Any Zoa Experts Around?

[Josh]

So after a successful first fragfest almost all my zoa's are happy as can be and have retained pretty much every drop of color (i acclimated them at the bottom of the tank and trimmed my lights back temporarily)

That being said i have 2 single polyp hornets (purple/blue and red) the red is closed up and the stem looks to be covered with brown algae, the other 1 has lots all color from its lashes and the ring disapeered, it looks straight purple now.

Both of these are single polyps, where as almost all my other frags i bought (except the blondie) are 2+ polyp.

I had read that hornets do not like the high light/flow most zoa's do. I shut the powerhead off that was near it before i went away for the weekend and have come home to the 1 polyp mostly closed up.

Anybody have any insight on this?

My current plan of approach is to take both my hornets out of the rock they were in (on bottom of tank) and put them off to the side on the ground where they wont get as strong of light/flow

Thanks

J

 

[Josh]

Hornets Before:

AFTER (1 week after fragfest)

Pic of everything i added from fragfest to show the healthy other zoa's

This entire setup is changing, i just wanted to keep things simple for a few weeks to let the coral get used to its new home, going to be pulling some live rock and making changes.

 

[Josh]

~2-3 days ago, everything was bang on except i had .34 phosphates, i did a water change and changed how i was feeding flow to the bacto balls i have in my middle chamber (bc29)

 

[Luke.]

I hate being in this position, I've had it many times where zoas look awesome and healthy but one will act up look weird for a few weeks the. Back to normal algae dose tick them off I hear trying to get it off (carefully) will help .

 

[Josh]

Ive got some baby snails that are the size of a poppy seed, maybe i can manually add some to it to gently clean it off? Ive got pretty bulky hands worried ill kill the thing.

think a dip will help? i have some Coral RX Coral Dip on the way.

Gfo should be in soon, i would think this will help. Maybe if i can get it to open a bit more ill spot feed it some phyto to keep it happy

can maybe try gently wiping it with a Q tip?

 

[Luke.]

It's not always best to feed if they are closed up , I would say see if you can find some tweezers and use that to try to get the algae off of possible those tiny snails , and hope they do the job I believe you could dip aswell I hear it can help in some cases

 

[SamB]

If I were you, I would contact the seller and ask where they had them placed, flow, light duration etc which should give you a good foundation to go by.
Try to replicate this as closely as possible in your system.
Zoas are generally quite hardy and will tolerate differing lighting (LED vs MH) but they may get "ajitated" if they are moved from a known place to a new home and the changes are too dramatic
Some sellers like to use brighter, more powerful lights and longer durations (some as much as 24 hours - yup, sadly) to promote heavy growth
Most of the time zoas will bounce back but it may take some time for them to acclimatize to your system parameters

 

[Josh]

i took it off the frag plug and cleaned it gently with a q tip, reattached to a new plug and put it in a shadier area, hopefully that does the trick.

Thanks for your help

 

[Kyle1970]

Some zoas can be so picky
I've had luck with lots but give me a magician polyp and I will show you a dead one in a few weeks!
Keep trying to replicate the past owners condition!

 

[BonnieC]

Love your Zoa rock! Homemade? I've had issues too with purple hornets

 

[Josh]

Yup im fairly sure my hornet is DOA, the other 1 just lost some color, ive brought back 2 different zoa's from color bleaching tho so im confident i can save that one.

That rock i bought at fragfest from canada corals, sustainable is going to start to carry them as well, just make sure to wash it really well and dont do what i did and wash it in regular water, give it a nice RO/DI bath, i think the algae that hit the rock is because i washed it in tap water however i have no proof of this.

Ever seen those really amazing zoa gardens, i was really hoping i could turn that rock into one, a nice "zoa island" I know its not a great spot in my tank but im about 1-2 months from a 120g in my new house so it was about taking advantage of fragfest to build for the future!