Zoos curled, mushrooms not full

[Squiddy]

I bought a nice zoo rock from Scott at IPZ last week and ever since, all of the zoos have been curled around the edges. I put the rock in the tank Saturday evening, and all day Sunday the zoos were looking amazing! Come lunch time on Monday, for some reason they all started to shrivel up around the edges. I have another frag that has some large zoos on it and they have been slightly shriveled for a while now.

For some reason, ever since I changed from 260W of 2 year old PC bulbs to 324W of HO T5's, my mushrooms have not been as full as they were. It was about the same time that I noticed my large zoo frag shriveling.

My water parameters are fine as far as I can tell:

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
PH 8.2
KH 6.6 (could be higher)
Calcium 360-380mg/L (could be higher)

I dose Aragamilk and Phytoplex weekly.

All of my other corals are happy as can be and growing in size. Both zoo rocks are in the lower third of the tank, so I don't think they're too close to the lights.

Anyone have any suggestions? I don't want to lose this beautiful zoo rock!

[Xtasia]

Have you changed or upgraded your flow anytime recently.. Mushrooms I find, inflate larger when they are in lower flow areas. Also lower light (but not low light) also seems to promote mushroom 'fluffiness'.

With the zoos, did you check for parasites and perform a dip before putting it into your tank... look for irritants like worms, snails, etc between the polyps... if you see detritus, use a turkey baster or powerhead to blow it off...

Sometimes all they need is time to get used to their new environment...

[Xtasia]

Originally Posted by Squiddy

For some reason, ever since I changed from 260W of 2 year old PC bulbs to 324W of HO T5's, my mushrooms have not been as full as they were. It was about the same time that I noticed my large zoo frag shriveling.
!

oh yeah... I replaced my old MH bulbs with new ones.. and it made the mushrooms lay flat and some of the large zoos (palythoas) curl up.. but in time they relaxed...

don't worry..

[NanoReef]

i when you upgrade lighting, you should cut back on the time that they are on. This caused a problem for me as well but in a week or 2 they were all fine.

[EmilyB]

Do you have any other fish or inverts that you haven't listed?

[Squiddy]

I did not dip the zoas before putting them in my tank... I probably should have but I have read mixed opinions on the matter. My flow has been constant for a while now and as I said, I changed over to T5's in January.

Last night I decided to take the large zoo rock out of my tank and stick it in my girlfriend's 6g nano. During the transfer, we noticed a large black snail that could be a sundial snail.





I don't think one snail could cause all of the zoas to close up could it? Anyways, it's now 1pm the next day and the zoas have been out and happy as can be in her tank. Other than her dHK being at 10.9 instead of my 6.6 and her PH being at 7.8 instead of my 8.2, her parameters resemble those in my tank. The flow in her nano is low-med and there is one 18W PC over the tank.

Emily: Other than the cleaner shrimp (that I just added to the list) and a bunch of blue hermits, that's everything in my tank right now.

[Tangman]

Don't know much about zoos as mine are always curled up too.
( have been tagging along)
I would try to raise your Alk to at least 8.0, what's your CA level?http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html is a good site for chemistry calculations

[Squiddy]

CA is 360-380. I think I need to work on raising both the ALK and the CA. I was reading a number of posts on RC regarding T5's and it looks like I am going to have to put the zoos and mushrooms as low down in the tank as possible. I guess I will need to do some rockwork first.

[Beverly]

When adjusting alk and Ca, remember to test for and adjust magnesium, too.

[Squiddy]

Thanks Beverly. I actually don't have a mag test kit so I will need to pick one up.