closed up zoanthids

threebs

I am having trouble getting zoanthids to open up. All of the tank parameters are within acceptable limits, and everything else is doing fine. I just cannot seem to get the zoos to fully open. Any suggestions as to what is going on here?

bearwithfish

how new are they to the tank? i have had new ones take a few days... it could be lights temp or other inhabitants harassing them too.... just ideas to check .....

threebs

Temps and light are good. three frags are 10 days in the aquarium, the other two are two days in.

threebs

I double checked my temps, as I remembered I replaced my old T8 florescents with a New T5 fixture. The new fixture gives off considerably less heat. As a result instead of the 84 to 86 degrees F. I used to have the water is now 78. I also added a 30 gallon refugium with T5 lighting, more water to heat, but less BTU's to heat it with. I put in a jager heater to bring up the temps, I hope this helps, other wise I do not know what else to do.

bearwithfish

84 is way way high.. 75-79 is a good range.... i would say wait it out a few more days and see what happens.. unless any one else has ideas that you can explore..........

njudson

How close are these frags to the lights? and what was their light situation like in the tank they came from. When my zoas aren't open it seems to be correlated with the lights or with my alk being out of line.

threebs

Two of the "frags" are actually colonies, they are about 14 inches from the T5's the smaller frags are scattered amongst the live rock a couple of inches lower. The two colonies from my LFS were under somewhat dimmer lighting than I am providing. The smaller frags are from an on line source that states metal halides are the light source. I put the heater in a bit ago, and the digital temperature gauge shows a rise from 78.1 to 81 right now. I can detect a small difference in the zoos and hold out hopes that a few more degrees will be to their liking and they will fully open within the next 24 hours. So far so good? We will see.

njudson

I doubt that warmer will help. 78 is the generally accepted ideal in the hobby as far as I'm concerned. But it sounds as if you started your zoas low in the tank which is what I would have recommended.