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View Full Version : Zoas/palys turning brown, Lighting?


lkc
08/17/2009, 12:41 PM
I have/had some lime green palys and some gold palys with lime centers. Since I've had them under the Coralvue (two 24 watt HO T5 actinic blue bulbs and two 24 watt HO T5 10,000K daylight bulbs) Their growth is good but they are have all turned brown (a rich lovely golden brown) I want my colors back! Does anyone know why this is and do I need different lighting? They are close to the surface, about 4 inches below. The light sits on the legs. In fact all the zoas in my tank are kind of brown where they used to be pink. Growth is exploding on a lot of the colonies. It's a 15G starfire with a pair of clowns and a crapload of zoas. Someone once said "too much nutrients" ?? I have a skimmer, and I stopped directly feeding the zoas for now.
Thanks,

Fishindude88
08/17/2009, 02:49 PM
Do you have any nitrates present?

zoadude
08/17/2009, 03:52 PM
Might consider it to be too much lighting or too much in too little a time for them to adjust. What will happen is the algae in the tissues will begin to multiply thus the brown coloration. That would be something to look at. T5s are powerful lighting and corals that have not adjusted to a fast change from one type of lighting to T5s or different T5 bulb brands can have problems getting accustomed to the change. Zoanthids will seldom, very seldom, bleach under too much lighting like most other corals, namely LPS, but rather darken, there are exceptions (NG for example will brown with too little lighting).
Just something to consider.
That's a lot of light over a 15gl.

lkc
08/18/2009, 11:19 AM
Dude 1, no nitrates to speak of. I have a great ecosystems 40 hangon fuge with skimmer.
Dude 2, I think you're right. They are at the highest point in the tank. I took them off last night - more to scrub the dam sponge thats starting to encroach - and putt them into a 27 gal tank on the bottom, black sand much darker in there and I'll see what it does. The light is about the same in that tank.
I looked at the sticky at the top of this forum and many of the questions are same as mine, but I got errors when I clicked on them. Thanks DUDES!

Alex33324
08/20/2009, 02:24 PM
Just an idea it might be too much nutrients in the water check the protein skimmer make sure is working properly, do some water changes and try to reduced the amount of food. Its just an idea most probably is a combination of more than one factor.

breezy421
10/21/2009, 04:05 PM
gonna agree with Zoadude and say they are getting to much light.

munitalpeno
10/22/2009, 05:44 AM
put them on the bottom , i had the same thing happen and once i lowered the zoa's they colored back up with in a week.