Help me anyone? Problem with frogspawn and hammer.

[Jonathan lee]

I bought a new maricultured bali frogspawn 2 weeks ago. It was looking good for the first 3-4 days then it didnt open as big as usual. I have no idea what is causing it to not open. Plus, i have a small aquacultured hammer colony that was doing good for 2 months then boom one head wasn’t opening and now looks like its gonna die. My torches, duncans, candycane, favites look ok but the candycane isn’t as puffy as usual but still looks ok, no receding tissue. My dragon soul favia receded a lil and decided to grow abit too but now looks stable. My back wall was 50% gsp mat and i decided to cut it up a month ago, its now almost dead after me trimming it…. Only a few frags of it are fine. The big mat is like a goner, even algae started growing over it. What would cause the corals to not open out of the sudden? I started dosing razor 3 weeks ago to get rid of bubble algae which is now gone so ive stopped.

Now, i didnt do a water change for 2 weeks and my alk dropped to 5. My 2 lfs’s told me to slowly bring it up to 8-9 and the lps should be fine again. So ive been dosing kh buffer daily to bring it up 0.3/0.4 each day to get it to 8 where i want it to be. Haven’t reached 8dkh yet. Yesterday i added carbon into the filter to try and suck out any bad stuff.

Water parameters:
Salinity 1.026
Alk 7.5
Mag 1410
Calcium 430
Nitrate 25(has always been around here)
Po4 0
Temp 26c

25g AIO tank with ai hydra 26hd hanging 12 inches from water surface set to around 25watts now. Corals are probably 20 inches from the light.

 

[DJF]

0 po4 is an issue. Need phosphate more phosphate. a widely accepted target is .03

 

[Jonathan lee]

0 po4 is an issue. Need phosphate more phosphate. a widely accepted target is .03

How do i increase my po4 that little? I don’t think i would buy brightwell neophos cause they are expensive here. 40 bucks for the small bottle. Any other way? I know feeding more will but my no3 is gonna shoot up too. Its already 25 and i normally keep it below 10 but half a year ago i slacked and didnt do tank maintenance so its now at 25. One lfs told me to bring nitrate down to below 10 as well. So im gonna do that slowly by doing more water changes. 10 years in this hobby and im still a noob lol

 

[DJF]

The way that I would address is feed more and use something to reduce nitrates. There may be a diy alternative (other than feeding) as a phos additive but I’m not sure bc iv gone the feeding route.

 

[Jonathan lee]

The way that I would address is feed more and use something to reduce nitrates. There may be a diy alternative (other than feeding) as a phos additive but I’m not sure bc iv gone the feeding route.

I’ve gotten a few brightwell xport no3 cubes and have added it. I used them last time with success. But as of now my no3 hasn’t moved yet since the cubes were just added last week. So I don’t know if i should start feeding more now or not.

 

[DJF]

I personally would. If you have reef roids that’s a good option. Do you have pics of the tank and the damage? It also could be collateral damage from dropping to 5 on the alk. After stopping the razor, did you do a water chg?

 

[Jonathan lee]

I personally would. If you have reef roids that’s a good option. Do you have pics of the tank and the damage? It also could be collateral damage from dropping to 5 on the alk. After stopping the razor, did you do a water chg?

It’s midnight here the lights have been off for hours now. Cant see anything and everything is closed. I’ll post some pics from few weeks before the disaster lol. You can see the gsp wall. Now imagine that whole gsp wall dead with algae growing over it lol. I wonder if the gsp released some bad stuff. That hammer, theres 3 heads there. The bottom big head is basically dying now. That purple tip frogspawn, not opening but the flesh down the side is still visible. Yes i did a water change after razor

I might need to get an auto doser soon im too lazy to manually dose. my rocks are now covered in purple coraline and my lfs told me its gonna suck up alot of calcium mag and alk so i have to dose daily no matter what. Water changes won’t work anymore he said

 

[DJF]

Agree a water change wouldn’t help much if your issue is phosphate related. it would remove phosphate and you don’t need that. Maybe test for ammonia. If you have high ammonia, then I’d recommend a water change. I’ve never heard of gsp emitting a bad chemical but a dying coral may spike ammonia. Keep in mind that as you raise your alk it represents a constant change for the coral. Slowly is the right process and you’re out of the danger zone but coral like stability so once you’re stable at 8 they may acclimate more. What you’ve described with the favia sounds both related to the low alk and the low nutrients. The fact that it is recovering you can chalk it up to alk. The euphyllia should respond positively to higher phosphate levels and also stability (they are divas). It’s interesting that the gsp is what went south because it is the most resilient of the corals you’ve listed. I’ll check for pics later.

 

[Jonathan lee]

Agree a water change wouldn’t help much if your issue is phosphate related. it would remove phosphate and you don’t need that. Maybe test for ammonia. If you have high ammonia, then I’d recommend a water change. I’ve never heard of gsp emitting a bad chemical but a dying coral may spike ammonia. Keep in mind that as you raise your alk it represents a constant change for the coral. Slowly is the right process and you’re out of the danger zone but coral like stability so once you’re stable at 8 they may acclimate more. What you’ve described with the favia sounds both related to the low alk and the low nutrients. The fact that it is recovering you can chalk it up to alk. The euphyllia should respond positively to higher phosphate levels and also stability (they are divas). It’s interesting that the gsp is what went south because it is the most resilient of the corals you’ve listed. I’ll check for pics later.

