victoly Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 So i picked up a nice colony of zoas two weeks ago. They looked fine at RCA, and ever since theyve been in my tank they rarely open, and just generally look pissed. Everything else in the tank (frogspawn, bubble, etc) seem very happy, but not so much for the zoas. My first two thoughts were my LEDs (24x3watt)@40% and too much flow (mp10@50%reef mode). Am i missing something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Dip em with the peroxide/water mix I mentioned in the other thread. It basically cleans them off if there is somthing that is irritating them. Try putting them in the shade afterwards, I usually accimate zoas to my tank in a low light area. Doubtful that flow is a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woods Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Stephen, what % mixture do you use for peroxide to water? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 I put the zoas in a small cup or coffe cup and just cover the zoas with about 1/2" of tank water. I make all the zoas close before I get started just so bubbles don't get trapped inside the skirts which can cause them to open back up slower. You should just add capfuls of regular peroxide until the zoas start to bubble, around 1-2 bubble per second. A little more is fine actually, but that is about where you want to be. After 10-15 minutes in the mix (depending on how bad they are) I wash them off under tap water...directly under fuacet on medium flow for about 5-10 seconds. I would put any zoas in my tank through this and have done this many times. I have actually forgot zoas in the peroxide overnight before and they were fine. The peroxide breaks up the slime of brown algae that gets on them and the freshwater kills it, that's why it works so well. I'm not a big fan of using a tooth brush on them to clean, most of the time this hasn't worked for me and really pisses off the zoas. Even if the brown funk doesn't come off the zoas after dipping don't worry it will on its own. Something else that is important about zoas is to always cut away bad heads. If they are rotten cut them off immediately wether you are dipping them or not. With zoas a few bad ones can keep the colony from opening back up eventually killing them. I like to use a razor blade to make a clean cut and then scrape them off, then I usually dip them right afterwards. Put any zoas having trouble in low light, in the shade if fine. After dipping it usually takes them one to two days to open back up so don't worry. The biggest problem is if you wait too long to do the dip them. So if zoas aren't opening up for more than a day or two dip em, don't hesistate!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 Got some peroxide, gonna give it a shot tonight. I'll clip the dead heads and cross my fingers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 I have a colony that has been half open for about a week. Pulled it out and sure enough there is a brown-green slime growing over the closed polyps. Dipped it according to Hydro's method and it looks that might do the trick. I have a bright green leather that kind of has a brown film on it. You think that the same dip might work on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 I have never tried it on a leather coral. I would dip a frag first just in case, I think it would be fine though. I have dipped them in freshwater before to get rid of planaria and no problems. I didn't come up the peroxide dip. I've been told by a few different reefers about it, just passing it along. When I first heard it myself I thought there is no way zoas can live through that but I was wrong. I have forgot many times and left some in the cup for hours.....even overnight and although they don't like it they still lived. Running them under under freshwater I think is important too, it kills everything but the zoas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Leathers can shed their outer layer on their own so shouldn't need this, it helps if they are in medium flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 Did the dip last night. Tossed the eyes of rah frag. I also lost an emerald crab yesterday, so I'm kind of scratching my head here. I'm looking around to see if my son dropped something funky in the tank... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 I wouldn't worry to much about the crab, those things just die sometimes, especially if it was big. I doubt that you were but in case you were wondering I'm 100% sure it didn't have anything to do with dipping the zoas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 Oh no, not at all. The crab was gone before I did the dip. Some of my pieces have just looked particularly unhappy lately and I'm trying to figure out what is going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woods Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 I did the dip yesterday morning on some zoas as well, and I think I might have used too much peroxide but we will see if the zoas come through it... my Cat Eyes aren't happy yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 I did the dip yesterday morning on some zoas as well, and I think I might have used too much peroxide but we will see if the zoas come through it... my Cat Eyes aren't happy yet... It takes a couple days for them to open back up sometimes longer, especially if they have been closed for a while. Usually I put enough peroxide to do a very slow fizz, basically just when they start to bubble. Do they look clean of the slime at least? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 I didn't notice a sizable slime really, even prior to dipping. They look clean now, so we shall see. Luckily it was a cheapie colony, I'm more concerned that there is a systemic issue than something amiss with the zoas specifically. I have some other zoas and palys that seem happy, as is most of the rest of my tank. Dunno. I'm in real estate/closing/moving hell right now, so my tank is simultaneously a nice distraction and something I'd rather not be messing with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Here is a pic of your clowns for your son. The benggai hides when I get the camera out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 He's gonna be so excited! The tank move will happen this week, and I want to give myself at least a week or two to stabilize before i chunk in 3 fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 Sidenote, after a water change and the zoa dip, everything seems to be much happier. They still haven't popped out yet, but they look better. This is kind of a sidebar, but how do y'all feel about water change frequency? I'm more partial to smaller changes weekly (5 gal weekly for a 29 gallon tank), but some of the gurus recommend a larger change less frequently to facilitate stability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 It kind of depends on what your tank needs. If you have a high bioload, and easy corals, you will want to do water changes more frequently to keep down nitrate/pollutant levels and replenish elements; if you have lots of difficult corals and are dosing heavily to maintain your levels, you may want to do changes less frequently so that you're not taking out stuff you just put in. I've kept small tanks (14g, 24g, now 34g and 3g) and I would say the No. 1 thing that kept my tanks happy and corals stable was weekly water changes, at least for the first year. When I got busy or lazy and went to 2 and 3 weeks between changes, that's when I started to have problems like nuisance algae. It doesn't happen overnight - it's not like on day 8 after a WC the tank is suddenly overrun with hair algae - but over time, it pops up, and then it's a pain to get back ahead of. After your tank's been stable for awhile (like, 9-12 mos) I think it's fine to back off the WC as long as you are monitoring the tank. Also, 5g a week seems like maybe a bit much in a 29, I would probably do 2-3g (10%), if only to save on salt over the long run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Good to hear your zoas are looking a little better. I like small weekly water changes, 5% - 10%. I have systems that have been getting that for as long as 17 years. Some people are good with biweekly or monthly so there's no absolute. And there's always somebody that goes without for years and has a nice tank but that's not something I'm willing to try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 here is a pic of your benggai, still won't eat prepared foods but is eating pods out of the water column. I see it all the time pecking at what seems like nothing. The tank is filled with pods, they are everywhere. I hope that by the time you pick it up its eating at least frozen mysid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 etannert and timfish have some really good points. Mostly it about what YOUR tank needs, the only way to find out is to do some testing. Watch your nitrates and phospates and when they start to get high do a water change. You can then base your future water changes off that which will get you close to what you need as long as you don't add lots more fish. I have to do more water changes now then I used to because of the amount of fish in my tank compared to before. I'm doing 20% water changes every 2 weeks to keep my phospates in check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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