Hammers, Octos, Frogspawns; heads dying

[LucyMollyMaryJane]

I have 15 softies in a mixed tank. Octos, Hammers, and frogspaws. Every 4-6 weeks I loose a single head off one of them. They are all on the left, lower side of the tank in gentle flow.

125G, fug, radions @ 100%
34.0 @ 80F
Alk=9.0
Calcium hovers at 500
Magnesium 1450
Phosphate = 0
Amon = 0
Nitrate > 5
Nitrite < 5

Life:
- sailfin tang
- coral beauty
- cardinals
- chromies
- anthias
- mandarin
- tomatoe clown
- hawkfish
- coral banded shrimp
- 2 cleaner shrimp
- 4 Halloween crabs
- lots of hermits, conchs, snails, etc.

Never seen the tang or beauty pick at anything. Feed with algae strips daily.

All help and suggestions are much appreciated!

 

[tbaum101]

I had no luck with them when my tank was new. I tried and tried. Different flow, different light. Now the ONE I have is doing well. The change is that I run slightly higher Nitrates and Phosphates along with dosing trace elements and amino acids and bacteria once a week. I've heard they don't like really clean tanks. That does seem to be the case.

 

[LosGatosMax]

Any evidence of brown jelly disease? I had an outbreak about a year ago. It was subtle and only appeared down at the base.

https://reeftankadvisor.com/brown-jelly-disease/

 

[LucyMollyMaryJane]

Any evidence of brown jelly disease? I had an outbreak about a year ago. It was subtle and only appeared down at the base.

https://reeftankadvisor.com/brown-jelly-disease/

We’ve never seen any jelly. They just seem to start to writher up and eventually all the *tentacles* are gone. Then the other head is completely fine.

 

[Pistondog]

Try to raise the po4 by feed reef roids 2 to 3 times per week.
They are hungry.

 

[LucyMollyMaryJane]

Try to raise the po4 by feed reef roids 2 to 3 times per week.
They are hungry.

Phosphate was recently at .2-.3. Topped out at 0.42 for about three weeks. Still suffered the same experiences.

I feed with RedSea AB+ 36 mL a day.
RedSea trace A, B, C, and D 1 mL every Sunday.
Reef Nutrients PhytoFeast every other day, 5 drops.

I stopped reefroids because they are so dirty. Been thinking about starting them again.

 

[Pistondog]

Phosphate was recently at .2-.3. Topped out at 0.42 for about three weeks. Still suffered the same experiences.

I feed with RedSea AB+ 36 mL a day.
RedSea trace A, B, C, and D 1 mL every Sunday.
Reef Nutrients PhytoFeast every other day, 5 drops.

I stopped reefroids because they are so dirty. Been thinking about starting them again.

It takes time for things to recover, weeks, maybe months.
I tried ab+ 3 separate times and each resulted in a bjd episode.
BRoadcast feeding anything feeds all organisms, good and bad.
Just like fertilizing the lawn helps the grass and weeds both.

 

[LucyMollyMaryJane]

It takes time for things to recover, weeks, maybe months.
I tried ab+ 3 separate times and each resulted in a bjd episode.
BRoadcast feeding anything feeds all organisms, good and bad.
Just like fertilizing the lawn helps the grass and weeds both.

Very true.
Terrible hobby to use this excuse… but spot feeding an entire tank is sooo time consuming.