Frogspawn question/help

[Justin....#JAMAS]

Hello my name is Justin and I've been in the hobby for about a year now and have learned a lot thru trial and error and patience! Ive been a part of saltwaterfish forum, but every single time I post something to ask a question or post something BC I had an emergency with the tank, nobody would ever answer or try to help me out, so I'm trying a different forum!! Anywayssss...A few months back my LFS sold me a camel shrimp thinking it was a peppermint shrimp! Well he was the one responsible for a tear in my frogspawn where the white skeleton meets the tentacles....it looked to be healing and doing great even though once there was some white stuff around it but it went away. Well I took the camel shrimp back immediately and the coral has been doing great!! Well the other night I've noticed the frogspawn hasn't been opening as full as usual as of late, and it did start to sprout a new head but all growth just seemed to stop! The other night I noticed the white stuff around the edges where that tear was so I make a dip of seachem reef dip, which I've never used, with one capful in one gallon of tank water, and put the frogspawninto it....it says on the bottle to keep a close watch on the coral for any adverse reaction like excessive slimming. Well after about 4 or 5 minutes I saw that it was almost melting and a tenticle of two was inflamed like a balloon!!!! I quickly got it out and put it in some tank water to wash off and put it back in my tank....there was a couple long pieces of green slime coming off of it and the tenticles that were blown up like air bubbles gradually came back down to normal...the tear on the frogspawn is back to normal as if there was no tear at all! In fact on both heads, where the skeleton meets the tentacles everything is all healed and looks great but now my frogspawn just doesn't extend as far as it used to....I'm glad the tear is all healed up, but why won't the tentacles extend like it used to? I'm guessing the Seachem reef dip made them slime/melt?? Why in the crap did it slime up and almost melt on me in that reef dip, and a couple tentacles turn into balloons? I'm posting a pic I just took of my frogspawn a few days now after the dip and a pic of when I first got the frogspawn.....has anyone ever had this happen or know why? And anything I can do to help it, other than lighting, flow or placement and calcium BC all of those are in check as well as stable pH and alkalinity! Thank you in advance, anyone, as I'm very worried and really appreciate anyone that would chime in for some help here....

 

[reef lover]

First off welcome to r2r!! I hope your experience is better here than with past forums!! Second frogspawn tends to like low flow and low light...he looks awfully high in the tank...maybe try some different spots to see if u can make him happy...

 

[IslandLifeReef]

If you want more help, post all of your parameters. Just saying everything is fine doesn't provide enough info to give an accurate analysis.

 

[Idoc]

Welcome to R2R... sorry can't answer your question, but following since looking at getting some frogspawn for my tank soon.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Gradually frogspawn can handle higher light but high flow they never fully open. I would place in an area of lower light and reduced flow for a few weeks and see if it recovers. No more dips or touching it. Already stressed corals can take a down turn to too much change rather quickly.
Your other parameters, particularly alkalinity need to stay stable.
Hopefully will recover

 

[cycled123]

My frogspawn like moderate flow and medium light. For me Alk stability is key to how my frogspawn looks, grows, and behaves. Right now I have alk spike going on and my frogspawn is not happy but other euphyllia are unchanged. I'm lowering alk slowly because last time this happened I went to fast and frogspawn and hammer bailed (lost all tentacles). The frogspawn died but hammer did come back after about 6 months.

 

[Justin....#JAMAS]

Awesome to see so many people respond so quickly that actually give a crap! Thanks everyone!!
Yeah he's about 6 inches off the sand bed in a little cove that he freaking loves! Ive got him put in a spot kind of sheltered in this little rock where not alot of flow can get to him! He always opens soo full in this spot, always! Even after I dipped him to make sure that lesion would heal up, he opened up immediately! I'm just scared that he slimmed or melted too much and I melted off some of his tentacles or something...bc it looks like he's trying to open more but just cant, its weird....I would have never used that seachem reef dip if I knew it would cause a reaction like that! Ive always used coral Rx and has done some amazing things for me!! But I will try lowering him down just a bit to see if that will help! My parameters are as follows and thank you again for responding!! Also here is another pic of the frogspawn when my morning blue led lights gradually turn on before the t5s kick on

