Frogspawn Receding

[bmac300]

In the last month or so both of my frogspawn colonies have started to recede. The rest of my corals are doing fine (Torch, Duncan, Acro and Xenia).
I'm going through a bad GHA outbreak and have been dosing carbon in the form of vinegar for about the same time.
Last week I added Carbon and GFO to a phosban reactor (about a cup of each) to reduce phosphates and help to remove other impurities.
I've also been slowly adding Magnesium to get it back up to over 1200 (lowest measured was 1100)

Parameters are:

Nitrate 25 (was over 50 and slowly coming down with carbon dosing)
Phosphate 0.03
Magnesium 1200
Alkalinity 10
Temp 79
Salinity 1.025

Test kits are all Salifert

I also have a recent ICP analysis. Total Phosphates and some other parameters are very high and that is why i started with the GFO and carbon.

Should i just be patient and get my parameters in check and hope that the frogspawn recovers or should i be doing something else. Flow has not changed and i replaced my T5 lights a few days ago so i don't think it is an issue with either of these.

I've included pics of the same colony before and after as well as the ICP results.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Reefer5640]

Could the flow have changed do to algae in your wave makers? Or is there any algae bugging the coral keeping it slightly retracted? Both are things that I have seen cause my euphyllia to retract.

 

[bmac300]

There doesn't seem to be any algae on the coral itself and the flow hasn't changed. I can turn down the flow on my powerhead nearest to the frogspawns and see if that does anything.

 

[Reefer5640]

If there is too much flow that will keep them retracted. I wouldn’t reduce your flow unless it’s something you increased before it retracted. You don’t want to change a big thing like that at risk of effecting all the other coral that are happy. How long have you had it? It looks like a decent size. Has it grown to that size in that same tank and same spot or have you moved it recently? I only pointed out the algae since you said that was a new thing with your tank. Just looking for could have changed?

 

[bmac300]

I have had for it about 2 years and I started with two small frags that were both the same size and they have both been in the same spot since i got them. They were growing great up until the last few months.

 

[Rickybobby]

Where are they in the tank? Close to power heads etc ?

 

[mochaclownlover]

I've had what looks like this exact same thing happen to my frogspawn and essentially the same story. Had it for 5yrs, grew like a weed, then suddenly tissue recession. Some polyps bailed(2-3), but most just receded up to about half to 1 inch from the actual polyp. I still don't have a hard reason for the issue. I attributed it to low pH and Alk, but even after raising both I had a similar issue with a hammer, just not as sever. After all this mine seemed to prefer lower light and flow compared to prior. I also gave mine some iodine dips which seemed to provide some temporary relief for the colony. I also moved a frag to my nano and it looks completely normal, so in my case at least it was some sort of imbalance, but haven't had time to isolate it.

 

[bmac300]

I have a 120 gallon tank it is 60 inches long and the frogspawns are in the middle of the tank. I have powerheads at both ends of the tank. One is a jebao SLW-30 and the other is a cheap hydor i think it is. Got it used so i'm not sure how strong it is.

Interesting you had the same experience I do believe it is an imbalance in the tank hopefully it is just the high phosphates and once i get that under control it will thrive again.