Zoas in trouble help!

[RKelman]

Over the last 6 months my Zoas are getting smaller. The polyps are quite a bit smaller / less colorful. Almost every type I have. (6 I think) My other corals are healthy and growing. My KH Keeps dropping to 8 My calcium is ok. I keep the salinity at .026 Nitrates are 10-15ppm. The only other thing happening that is strange is my Chaeto growth has slowed to a creep. It was growing like crazy. I can't remember the last time I trimmed it. I have replaced the bulb in my fuge but that didn't help. I did get lazy on my water changes for a while but I've been doing them the last couple months and it doesn't seem to be helping.

[jtremblay]

Just a guess ...

But you have /lots/ of softies in there, including leathers. Leathers are notorious for pumping out chemicals to the detriment of their neighbours.

So ... try running a bunch of carbon (and maybe some Purigen or PolyFilter, for good measure) in a fluidized reactor. The reactors are relatively cheap (under $50, IIRC), and they work much better than passively running a bag in your sump or overflow. There may be something else going on in your tank, but carbon won't actually hurt anything.

Just make sure you swap out the old media for fresh every 3 or 4 weeks. In fact, if you have some PolyFilter and / or Purigen in the reacotr, those will turn brown with organics when it's time to swap them out.