Amm- 0
Nitrite- 0
pH- 8
Nitrate- =>5

 

[Justin....#JAMAS]

Sorry forgot these parameters

Alk - 9.3. stays around or at 9

Calcium- 440 always stays in the low to mid 400s like this

I also only have a big 600gph hydor and a small 400gph hydor.... the big one in the top left front corner and the small one in the back bottom right corner blowing flow behind the rocks so nothing gets stuck back there like food or anything lol....I have a cheap maxi jet 400 that I got in the beginning but that sucker is wayyyyyy to powerful of a flow for my tank! Can't believe how strong that power head is, so I use it to mix water! I really need to invest in some better powerheads or a wavebox, if anyone has any good powerheads for sale please let me know

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

My frogspawn gets angry and looks like that whenever there is a spike in salinity or temperature. It usually takes him a few days to recover, but he always does. Hopefully yours is just mad right now.

 

[Justin....#JAMAS]

Yeah I hope he's just mad...pretty sure I've ticked him off/hurt him when I put him in that seachem reef dip!! I can't believe that stuff actually started to make him melt like that!!! Crazy crazy

 

[Justin....#JAMAS]

You can't say pi$$ed?

 

[Gareth elliott]

Yeah I hope he's just mad...pretty sure I've ****** him off/hurt him when I put him in that seachem reef dip!! I can't believe that stuff actually started to make him melt like that!!! Crazy crazy

I use reef dip, its similar to other iodine dips. But only for new healthy corals to kill any pests brought with the coral. Or to kill or shake off known external parasites.
There is too much anecdotal evidence as to its benefit to treat ill corals. If corals a - g are treated and a b and c get better doesnt mean it works; Without knowing that a -f had the same affliction, a b and c were less severe cases, etc too many variables.
Even seachem themselves say” gently disinfect”. Is it also killing the bacteria eating the dead tissue that are necessary to healing?

My 2 cents of using dips for an unknown or future secondary infection lol.

 

[Zack K]

You can't say pi$$ed?

Family Friendly Forum. [emoji6] Welcome to R2R! Everyone seems to have you on the right track. Just make sure you keep some nutrients in the water. Nitrate and phosphate keeps Euphyillia happy in my findings.

@revhtree can help you if you have any other questions or concerns about Forum Rules

-Zack

 

[Justin....#JAMAS]

I understand completely about the family friendly forum thing, just didn't know bout saying that word, my fault. But thank you everyone for chiming in, really helps me out a ton on the next course of action to take with my branching frogspawn! And gareth , I totally understand what your saying! When I mixed the reef dip with tank water I mixed a gallon with not even a capful of solution....after the dip, my cleaner shrimp went directly to the frogspawn and helped clean up the dead tissue, like he always does, and cleaned pretty much everything else on it.....can there be any kind of hitchhikers like worms and stuff that can get into or onto the tentacles or the frogspawn causing them to close and re open?

 

[Justin....#JAMAS]

OK guys I'm really perplexed on this one...over the la st few days I moved the frogspawn down and he hated it, didnt even try to open for 48 hours....I put him back in his usual spot that he loves yesterday evening.....well this evening after I turned off my wave point high output t5 light that I turn on for "the brightest point in the day" for a couple hours, I than only have a coralife 2 bulb t5 fixture with blue actinics and a crappy led strip on blue......well anyways I turned off the wave point light and an hour later noticed the frogspawn was almost completely retracted on one of his heads and the area where the tentacles meets the skeleton, it was very puffy and purple! I than noticed, as this always happens and I'm hoping its a good thing, that the cleaner shrimp was all over the frogspawn! I've observed this long enough to know that it looks like he is picking off dead skin and other crap from whatever happened to it from sliming in that dip....well the shrimp stayed on him cleaning I guess all over for about 5 minutes and now finally its back to normal! I did notice that white stringy stuff coming out around the top of the skeleton, whenever the sides going around the skeleton where the tentacles meet the skel, were puffed up purple colored. It's almost as if the frogspawn was discharging something...and at one point something that looked like a little itty bitty tiny dead tentacle was sorta spit out by the frogspawn as the shrimp was cleaning it....there's also like a white film all over the skeleton that I'm assuming is dead skin maybe? BC the shrimp cleans it up quite a bit.....other than moving it I haven't touched it one bit and parameters are all the same, all good! Here's a pic of the purple area puffed up and a pic of the cleaner shrimp cleaning it, also have a short video clip but its just a little too long to let me load! Thanks for any help as to what this frogspawn is trying to do....is it trying to heal itself?

