• the problem with zoanthids

  • Nicholas

Hello everyone!!! Help me figure out what's wrong with the corals. They are shrinking in size and seem to be disappearing. In the first photo, you can see how they were, and in the second, what is left of them. Aqua 31 liters. Light: 2 * 24 compact blue-white + blue diodes. Salt: Red Sea Salinity 1.021-1.026. Water change once a week, 5 liters. Tests: Salifert KH-7.2, Po2-0, No3-5, but usually it's 0 after the experiment without water changes and feeding. The other inhabitants, Clavularia, Xenia, Sinularia, Rhodactis, Parazoanthus, and mushrooms are doing great. I met someone at an exhibition in Kyiv who advised me to observe at night to see if anything is eating my corals. He said there are small snails that might be nibbling on them. After keeping watch by the aquarium at night, I noticed some tiny bugs in shells that were nibbling on the corals. So that's the situation. I'm also thinking about getting a test for silicates; is it worth it? It seems like the other corals are living, growing, and dividing, except for the corals.

Brian7092

more photos

Tracy

Someone is definitely eating away. Don't take the silicate test. You'll waste your money - you don't have silicates. Otherwise, you would know what diatoms are. I don't see that in you.

Larry9400

There is another illegal resident in the aquarium and 4 hermits, but no matter how much I observe, he just sits by his burrow. And there are no visible signs of damage on the umbrellas. What options do we have?

Cheryl

Not a fact... It needs to be removed. Night marauder. Once in a thread, there was a discussion that parasitic anemones can damage them to the point of complete disappearance, pests indistinguishable to the naked eye. That's why substrates with them were treated with Lugol's solution. The result was positive. If only I could find that thread; I searched for it once and couldn't find it, but it was definitely there, I remember it well. Sailors, maybe someone will find it?

Angela7060

Try to transplant the parazoanthus and observe what will happen to the umbrellas?

Karen2578

Is there any point in the transplant...

James5032

I transferred the Parazoanthus to another 15-liter aquarium. I also noticed a red film under a rock on the sand that is gradually spreading across the sand, as if covering it with a red crust. What is this red film? The umbrellas seem to have opened slightly, or maybe it just seems that way; we'll see what happens next.

Kyle

This is His Majesty CYANO. It's not fatal. But it requires some thought.

Danielle8118

Google "zoa pox" online. Maybe that's it.

Robert1845

At first, I also thought about this ailment, but there are no visible ulcers in the photos that are characteristic of this disease. However, it can be treated preventively; zoanthids do not react negatively to furan.

Jessica6754

Thank you for the advice. I bought parazoanthus from you, and they have grown quite well, everything is good. As for treatment, I have conducted such procedures a couple of times using a homemade recipe. Regarding the light and umbrellas, I just checked the timer and saw that my light is on from 8:00 to 21:00, which seems a bit much, considering I have 2*24 watts. The parazoanthus, on the other hand, seem completely unbothered in their new spot, basking in the sun for half the day. Cyanobacteria is quite a sight, trying to climb onto the rock with the rodactis. What measures should be taken to combat cyanobacteria?

Charles5941

And what to feed the umbrellas?

Joshua

I also recommend adding a couple of drops of fish oil to the feed...5-6 drops.

Christopher4125

How often should I feed them??? From the tree - I've had them for two weeks - I haven't fed them once... Now I'm going to the water - I'll give them flakes.

Tanner

How often to feed depends on the number of fish in the aquarium, the frequency of feeding, and the power of the skimmer. We have a lot of fish, so I feed them twice a day, sometimes three times, so I don't feed the umbrellas separately. If the aquarium is empty without any floating fish, then of course feeding is necessary... even every day, but it's wise to monitor the water parameters.

Laura4892

I noticed that tentacles of brittle stars often crawl on umbrellas, maybe they are tickling them.

Jeremy3637

Ophiurids live in colonies of protophyllite, and when those feed, they take food from them. However, they do not cause any harm. Indeed, large ophiurids can move small stones with umbrellas and mushrooms attached to them, and moreover, they can pull them deep into crevices, from which it can be quite difficult to retrieve them later.

Kristin

Today I did a thorough cleaning of the aquarium because the glass got covered after feeding. I siphoned out the cyanobacteria, and underneath it, the sand was like a crust. I suspect that before rearranging the rocks, the cyanobacteria wasn't getting wet and there was a space under the rocks that was aerated. Could the rearrangement of the rocks, meaning the lack of water flow there, have triggered the cyanobacteria? I moved the umbrellas to the shade, but so far there are no changes. I tested for nitrates and got 2.5 mg/L. KH-7. I don't understand why the Salifert tests show 1 mg after osmosis. Should I put resin after the membrane? Who uses it and where can I get it? The membrane is 6 months old.

Kristin

Such a level of No3 is quite acceptable, especially for soft corals. They even require some nitrates to grow faster, particularly Xenia. In completely nitrate-free water, they may struggle.

Erin

My advice is simple - reduce the power supply, regularly change the water, and soon everything will recover. I especially notice this with Sarcophyton. It loves murky water. Or maybe Alexey just has that kind of variety.

