Help!! quite urgent!!

[cyphoman]

hi i recently bought a zoanthid colony its quite small. after i put it in the tank about half an hour later all the polyps opened and now its day three none of them are opening what could be the problem i just tested my water and
ammonia 0.0
nitrite 0.0
nitrate 0.5
phosphate 0
heres a few shots they seem t have a little bit of brown stuff hanging out of there mouths i think i read somewhere its zooxanthelae not sure though

i was thinking maybe it could be the lighting. mine is a twin t5ho with reflectors. while it was at the shop im quite sure it was only a t8 so maybe it is getting to much light
i need to find an answer becos i dont want to loose this colony it is very nice

also side note most of the coral in there are getting back to health they were in my previous tank that crashed and burned all of the coral were border line dead and have recovered A LOT!! so dont be freaked out they still look quite bad but there getting there

any help is appeciated thanks very much

 

[ewurm]

Could be nutebranchs that eat zooanthids. We have those on occasion.

 

[cyphoman]

if they are infact nudies how do i get rid of them i cant see anymore except for one i gave it a bit of a shake and most of it fell off so hoping the 6 line will take care of it

 

[Reefscape]

First thing to try is too place the rock lower down in the tank, even on the sand bed, or just under a rock over hang. This will rule out light ( severe change of )..then let us know how the zoa's react after a day..

 

[cyphoman]

ok thanks for the input will do imediatly also did a large water change with r o water(first time).

thanks

 

[cyphoman]

ok took your advice and put them in shade although i put half of them in shade to test the theory. now they are lookin fat like when i first bought them. through the period that they didnt open they were long. anyways heres a pic thanks for the advice

 

[Reefscape]

They have certainly inflated some, compared to the first picture, which is a good sign..Lets see how they react in this location, and take it from there...

 

[cyphoman]

hi i just thought i'd give an update im very happy to report that the polyps are finally opening up

this shot was taken wednesday as the first polyp opened

and this is today were a lot more are opening hopefully they will fully open up as they are only half opening

thanks for looking

 

[dirtyblacksocks]

There are also really tiny starfish that feed on polyps during the night, no? Maybe get a red light out and see what's crawling around, if you don't have any other inverts I think harlequin shrimp take care of em'.

I've been told they're fairly common hitchhikers, I had them wipe out a colony of star polyps before I knew what was going on.

 

[cyphoman]

hi
thanks for the advice i will have a look at night time but i dont think i will get a harlequin seeing as they are around $400-$500 here in aus lol