Heres some pics from today. As you can see the frogspawn is not really opening. One head of hammer is dying, back wall gsp is gone and algae growing over the gsp mat. Today after dosing alk, it should be at 8. It was 7.7 before dosing. You can see my duncan is normal as ever still lol

 

[RELLIK-REEF]

My corals seem to have issues if my No3 hits over 20 and Po4 under .03
Just take it slow. Blow the algae off your gsp and it should respond.
Add a flake food to help raise Po4
When I had gsp in our old tanks I know that when you go to cut it up you need to make sure all the hairs tuck in before cutting, like a toadstool. Maybe a coincidence but I cut ours once while it was too on the back wall and then we started to lose several corals within the next couple weeks, I did a big wc and ran carbon heavy and kicked up flow. Ended up only completely losing a torch, everything else bounced back.
Good luck.

 

[Jonathan lee]

My corals seem to have issues if my No3 hits over 20 and Po4 under .03
Just take it slow. Blow the algae off your gsp and it should respond.
Add a flake food to help raise Po4
When I had gsp in our old tanks I know that when you go to cut it up you need to make sure all the hairs tuck in before cutting, like a toadstool. Maybe a coincidence but I cut ours once while it was too on the back wall and then we started to lose several corals within the next couple weeks, I did a big wc and ran carbon heavy and kicked up flow. Ended up only completely losing a torch, everything else bounced back.
Good luck.

Well its a real coincidence then regarding the gsp fragging and having issues after. I kinda suspect it has something to do with the gsp but since my alk was also low i dont know which is the problem

 

[uhgster1]

Euphylia are almost indicator coral in my aquarium. When they start to act up the first thing I check is magnesium. They like to be fed occasionally. And last, check your ph after dosing that buffer. You might be causing ph spikes. Have you tried kalkwasser? I’ve been using it for years straight from my ATO, it keeps dkh and ph stable.

 

[Jonathan lee]

Euphylia are almost indicator coral in my aquarium. When they start to act up the first thing I check is magnesium. They like to be fed occasionally. And last, check your ph after dosing that buffer. You might be causing ph spikes. Have you tried kalkwasser? I’ve been using it for years straight from my ATO, it keeps dkh and ph stable.

My ph is around 8.1. I do not check daily and tbh havent checked in over 2 weeks now. Im gonna check tomorrow morning. I’ve not tried kalk. Cause my calcium is between 420-450 all the time without dosing anything for calcium. Scared that kalk would raise the calcium alot since its not a highly stocked tank

 

[Apotack]

Your shrimp may be contributing to your problem also.

 

[DJF]

When my nitrates hit 0 my euphyllia all looked similar so my guess is that is likely the root cause. The low alk probably put some stress on them too. If you have a shrimp it could be that the stress was a dinner bell. I think getting your nutrients in check will help the euphyllia. They are quick to go south and slow to recover. One thing you mention that is alarming is that you haven’t dosed calcium. If you’re dosing 2 part, they need to be dosed equally or close to equally.

 

[Jonathan lee]

When my nitrates hit 0 my euphyllia all looked similar so my guess is that is likely the root cause. The low alk probably put some stress on them too. If you have a shrimp it could be that the stress was a dinner bell. I think getting your nutrients in check will help the euphyllia. They are quick to go south and slow to recover. One thing you mention that is alarming is that you haven’t dosed calcium. If you’re dosing 2 part, they need to be dosed equally or close to equally.

So i did a 30% water change today. Before i did the change i tested my water. Ph 8.2 , alk 8, calcium 370! I never dosed calcium before but im gonna order it later. I actually have protan blindness so titration kits are hard fo me to use. I sent my water to test the calcium and mag before this. Today i sent pics to my friend to see if the test had changed to blue yet. I could see a slight blue and my friends confirmed it had turned blue. Which means my calcium is way lower than what my lfs tested. Meaning my calcium isnt 430 as i was told. Its 370. I cant see the colour change for mag test. My friends have a hard time seeing the mag test change colour too… may have to get the hanna mag when its available here.

 

[DJF]

Ok- yep you’ll definitely want to bump the ca up. Maybe consider a Hanna checker for calcium. Your mag is less likely to cause problems than alk or ca.

 

[Jonathan lee]

Ok- yep you’ll definitely want to bump the ca up. Maybe consider a Hanna checker for calcium. Your mag is less likely to cause problems than alk or ca.

After the water change and dosing some calcium, the frogspawn is showing positive signs. Open up abit now not like previously. Not fully open but at least opening a little now

 

[Cali Reef Life]

Keep your perimeters stable and at natural sea waters or slightly elevated. Your problem is the swings in perimeters. If you keep everything stable they should recover. Sometimes after a huge swing it takes awhile for everything to bounce back. Just be patient and don't try to many new things well they recover.

 

[Jonathan lee]

Keep your perimeters stable and at natural sea waters or slightly elevated. Your problem is the swings in perimeters. If you keep everything stable they should recover. Sometimes after a huge swing it takes awhile for everything to bounce back. Just be patient and don't try to many new things well they recover.

Gonna try my best to keep it stable now. I need to figure out how much alk and calcium to dose daily first then I’ll set up an auto doser.