ThunderWind
New Member
First of all.. thank you so much for taking time. English is not my main language, so what you see below is edited by ChatGPT but written by me. I hope it is cool..
As a beginner, this situation is stressing me out quite a bit.
Let me start by listing the aquarium, parameters, and inhabitants, and then I’ll explain the issue.
I let it dip for 5–7 minutes using Seachem Reef Dip (medium concentration).
After that, I removed the frag plug, applied Afix two-part epoxy (you roll the two components together), and mounted the coral where I wanted it.
About 5 minutes later, it fell roughly 20 cm down onto the sandbed (while it was in the water, so not a hard fall). I didn’t see any obvious damage.
This then happened again… and again… and again (4 times total).
I was honestly very frustrated and tried making a larger and larger epoxy “ball” each time.
One of the times, I was doing something else, and the coral may have been lying on the sandbed for around 20 minutes.
Later, I noticed on the packaging that the epoxy was 1½ years past its expiration date, which is probably why it didn’t work (even though it was newly purchased).
Eventually, I found another spot slightly higher in the tank where I could wedge the coral securely between some rocks.
(I’ve already ordered another product to secure it properly later.)
At this point, the coral looked stressed, so I left it alone.
I adjusted flow by:
The mouths were slightly open, but since this is my first frogspawn, I didn’t think much of it.
Today, however, all four mouths are wide open and fully extended.
The polyps themselves still looked inflated and healthy, so I thought I would try feeding it some LPS food.
That didn’t help. One of the heads started closing early while the lights were still at full intensity (30%), and later that head dropped two small polyps.
It’s the top right head of the frogspawn that has started losing polyps.
Again, thank you very much for taking the time to read and help.
As a beginner, this situation is stressing me out quite a bit.
Let me start by listing the aquarium, parameters, and inhabitants, and then I’ll explain the issue.
Aquarium
- Tank: Waterbox 25 gallon
- Age: Almost 5 months
- Light: 1× Noo-Psyche K7 Pro III – 140W at 30%
- Filtration: Small refugium in the back chamber
- Skimmer: None
- Water changes: 15% weekly
Current Reef Tank Parameters
- Alkalinity (KH): 10.9 dKH (high, but stable)
- Calcium (Ca): ~440 ppm
- Magnesium (Mg): ~1300 ppm
- Nitrate (NO₃): ~5 ppm (stable)
- Phosphate (PO₄): ~0–0.01 ppm (just started feeding since I got my first fish on Friday)
- pH: ~7.7–8.0
- Salinity: 1.026 SG
- Temperature: 77.4–78.3 °F (25,2 - 25,7 C)
Inhabitants
- 3× Trochus snails (in the tank for about a month)
- 2× Nassarius snails (in the tank for about a month)
- 1× Cleaner shrimp (bought Friday)
- 2× Clownfish (bought Friday)
Corals
- 1× Hammer coral
- In the tank for about a month
- A bit dull in color (probably due to low PO₄), but very extended and otherwise looks happy
- 1× 4-headed green/purple frogspawn (bought Friday)
The problem – the frogspawn
I bought the frogspawn from my LFS, brought it home, dipped it, and three long worms (I assume bristle worms) immediately came out.I let it dip for 5–7 minutes using Seachem Reef Dip (medium concentration).
After that, I removed the frag plug, applied Afix two-part epoxy (you roll the two components together), and mounted the coral where I wanted it.
About 5 minutes later, it fell roughly 20 cm down onto the sandbed (while it was in the water, so not a hard fall). I didn’t see any obvious damage.
This then happened again… and again… and again (4 times total).
I was honestly very frustrated and tried making a larger and larger epoxy “ball” each time.
One of the times, I was doing something else, and the coral may have been lying on the sandbed for around 20 minutes.
Later, I noticed on the packaging that the epoxy was 1½ years past its expiration date, which is probably why it didn’t work (even though it was newly purchased).
Eventually, I found another spot slightly higher in the tank where I could wedge the coral securely between some rocks.
(I’ve already ordered another product to secure it properly later.)
At this point, the coral looked stressed, so I left it alone.
I adjusted flow by:
- Lowering my Jebao SLW-10 to 1/10
- Reducing my AI AXIS 40 return pump from 35% to 20%
What happened next
For the next two days, it looked okay. - I mean... it is one of my first corals, i don't really know what to look for tbh...The mouths were slightly open, but since this is my first frogspawn, I didn’t think much of it.
Today, however, all four mouths are wide open and fully extended.
The polyps themselves still looked inflated and healthy, so I thought I would try feeding it some LPS food.
That didn’t help. One of the heads started closing early while the lights were still at full intensity (30%), and later that head dropped two small polyps.
My current plan
- KH might be too high – should I do very small daily water changes (3–5 liters) for the next 5 days to slowly bring it down to ~9 dKH?
- Reduce lighting to 15%
- Shut down the SLW-10 powerhead for the next few days to avoid stressing it with flow
- I’m struggling with pH, and I’m considering:
- Buying a CO₂ scrubber
- I’ve also ordered 25 meters of airline tubing, so I can run an air pump from outside with an airstone
- I do have good surface agitation
Final notes
I’ve posted:- 2 pictures of the frogspawn right now
- 1 picture of the frogspawn from about 10 hours ago
- 1 picture of my hammer coral right now (which looks fine)
It’s the top right head of the frogspawn that has started losing polyps.
Again, thank you very much for taking the time to read and help.