 

[Zack K]

First off, congratulations, he’s open again. Now on the your questions. The “white slime” was I fact the slime coat of the coral. It is the corals natural way to fend off predators and parasites, as well as clean any detritus and what not that might have got on the head off. The “dead tentacle” is coral waste. What eats, poops. The cleaner shrimp was just helping speed the process up.
So by the way it sounds. After your Frogspawn threw a temper tantrum and slimed up, and took a nice poo, he felt better and showed off.

-Zack

 

[Justin....#JAMAS]

Glad to get that relieving news that's his natural way of doing things! But he still doesn't open up as far as he used to before I dipped him in the seachem reef dip...as you can see in my very first pic I posted, when I bought him he would stretch out so dang far and after the dip, is it possible that I damaged him and his tentacles? Also I just hooked up my aquatic life buddy 4 stage rodi system and has some 5 gallon plastic jugs that I drip the good water in thru a little whole in the cap that the line can fit into to go in....well I have a 5 gallon bucket that I pour the water in to mix when its finished filling up and I've been mixing my salt to 1.026 for about 25 hours now and no matter how I do it I'll turn the power head off and there just is some little stuff right on top of the surface of my good mixed water!!! What in the world can I do to cut down on the TDS that is on top of the water I mixed??

 

[Gareth elliott]

Glad to get that relieving news that's his natural way of doing things! But he still doesn't open up as far as he used to before I dipped him in the seachem reef dip...as you can see in my very first pic I posted, when I bought him he would stretch out so dang far and after the dip, is it possible that I damaged him and his tentacles? Also I just hooked up my aquatic life buddy 4 stage rodi system and has some 5 gallon plastic jugs that I drip the good water in thru a little whole in the cap that the line can fit into to go in....well I have a 5 gallon bucket that I pour the water in to mix when its finished filling up and I've been mixing my salt to 1.026 for about 25 hours now and no matter how I do it I'll turn the power head off and there just is some little stuff right on top of the surface of my good mixed water!!! What in the world can I do to cut down on the TDS that is on top of the water I mixed??

This might be precipitate from the salt. Mixing a high psu your case ~34.50 at lower temperatures can cause part of the mix to precipitate out.

Also did you flush all of the lines before making the sea water? Could also be what ever was left in the membranes or resin during manufacturing.

 

[Justin....#JAMAS]

Yeah I set it up just like the video demonstrated...first I flushed the membrane for about 20 min,than hooked up the DI cartridge and flushed it for 30min like they said to do....after I make 5 gallons and pour it in my bucket I'll put a powerhead and a heater to make the salt mix very thorough! Than let it mix for over 25 hours

 

[Gareth elliott]

Yeah I set it up just like the video demonstrated...first I flushed the membrane for about 20 min,than hooked up the DI cartridge and flushed it for 30min like they said to do....after I make 5 gallons and pour it in my bucket I'll put a powerhead and a heater to make the salt mix very thorough! Than let it mix for over 25 hours

Try heating the water first, could also just be impurities in the salt or precipitate that formed during whatever manufacturing process they use. I doubt its tds from the ro/di unit. But after awhile would be a good idea to pick up a cheap tds meter to test your rodi unit periodically to test the membranes.