Knowledgable Zoa/Paly People I'm Calling You OUT!

[Wy Renegade]

that is a good question, I've noticed some of my zoas seem to periodically shed their outter skin, sorta like the larger leather corals like Toadstool do. I know that when the larger Toadstools can't "shed" they slowly wither away and melt, so good flow is crucial to their ability to "shed", I wonder since zoas are considered soft corals that the same principal applies and similar biological processes are taking place?

just food for thought, anybody else notice this shedding of skin on their zoas?

I don't think I've noticed shedding in my zoas. Its an interersting observation Kev, you don't happen to have any pictures?

I seem to have that issue of shinking up too....some times the die and sometimes they come back. Still haven't pin pointed the issue. I'm thinking it might be water quality related.

Jim I personally think this is true far more often then not. I answered a thread on another forum where the OP posted up some pictures of pinched polyps and ask for suggestions to the cause. I asked about water quality and was assured that that was definitely not the issue as all parameters were spot on. Others jumped on board and stated that they were experiencing similar issues and their parameters were also spot on. I later posted up that I had seen similar issues in my tank and that I noticed them my alk had dropped. Several semi aggresive water changes later, the polyps in question had reverted to their normal look. After double checking, several of the other posters admitted that their water parameters were not quite as spot on as they thought. Not saying this is always the case, just saying that in this particular case, is seemed to be the issue.

Based on your observations and those of others, just how important would you say that alk levels are to the long term health of Zs-n-Ps? I often wonder how often people have bouncing alk levels, adjust their levels to "normal" levels, things go down hill and they go looking for answers.