bleaching

duneenworywifit said:

what causes bleaching in zooanthids.my zoos have turned white for so reason I dont know.can anyone help me here?I change 24 gals every 4 weeks with natural seawater,I dont dose because the pets stores dont sell anything for salt water,only fresh.could it be my light?8x54 watt T5.any info will help! thanx

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Lets approach this from the why do corals bleach. Boiled down it's stress.

Stress can be caused by:
Temperature -changes,too high/low
Water Quality- Nitrates,Nitrites,Ammonia,Calcium, Alk, and PH out of wack.
Lighting - too intense, too little

These are the normal things to take a look at now.
Typical maintenance is not every 4 weeks water change. In those 4 weeks the pollutants build up. So by week 3 or 4 your levels can be intolerable to your corals. Though you change a lot on week 4 and drop all the readings to normal again. You are back on the rollercoaster of not maintaining a stable environment. The reef does not do this.

The goal of our maintenance is to keep a "stable and Consistantly Stable" environment.

I suggest you change 10% weekly. Test your water at the very least weekly.
You must test for nitrates,nitrites,ammonia,phosphates,calcium, alkalinity,PH, and Salinity.

The main thing you want to see is Nitrates keeping at 10 or below...so in other words at water change day pre-change....your nitrates should not read over 10. If they do, you should change more than 10% to be sure to drive them way down. So that next test its not as high. If it stays high, evaluate how you are polluting the water so much in a weeks time. (come back here about that is the case so we can get into that topic later).

The focus here is keeping a good maintenance schedule and keeping your readings in check.

The lighting seems fine but what kind of bulbs are you using?
How long are the photoperiods?
What are your exact test readings currently?

IT's going to take some TLC and time to recover those zoos. Lets first get you on the track to keeping them stress free first.

Great advice from ToeJam... here is my little spin on it though.

Nitrates I think are not nearly as critical as some other parameters. Yes, keeping them "in check" is good, but with zoas even a Nitrate reading of 40 is acceptable. Heck, I have seen quite a few successful SPS reef tanks with nitrates in that level even though I wouldn't suggest that high of numbers, but 10-20 is still "safe" IMO. Phosphates on the other hand are something that quickly gets out of control and is much harder to maintain a low number vs Nitrates. Unfortunately it is not easy to test for Phosphates.. even my $200 Hanna meter isn't the end all/be all for testing Phosphates although much better than boxed test kits.

If I had to make 1 guess on why your zoas bleached though I would guess your lighting.. way too much. Just a guess since I obviously have never seen your tank in person or know how you take care of it other than what you wrote.

One motto SPS reefers live by is SPS=Stability Promotes Success, which is true for any reef tank, just much more important in an SPS tank. Stability means keeping levels constant every day.. if that means doing a 1-2 gallon water change every day vs a 25G once a month, do that. Most people find a balance of weekly changes though and that also works. Anything over a week and things start building up and throwing the "Stability" out of whack.

Too much blue even the mix out to 4 and 4. I have zoos under 18k 400w mh and they do fine. I agree with a small water change every week is better than a massive change once per month. Where are you getting your water from.

Use a daylight an actinic white is going to add more blue. Do you filter the water before you use it.

duneenworywifit said:

so should I add a daylight bulb or a white actinic?I collect my water from the ocean at high tide.

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Actinic is the blue spectrum ...high K rating types...corals that benefit from this are the deeper in the water type of corals.

Most people suggest going 50/50 in lighting types. What I mean is 2 20ks and 2 10ks for example...there you have both the high and low spectrums.

I have several zoos myself under 500w of halides at 12k ratings. They are mostly on the bottom the one put mid way into the tank is doing just fine under that intense lighting.

The problem with the water from the ocean is parasites, bacteria, and other pollution in the water introduced by man ...you never know if one day you have a bucket full of harmful things in the water or not...

Also if you havnt noticed the foam near beaches...thats like skim mate...heavy in dissolved organic compounds...bad stuff.

read my sig on Protein skimmers to understand skimmers and organic compound removal... you will understand what I mean by the skimmate comparison to the water near shore.

its a big gamble taking water from the sea. You are much better off taking RO/DI water and mixing your own.

Just for kicks test the water you get from the ocean next time...i wonder if it even is close to ideal water to change out with...i doubt it...but curious.

Another example: what if some boater had a leaky oily motor and that washed up to shore and you took a bucket of that home? =) see what i mean by a gamble?

or how about run off water from some farm ? You never know on any given day that water near shore is good or bad because of human factor.

Now if you lived on some remote beach with no factories and farms nearby...you probably can do just fine with the water from the ocean...

The final question: Do you want to take the risk of killing off your tank because of one bad bucket with trace metals,bacteria, parasites, bad living things, and or high dissolved organics in it?

Evaluate the area you are getting it from...if its got a lot of people living nearby...its best to avoid the shore water...you are better off going out on a boat and getting several gallons that way if you can do that...
But even then if you have that kind of money.... RO/DI unit and making your own salt is the sure way to be 100% safe and less troublesome.

I agree whole heartadly with ToeJam - The water is not worth the risk - Most costal aquariums that pull from the sea are no where near the shoreline. Pumped from afar.