I don't know what is going on with my zoas. I got them from another reefer. I expected them to take some time to open, which they did and they were open for about 4 days in a row. Then, they started closing. 98% of them have been closed for about 2 weeks now and several are melting away. I also lost my xenias. I have frogspawn, a hammer, GSP, and some mushrooms that all seem to be okay and doing well. I only have a small YWM and a golden head sleeper goby in the tank. I put the zoas from the top down to the bottom just to see where they would do better. I have some bubble algae that came on one of the rocks with the zoas, but it's not growing very well and there isn't really much else in the way of algae growth. I have some dragon's breath that is doing fairly well in the display. This is a long post, but I was trying to give as much information as possible to help you guys help me.
My tank is a biocube 32g LED. I have the stock lights. I was running the lights on too short of a cycle, but now I have them running as follows:
LC1 1pm-9pm all whites
LC2 12:30pm- 9pm blue/white/full spectrum
LC3 8am-1am- blue moonlight strip
my parameters are
salinity- spot on 1.026
Ammonia-0
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates- 10ppm
dKH- 9
Phos- 0-.25 ( hard to tell with API test kit, will upgrade to hanna at some point)
Mag- 1560 ( just tested today, realize its a little high especially with calcium being lower)
Cal- 420
PH- 8.2 ( been pretty steady, but was at 8.0 and I used some buffer to get it up a bit last week. I did it slowly over 3 days)
Filtration-
Protein skimmer
Intank Media basket in middle chamber with-
Filter Pad
Chemipure Blue
Purigen
and then I have some live rock in the other side of the middle chamber next to the InTank media basket
I have been dosing with Part A and B from Kent ( branded as Coralife) and using Coralife Buffer to manage KH and PH. I used some baking soda in water to get the initial PH back to par. Other than that, just RODI and Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt mix.
I know I'm probably being to meticulous and overthinking things, but the only thing that seems to be out of whack is the magnesium and thus the calcium is lower than it needs to be. The only inverts I have are 2 hermits and two nassarius snails. I put some Trochus in initially, but they passed in about 2 days. I have a few limpets and things that were hitchhikers on some rocks and then some sponges and small feather dusters throughout the live rock. There is a little bit of dioatoms that comes and goes on the sand, but this is my third tank and I was in the hobby for 8 years before I got out for about 5 and then got to this tank. The stuff I went through was so minimal and have had going on by way of algae and diatoms has been insignificant than what I've experienced in the past. I just can't figure out for the life of me why my zoas aren't thriving and happy. I also was pretty bummed about the xenias, but I know xenias can be finicky and it was a 50/50 shot when I put them in regardless of my tank. I'm just dissapointed in the zoa situation because I really want to get some zoa gardens in my tank.
The brighter picture is from June 1, so that picture is 10 days ago. The zoas were closed then. The dark pictures ( tried to do this before the lights turned off, sorry its dark. I can get brighter pictures tomorrow if needed. But it shows the same thing, and there isn't much change in the corals from June 1 through today. The only thing that is different is I moved the one frag of zoas down to try to see if that might help and it seems like it's doing about the same. I don't know much about pests and stuff, but I've watched a bunch of videos to try to decide what to do next, just figured I should ask here first.
Any help would be appreciated.
My tank is a biocube 32g LED. I have the stock lights. I was running the lights on too short of a cycle, but now I have them running as follows:
LC1 1pm-9pm all whites
LC2 12:30pm- 9pm blue/white/full spectrum
LC3 8am-1am- blue moonlight strip
my parameters are
salinity- spot on 1.026
Ammonia-0
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates- 10ppm
dKH- 9
Phos- 0-.25 ( hard to tell with API test kit, will upgrade to hanna at some point)
Mag- 1560 ( just tested today, realize its a little high especially with calcium being lower)
Cal- 420
PH- 8.2 ( been pretty steady, but was at 8.0 and I used some buffer to get it up a bit last week. I did it slowly over 3 days)
Filtration-
Protein skimmer
Intank Media basket in middle chamber with-
Filter Pad
Chemipure Blue
Purigen
and then I have some live rock in the other side of the middle chamber next to the InTank media basket
I have been dosing with Part A and B from Kent ( branded as Coralife) and using Coralife Buffer to manage KH and PH. I used some baking soda in water to get the initial PH back to par. Other than that, just RODI and Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt mix.
I know I'm probably being to meticulous and overthinking things, but the only thing that seems to be out of whack is the magnesium and thus the calcium is lower than it needs to be. The only inverts I have are 2 hermits and two nassarius snails. I put some Trochus in initially, but they passed in about 2 days. I have a few limpets and things that were hitchhikers on some rocks and then some sponges and small feather dusters throughout the live rock. There is a little bit of dioatoms that comes and goes on the sand, but this is my third tank and I was in the hobby for 8 years before I got out for about 5 and then got to this tank. The stuff I went through was so minimal and have had going on by way of algae and diatoms has been insignificant than what I've experienced in the past. I just can't figure out for the life of me why my zoas aren't thriving and happy. I also was pretty bummed about the xenias, but I know xenias can be finicky and it was a 50/50 shot when I put them in regardless of my tank. I'm just dissapointed in the zoa situation because I really want to get some zoa gardens in my tank.
The brighter picture is from June 1, so that picture is 10 days ago. The zoas were closed then. The dark pictures ( tried to do this before the lights turned off, sorry its dark. I can get brighter pictures tomorrow if needed. But it shows the same thing, and there isn't much change in the corals from June 1 through today. The only thing that is different is I moved the one frag of zoas down to try to see if that might help and it seems like it's doing about the same. I don't know much about pests and stuff, but I've watched a bunch of videos to try to decide what to do next, just figured I should ask here first.
Any help would be appreciated.