star polyps and zoos look like crap

[ctgretzky9]

Hello!
Anyone know why these two would do poorly?
Lighting isnt an issue, I have pc's and they are up near them, same as in the 2 seperate LFS I bought each from...kept them in the same distance etc. Bulbs are only around 2-3 mo old
I took care of stray voltage with a grounding probe this weekend.
Parameters of tank are
ph 8.2 to 8.3 day/night
temp 78
amm/nitrite 0
nitrates 10
calcium 420
I bought a test kit for iodine, and it read 0...however, test was crap I think, as even if i dropped some iodine in test plate, still didnt register much.
So I bought some iodine anyway while I was there and did the minimum does (kent...8 drops per day)
2 days later, still look like crap...star polyps havent opened in a week, and zoos dont put out theie "threads" for the past week or so and generally look like they are on the decline. am I missing anything?
Thanks!!!

 

[tank1483]

My zoos have done the same thing, not opened up when they were close to the light. I brought them down near the bottom of the tank, and they have opened up a lot more. I dont know if they were supposed to or if mine are strage but it maybe something to try.
HTH

 

[daisy]

You say that you put them at the same level as they were in the LFS, but does the LFS have as strong lighting as you have? Maybe they were closer to a weaker light source. I would place them lower and see what happens.
Good luck!
Daisy

 

[ctgretzky9]

The LFS had the same lighting as me...pc's and my inhabitants have been in my tanks for around 4-5 months now with no problems. I asked both stores the lighting requirements and saw what they had.
I will try moving them as a change.
Could a lack of iodine be a cause? I just started this weekend like I stated in my original post.
Also, I do not feed them the zooplankton or whatever it is called. I should have stated that...but they seemed very happy eating the frozen foods i feed all of the tankmates...a mixture of ocean nutirionals alga (half a cube) and brine shrimp (half a cube) as well as some flake i pinch in. Is there enough nutrients in those 3 varieties to feed them?
Thank you so much for the responses so far, I will change their positions in the tank.

 

[smarls]

Gretzky,
If you are doing regular water changes, then I don't think iodine will be your issue, and I would stop dosing it.
I have similar lighting to you 240 watts of PC in a 55 gallon. Personally, I would not move them down in the tank. I have maybe 12 colonies of zoanthids, and probably 4 of them are within the top third of the tank, and I see no ill effects.
The thing I have noticed most with zoanthids is flow...they need a lot of it. What kind of flow do you have them in? My first thought when I see a zoanthis not doing well is not light, but rather flow, and the first thing I do is move them to a higher flow area. They can handle a lot of flow!
Also, you had stray voltage? That sucks...they may just take a while to recover from that.
As for feeding, I don't feed my zoas directly. However, a supplemental feeding wont hurt if they are doing badly. You may for a while try spot feeding them something small and meaty (turn off the power heads, and blow the food onto them with a turkey baster). Maybe crunched up brine or something, or buy some cyclopeeze.
HTH
Stewart

 

[ctgretzky9]

I apologize if this is an old post, but want to respond to Stewart since he took the time to write...my internet at work has been down for 3 days...long story
Anyhoo, everything looks better now. I did move the polyps over into a flow more as well as the zoos, and I think they needed time to recover from the 14 volt stray voltage.
In any event, thanks for the input! As usual I got some good advice from you all.