do zoos ever recover their color

[kane720]

I have some fire and ice zoos that lost their color after my tank took a swing to the worst. My tank is doing good now and after a little over two weeks all my zoos finally open back up. the blue in the ices are nowhere near as bright as when i 1st got them. Do zoos ever recover their color and what can i do to help bring the color back?

[killingseed]

i would say yes some what. if zoa's get bleached in some way they will recover their colors. as for the blue center on fire and ice that hard to say. i have some that lost the blue center when my tank had pc's over them. now that i have MH's over the tanks i the blue still hasnt come back. and i am not sure they will ever have the blue centers again. still some nice zoa's with the redish skirts and white mouth.

[gflat65]

I'd stretch to say that if you had them a certain color for an appreciable amount of time in your tank (several months at the peak color after adding them, minimum), and have had no equipment/bulb, etc changes, you should be able to get it back. There are so many variables with zoa coloration (like everything else) that finding what let them have the nice colors is not going to be an easy task. Try to get back to where the system was before they lost color and see what happens. If they were at peak color when you got them and slowly lost color (colored up in someone else's tank initially), they may not hold the color in your system with your setup parameter/equipment, etc. HTH.

[supernareg]

i have fire n ices, some of the blues that went away, the blue never came back :(

it sucks, its a dull blue now

[MUCHO REEF]

I agree with these guys big time, great answers.

Zoas can, will and have come back to their original color or very near to it. I am in the process of nursing two very nice blastomusa colonies back to health. Back to zoas though, you have to place them low or no more than % 50 of the height of the tank. Why? Only from personal experience do I say that. This rule has worked with some crazy ricordea that I had, it's working with the blastos and it worked with some zoas a few years ago. The recovery could very well take 6 months to a year. Whatever causeed them to expel their zooxanthellae, ( the symbiotic single celled algae that lives within the coral that gives them their color/pigment ) must be corrected or they will continue to decline. Numerous factors can be responsible for this expulsion, but your zoas can be saved.

Direct lighting isn't necessarily what you're looking to provide to put them back on course to heal. Since light shock is but one of the many culprits, I tend to face the corals forward with indirect lighting with, of course, lots of current. Lack of current is also one of the many factors which cause bleaching. The biggest mistake one can make is to constantly move any zoanthid or palythoa colony from spot to spot. Doing so will only stunt growth and delay the recovery you are trying to achieve. Place it, leave it, inspect it from time to time and just leave it alone. Allow mother nature to do what it does naturally. Zoas can become seriously nutrient deficient while recovering, in short, it's like having a lowered immune system, making them even more vulnerable to other issues.

When you say your tank took a swing for the worse, what actually happened?

Best of luck to you..

Mucho

[Lytehouse]

So the real issue with the bleaching is the loss of the zooxanthellae? That helps me understand a lot.

I've really noticed the part about getting them placed, then leaving them alone. Lots more new growth happens for me when I do this.

[Marsfrogie]

The blues seem to be the most fickle in my personal experience. As far as I know, the only color that you can't change is the white spotting that occurs from certain lighting situations. You may be talking on the order of several weeks to notice an improvement in the color.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

My fire & ice zoanthids have coloured up quite nicely under my HO T5 lighting, as opposed to the PC lighting I had before. I notice the blue centres are becoming more vivid.

[Reef Junkie]

Some great advice here.
Here's my 2cents...

I have found that Zoanthids do not bleach all of the time. they usually will recede and die. Palythoa will bleach, though.

Either case is tough to turn around and the best thing to do is try and keep your temperature, salinty and alk in check.

A stable salinty will help keep stress down from osmotic shock.

Temperature will help prevent bleaching.

Alk will help prevent ph swings and even keep your corals colors.

All of which can be accomplished by keeping up with water makeup and cooling/heating.

Here is what I have used with great success...

A container (say 5 gallons or so) filled with RO water and Kalkwaser. I use two tablespoons in the container and mix it up real well. Then drip it into the sump at about one drip per second or more if there is higher precipitation of water.

The salinity stays stable and the kalkwasser keeps the alk/ph up. Just be careful not to drip in too fast, you'll precipitate your calcium right out of the water.

So the drip container takes care of two of my problems, now heat.

I use a fan & a 300 watt heater connected to a Medusa controller. It keeps my temperature at 79-81 degrees, perfect.

Also, clean all of your equipment. If not running properly, it can cause any sort of problem.

HTH