Detaching euphyllia

[dportero]

Anyone have any idea why euphyllia would just randomly detach from the skeleton? My frogspawn did it, and now the hammer. All polyps look fully extended and healthy, even when detached.

Parameters:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
pH ~8
KH 10.3 dkh
Calcium 540
Salinity 35
Temp stable at 82 for months

I did a water change on Monday. The only thing i have changed is I started carbón dosing. Using diy nopox recipe. Dosing .25 ml every day. Tank is 8 gallon nano.

I am not carbon dosing for nutrient control, I am doing it to increase the the bacteria in the water column as a natural food for the corals.

Everything else in the tank is doing good, including a new birdsnest frag I got.

The only parameter that Is high is calcium, but would that affect attachment? From the BRS video on increased alkalinity and calcium I would think not.

 

[Hitman]

What is your MG & PO4?
What lights ? How high are they above the tank and at what levels are you running them?
With no nitrates and 10.4 dkh I think your starving them. Euphyllia like dirty dirty water and genudo not do well under 5 - 10 ppm Nitrate and 0.02 ppm PO4 or in very high MG.
In the BRS video your talking about they had detectable nitrates and PO4.

 

[dportero]

What is your MG & PO4?
What lights ? How high are they above the tank and at what levels are you running them?
With no nitrates and 10.4 dkh I think your starving them. Euphyllia like dirty dirty water and genudo not do well under 5 - 10 ppm Nitrate and 0.02 ppm PO4 or in very high MG.
In the BRS video your talking about they had detectable nitrates and PO4.

My magnesium was 1335 when I tested last. I don’t check that every time.

I don’t test for po4 but I have a Cheato refugium that I assume consumes most of it.

The light I have is a Ai prime non hd. It’s 8 inches off the surface of the water. I have it running at about 40% on the blue channels and 10% on the white. It is currently on acclimation mode because of some new additions

 

[Hitman]

How long have you had them?
@DSC reef whats your thoughts?

 

[Hitman]

Mg seems fine to me but your Alk just seems high for my liking with them.

 

[dportero]

How long have you had them?
@DSC reef whats your thoughts?

Since September. They were doing awesome and then this past week one head of both the torch and my frog spawn did this. The torch is by far the worst though. The frog spawn was only half detached.

Doing some reading online and it mentioned that flow can blow then out of the skeleton? Called polyp bailout or something. Happens when it’s not happy for some reason. But it’s only one head of each of my colonies

 

[Hitman]

Let's get some experts on here to help. #reefsquad

 

[DSC reef]

Not sure on the effects of high calcium but if your dosing I would stop. Too much flow can cause issues especially if pointed directly on the coral. I can't imagine calcium that high being good for the coral.

 

[dportero]

Not sure on the effects of high calcium but if your dosing I would stop. Too much flow can cause issues especially if pointed directly on the coral.

I was planning on putting them both in low flow areas.

Does dosing have this effect on euphyllia?

 

[DSC reef]

Dosing wont hurt if your keeping parameters stable but over dosing and not testing what your dosing can be detrimental

 

[dportero]

Dosing wont hurt if your keeping parameters stable but over dosing and not testing what your dosing can be detrimental

Can you expound? Am I over dosing, my levels have been stable so I didn’t think so.

Or are you talking about testing the actual dosing liquid?

 

[Dana Riddle]

Are you feeding the corals? We could speculate that the portion of the coral between the skeleton and polyp (called the organic matrix) is being digested. If the matrix is gone, the polyp could detach. Just guessing.

 

[dportero]

Are you feeding the corals? We could speculate that the portion of the coral between the skeleton and polyp (called the organic matrix) is being digested. If the matrix is gone, the polyp could detach. Just guessing.

I feed reef roids, and on this particular polyp the fish food falls on it a lot, so it gets fed more than the others

 

[DSC reef]

If your dosing calcium and now its 540 then yes, that's over dosing IMO. Testing the tank water is what I meant. We had multiple tridacna, SPS and LPS in a 75 and still did not need to dose calcium daily.

 

[dportero]

If your dosing calcium and now its 540 then yes, that's over dosing IMO. Testing the tank water is what I meant. We had multiple tridacna, SPS and LPS in a 75 and still did not need to dose calcium daily.

Ah ok. No I don’t dose calcium regularly, only when it dips too low. The last time I dosed it was a few weeks ago, and it jumped up higher than expected. I was just waiting for it to come down as I was using a lot.

 

[Nano30]

How old is your tank? The same thing happened to me about 3 months in although my parameters looked good. I attributed it to my tank not being mature enough at the time since I had no other explanation. I had a couple other corals that were fine and are still doing good to this day. I checked for brown jelly disease but didn't see any indication of it.

 

[dportero]

How old is your tank? The same thing happened to me about 3 months in although my parameters looked good. I attributed it to my tank not being mature enough at the time since I had no other explanation. I had a couple other corals that were fine and are still doing good to this day. I checked for brown jelly disease but didn't see any indication of it.

It is about 4 months old

 

[Nano30]

Someone else more knowledgeable may chime in with something better but if you lose them you may want to wait a few months to make sure your tank is established.

I hope they bounce back but if not just know the same thing happens to others. I was really discouraged at the time, waited a couple months, bought a frogspawn just to see how it would do and 2 months later everything seems fine. It is growing well and I have a hammer that is also doing well.

I’ll be interested to see what happens, keep the thread updated if you can.

 

[dportero]

Someone else more knowledgeable may chime in with something better but if you lose them you may want to wait a few months to make sure your tank is established.

I hope they bounce back but if not just know the same thing happens to others. I was really discouraged at the time, waited a couple months, bought a frogspawn just to see how it would do and 2 months later everything seems fine. It is growing well and I have a hammer that is also doing well.

I’ll be interested to see what happens, keep the thread updated if you can.

Will do

 

[Nano30]

One other thing could be something nipping at it. I had a Valentini Puffer I witnessed ripping arms off a Duncan which is now growing back. Most people have no issues with them but I returned mine to the lfs for credit. It’s possible he nipped at my Euphyllia as well.