William5838

The current action plan is as follows. I will change the water twice a week, 5 liters each time. I am thinking of switching the salt from Red Sea to Tropic Marin, although it may not change much, but we will experiment. As I understand, my light cycle was 14 hours; I will reduce it to 10 hours. Overall, I want to make an ice light; I don't like how the blue-white compacts shine, they produce a kind of whitish color, and the corals under them don't fluoresce much compared to what I saw at the exhibition, where everything looked completely different. Where can I buy 14000K-20000K diodes around here?

Alejandro

For 30 liters, that's a lot, especially considering the water displaced by the interior; so 10 liters means your aquarium is running half on freshly prepared water, and cyanobacteria may appear not so much from the weak water flow under the stones, but from the partial disruption of biological processes due to frequent water changes. Try changing 5 liters every 2 weeks. Let the biology gain strength.

Sara

It must be 420.

Melissa

What can be used to raise calcium levels?

Christine

You can't just raise calcium; it will decrease hardness. You can add this + this. In a week or two, it will be Ca = 450, kH = 7, pH = 8.3. Tested in practice.

Rodney3101

That's not the reason, and there's no need to raise anything for now. Our soft aquarium lived perfectly well with that calcium for over a year. It was at 320, and we could only raise it to 350-370, and everything was thriving and reproducing...

Joshua448

I highly recommend double-checking the calcium level with another test!!!

Selena4467

+100 I had to confirm this once again today! I'm testing the Serebryakov-320. I'm testing the JBL-480. I trust the latter. But even that with caution...

Curtis

Experience is the son of mistakes. Right now, I have the experience of "changing 5 liters of water twice a week." There is a result. Try changing 10-12 liters at once. In any case, fresh clean water is better than a compote of nitrates, phosphates, and other junk. Also, siphon off the cyanobacteria from the rocks and glass, as well as the detritus. I use Tetra Marin salt. It comes in a convenient package and dissolves well. My jar thrives on water changes. The umbrellas are always doing well, especially with the presence of blue lights. I'm already considering some weeding because as soon as they sense a rock nearby, they quickly attach to it.

Jacob4800

When it comes to problems with zoanthids, rather than cyanobacteria: If the advice above has been evaluated and tested (although not enough time has passed for the zoanthids to respond confidently even to changes in light), then even with calcium at 380, I would siphon out the cyanobacteria but not replace the water with new. They are consuming something, and if it’s fresh water, the cyanobacteria will surge back with renewed strength on the zoanthids and other living things. Attach a filter bag to the drain, and it will be easy to return the old water back into the system.

Caroline1599

Is there resin after the membrane?

Darlene4238

As for the trout, my father-in-law said that there seems to be nothing left there, but there is a lot of good wine.

Leonard

Today, I noticed that someone had slightly damaged some of the umbrellas. I suspect it was. I took a flag out of the water and, through a magnifying glass, saw a thin worm about 0.5 mm long that was hiding in the pores of the stone. Who could this be? Could it be the enemy?

Rachael

Hardly. The crab needs to be neutralized. Eternal destructors.

Spencer7805

I forgot to mention that amphipods are constantly crawling on the umbrellas; they might have some negative effect on them.

Hannah

No. Gammarids are herbivores and scavengers.

Brandi

I do not recommend storing salt in a bag. I have also observed that when salt is in a plastic bag, it clumps together, especially when the air in the room is a bit humid. It is better to keep it in a plastic container that is tightly sealed.

Adrienne

also an option

Angela7060

I don't even know what could be more resilient than umbrellas. Only if there is very little light, their necks stretch and become pale, but to the point of bending... As for water changes, it doesn't react at all. Whether it's 20% or 30%. Whether once a week or once every two weeks. If Politoyka has settled in the bush, it suppresses the umbrellas.

Michele

I'm doing fine with Ksyusha, but some of the umbrellas have withered. I've also noticed that nothing is really growing in my aquarium, neither soft corals nor hard ones, but at least they aren't dying off. Only Ksyusha is thriving like crazy, and Tania's capnella has grown well lately (it's time to trim it, but I have no idea how). The acropora, seriatopora, and euphyllia are hardly growing, and the umbrellas are mixed—some are doing fine (even mixed with aiptasia), while others have withered. The rodactis hasn't really grown either, so I have no idea what they all need. I'm only adding "reef plus" at 2.5 cubes a week (the instructions say I should be using 7.5 for my volume).

Pamela

Changes have occurred, I installed resin, 2 cartridges at the TDS output -0. I also received TM salt from Ai Rifa. I did the first water change of 5 liters. After 4 days, I did a 9-liter change, and so far I haven't noticed any visible changes. The only thing I noticed is that the umbrellas I moved under the rock into the shade before the resin and salt change visually seem to be doing better and noticeably improved.

Richard2180

Do you have another flask there? Or did you pour the resin into the outer one? I have the resin in the inner white one.

Jill1815

Yes, I bought a ready-made set of two cartridges + a tap, which is convenient because there is a connection for the osmosis tube. The resin is in the cartridges, which are transparent and disassemblable. They are sold with an unknown resin, and the price is 45. The only thing is that when you assemble everything, these cartridges somehow wobble. I just added one gasket from the old carbon on top, and everything is fine.

Beth3383

Here it is.

Elizabeth6302

People, does anyone know which snails can harm umbrellas?

Melinda

Here are these:

John5528

I had some troublemakers like this, they arrived on a little stone with umbrellas. In the photo, they turned out gray, but in reality, they are white.

Shelby3182

So, how's the situation? Are the umbrellas being adjusted? I have a similar situation... I'm flying...