Are these dead?
 

So, I saw an advert from a neighbour, who was giving these for free, because his lighting basically died and he couldn't afford a new one. These haven't had any light for a couple weeks, although the room they were in was full of windows, so they got some natural sunlight. I didn't have any coral in my nano yet, so I decided to get them.
I've seen two polips that are alive, but the rest has been closed for a few weeks. Are they dead? The tissue doesn't seem dead, but I don't really know...
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/V6wfT

Not dead, but there’s a nice Aiptasia on there. You’ll want to remove that if you’re going to keep this rock.
AiptasiaX is supposed to work.
Or do what I do and put a piece of coral rubble directly on the anemone. In a day or two it’ll climb on top of it. Then just remove the coral rubble.


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Yeah, I know about the aiptasia :p And that seems like a very smart, easy idea!

Definitely not dead, definitely not happy. They are dead when they are completely melted and that rock is empty. Given the lack of lighting they've received recently, what steps did you take introducing them to your tank?

Given the tank was empty, I started with no lighting, for like a day or two. Then, when I first turned on the light, I dimmed it so much you could hardly see the light was on. Over the days, I gradually made the light brighter, and it's now at the normal percentage. The led is pretty bad though, 4x 3w white powerleds, and 2x 3w blue powerleds, this is because the tank was supposed to be like a sort of plague coral display (with GSP and maybe Xenia, nothing else). I wanted a bit of movement color in my reptile room, it's not a serious tank, unlike my 40g.

So it’s a brand new setup that has not gone through a cycle?


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It was cycled for a long, long time. The rocks and water are from my 40 gal, and even so, I let it sit for 2 weeks before adding anything. With empty I mean there wasn't any coral.

Gotcha.
I’d just give it some time.
Keep them on the bottom of the tank and make sure they get decent light, but not too much.


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I've had aiptasia destroy garden / show tanks in short order. Also, vinegar works just as good as kalk paste and is easier and more convenient to work with.

IMO, I avoid closed zoas, even if free. If they are too far gone and start melting they'll release toxins that could aggravate other zoas. Plus, you don't know what's aggravating them and you want to introduce them to your main tank? At best I'd quarantine until they open.

Its pretty common to see zoanthids closed when unhappy. Avoiding them because they are closed is pretty poor advice and certainly not a reason to pass on them.

Add them to your quarantine tank, they will be fine. I don't see any signs of necrosis in the photo you've presented.

Have a chance

Update: They did not survive, sadly. Everything was correct, but it seems they were too weak. I saw 3-4 polyps open up, and tried to frag those, with no luck. I was pretty bummed, so I made the tank freshwater instead. I'm working on a new SW tank though.

Fragging a colony when weak will almost always lead to death. Even healthy colonies that are fragged may not heal. Your best bet was to dip and observe them. Wouldn't have recommended fragging until you saw growth in the colony.