from the photo as it's too far away. Can you post a closeup?

[CARBON]

I keep media bags in my cycled Biocube for 4 weeks, then pull them out for the QT. Its worked in my fish only QT, but I overfed the snails with nori, so I think that's what cause the spike. Those 6 snails produced more waste than any of my fish ever did. Everything is one week old. The skunk cleaner seems absolutely fine.

 

Here is a closeup.

[ReefWeeds]

I wouldn't worry just yet. Give it some time. In my experience, if they're going to melt, they close up tightly and don't open back up. It seems like it's still opening.