Had a zoa frag melt.. Dang

[Nano]

I couldn't say about the rock, as said I cycled for six weeks til the parameters were where they should be,
put in my clean up crew, waited about 1 week, then one clown, turned out he was carrying ich.
Personally though I see them as learning experiences haha, cause now I have an idea of what to do in some situations
I lost a shrimp due to stray voltage which I still can pinpoint the exact location, I think it actually might be a bad ground
in the wall plug it self, cause unplugging cords from the tank proved fruitless, until I unplugged the power bar
Salinity spike came from stupidity mostly not think that I should have been topping off with fresh water
I wa topping off with salt... (duhhh) lol I sure felt dumb on that one, also I started with a hydrometer,
which was reading 3-6 points lower then what my salinity actually was so I would see 1.025 and think it
was good, when it was acually 1.028+!! luckily as I'm sure you are finding lots of people love to help one here, one actually gave me his spare refractometer, so I haven't had that problem since.
now its pretty much just narrowing down the zoa frag melt situation, but as I said, a few others have told me
its happened to them too. Luckily again, I now know what to do, and how to do a peroxide dip

Point is here that I think yes I have had tons of problems, I think some could be from my equipment (hydrometer)
but mostly from not doing my homework prior. I think we all make mistakes in this hobby even the experienced
but its learning from those mistakes that ensures our tanks survival in the future. And hopefully I dont
have many more problems Cause I'm tired of being the village idiot on here lol

[daniella3d]

wow, you are very brave to mention that...I would be ahamed to say it

At least you take it with humor

For those who have problem with zoanthids melting more than usual, you could try dosing vitamin C with Sodium Ascorbate (buffered vitamin C) not the regular acid ascorbic as this is too acidic.

I am doing it for nearly 2 months now and it help the overall health of the zoanthids.

Another very important thing is to avoid alkalinity swings at all cost. Since I have started dosing 16 times per day with a dosing pump, my alkalinity as been super stable and that show in my zoanthids colonies. This and the vitamin C dosing has made my zoanthids much more resistant to melting. As soon as I see some closing a bit more than normal I do a dip with peroxyde and the week after they are like new.

Sometimes I can count up to 40 bristleworms in one frag, especially the frags on a small rock. Some are very large bristleworms. They are not eating the zoanthids but I have seen their bristles get stuck into the zoanthid flesh and make them close. That can become en entry point for bacterias and other diseases. When I do the peroxyde dip, I discard into the garbage can all those tons of bristle worms that come out...and they do come out after just a few second in peroxyde.

Originally Posted by nanomano

I wa topping off with salt... (duhhh) lol I sure felt dumb on that one, also I started with a hydrometer,
have many more problems Cause I'm tired of being the village idiot on here lol

[Nano]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

wow, you are very brave to mention that...I would be ahamed to say it

At least you take it with humor

Well its the truth lol, My idiot mistake :P Luckily I know understand alot of what caused most of the problems and how to fix them, basically by doing everything wrong I got a crash course in reefing, and now know what to do in many situations, so in a way its not necessarily a bad thing, more of a lesson or learning experience

[reefwars]

you know what ive been noticing alot of you guys have problems with zoas i guess i cant telll you whats wrong butt ill say this as useless as its gonna sound....i never have problems with zoas they always grow good for me.....wanna know my trick???


i drop them in the tank and never look at them again.....i know right.....i dont add fish to my tank, i do reguar water changes,i feed the tank, i leave stuff alone and let it grow...i keep my hands out of the water unless i need to do something....i never start them high always on the sand against a rock bed


told you this was useless info lol

[reefwars]

anytime i did have problems with polyps its usually from aiptasia or algae.....now i dont have any of either thank freaking god lol

[Nano]

Originally Posted by reefwars

anytime i did have problems with polyps its usually from aiptasia or algae.....now i dont have any of either thank freaking god lol

haha I havent had any aiptasia since my first few weeks of cycling, oh wait thats a lie, I had one in one of my zoo frags, but I got it and the frag just took off, its grown about 6(or some where around there) new polyps since and that was about 2 or 3 weeks ago when I got it. I dunno why that one got infected with something, kinda strange but not uncommon I guess, anyways tonight I notice the frag I dipped last night a lot of the polyps I had written off on it seem to look more firm and not brown today, so this could be a good sign!!!