Is my frogspawn just unhappy or is it dying?

[Eyllis]

Sorry for the wall of text. My frogspawn is not looking so good. Its not opening up quite as much and slowly one of the heads is losing flesh (which is now down to the skeleton). I am pretty sure this is self inflicted. I had to take apart my rock work to rescue my stuck conch, rearrange it so the issue didn't happen again and move the frogspawn multiple times. Frogspawn is 4 months old and this issue started about 1.5 - 2 weeks ago. I'm nervous about moving it around since I don't want to lose it. Should I just leave it and hope it recovers? Adjust the flow a bit? Thank you very much.

Parameters (last time I checked):
Tank: Red Sea Max Nano - 9 months old
Light: ReefLED 50 - 33% blue/ 2% white
Salinity: 1.026 / 34 ppm- Milwaukee
Salinity: 34.4 - 34.8 ppm - Apex
Nitrate 9.6 ppm - Hanna
Phosphate 0.06 ppm - Hanna
Alk ~7.5 - red sea
Calcium - 450 - red sea pro
Magnesium - 1550 - red sea pro
Temp: 77.6 - 78
pH: 7.90 - 8.05 - Apex

I am not dosing anything.

I've attached a before and after video from today as well as a recent picture. All taken with a yellow filter at peak lighting.

 

[DanyL]

Both of the videos does not work for me.

Generally corals don't like to be moved and we try to keep them in the same place as long as possible.
Conches may get stuck in places from time to time, but from my experience they usually find their way out given enough time.

The issues you are experiencing are most likely related to an imbalanced Alk/Ca/Mg elements.
Magnesium levels are high - the recommended upper limit is 1500ppm, I would lower it to around 1400-1450.
Alkalinity is too low for a high element level system, I would slowly raise it to around 9dKH to match your Calcium levels. It is recommended to make changes of up to 0.5dKH per day, I would shoot for less just to be safe.

Once you get those parameters in check you'll notice a significant improvement in your corals health and you'll start seeing the consumption of the 3 getting up.

 

[Eyllis]

@DanyL Thank you for your help. I'm not sure how to fix the videos.
Unfortunately, I can't set up a dosing system but I can add a liquid by hand. I'll start there.

 

[DanyL]

15 years ago when dosing pumps were really expensive and hard to come by, we were dosing supplements by hand, daily and it worked perfectly fine, so no worries.

A few things you do need to take into account:
- Make it a routine, same hour X days a week on the same days (this will change by the amount you dose, you may need to dose daily, or even multiple times a day depending on consumption).
- Make sure to separate Alk dosage from Cal dosage by at least 30 minutes, currently you don't have to dose Cal but if and when you do just keep this in mind as they will immediately react to each other and form Calcium bicarbonate.
- When fixing parameters, do it slowly, spread over 2 weeks and make sure you're under the max recommended dosage per day.

Good Luck!

 

[bushdoc]

I am not sure if chemistry is a culprit, but I would recommend going bit higher with dKH. You can correct it with Baking soda ( Sodium bicarbonate). I would not necessarily go to 9, but somewhere in the vicinity of 8+.
Since you are not dosing anything, I would not recommend lowering Ca or Mg, I am not sure how would you do it other way than changing salt brand. Your Mg level might be also a test error, I just tested mine and had to repeat test, they are a bit finicky and not exactly precise.
Your video shows very mild flow, I would recommend to increase water flow a bit.

 

[DanyL]

My reasoning behind going towards 9dKH is due to the high amount of Mg present in the water, a big variation between Alk/Ca/Mg may prevent calcification.

As for a testing error, maybe. But unfortunately I often see people with similar params using Red Sea Pro salt, it contains way too elevated levels and when the system is imbalanced some elements would deplete faster than the others, usually leaving extremely high Mg.

 

[Eyllis]

I'm using HW-Marinemix Reefer salt. The kH is always low (I've never had it mix above 8) and sometimes the Mg / Ca parameters can be off as you get toward the bottom of the box. It's possible I just screwed up the test.

@bushdoc I'll up the percentage on my Mp10 a bit to adjust my flow.

I appreciate both of your help!

 

[Eyllis]

Figured I would give an update. Unfortunately, I'm almost positive I am going to lose my frogspawn. It's in really bad condition and continues to deteriorate. In desperation I have moved it back to a spot it was originally happy with hoping that I will be able to save at least one of the heads but I doubt it's going to recover. I'm pretty sad right now. This was my favorite coral.