Octospawn acting strange

[leekly]

So I’ve had this yellow octospawn for about 7 months now. The first 5 months it was doing amazing, full polyp extension, looking nice and plump. Now for the past 2 months it’s been all shrunken up and the other little head has almost completely receded into its skeleton. All my parameters are good including salinity and temperature, and all other corals including other euphilia are doing great. I have tried moving it around the tank to both lower flow areas and higher flow areas, as well as lower and higher light areas. No matter where I put it it stays in this shrunken state. I see no evidence of any parasites on it. Any help would be appreciated

 

[cbranin]

Keep any peppermint shrimp? Could be euphyllia flatworms. Parameters and temp may be within range right when you test, but swings will kill coral. Usually trends tend to be more helpful than current parameters. Good luck

 

[cbranin]

Also if it looks that bad I’d cut my losses and toss it in case of any disease. It sucks but gotta do what’s best for the rest of the tank

 

[cbranin]

Also if it looks that bad I’d cut my losses and toss it in case of any disease. It sucks but gotta do what’s best for the rest of the tank

Sorry for all the reply’s but maybe you could cut off the left head and try to save the right head. Good luck again

 

[kevgib67]

Sorry but I’m going to need all your current parameters and par in your tank if I can even begin to try to help you out. I’ve read so many times that parameters are good to only have them listed and them not be good for the specific coral.

 

[leekly]

Keep any peppermint shrimp? Could be euphyllia flatworms. Parameters and temp may be within range right when you test, but swings will kill coral. Usually trends tend to be more helpful than current parameters. Good luck

No peppermint shrimp but I do have a cleaner shrimp. I haven’t seen him bothering any of the euphilia and I feed every other day so I think I may have to pull out a camping chair and watch the tank at night. I chart everything going on with the tank including parameters and water changes and no swings in parameters within the last 9 months. Just so puzzling especially when everything else is doing good in the tank and no new additions have been added in a very long time

 

[leekly]

Also if it looks that bad I’d cut my losses and toss it in case of any disease. It sucks but gotta do what’s best for the rest of the tank

Gosh I hope it doesn’t come to that. It still looks the same today so I’m hoping it can recover at some point, but definitely if it looks any worse from right now it’ll have to go

 

[leekly]

Sorry for all the reply’s but maybe you could cut off the left head and try to save the right head. Good luck again

No, the replies are great man thanks for helping out!

 

[leekly]

Sorry but I’m going to need all your current parameters and par in your tank if I can even begin to try to help you out. I’ve read so many times that parameters are good to only have them listed and them not be good for the specific coral.

Hahah completely understand!
Parameters are the following:

Salinity- 1.025
Temperature- 79°
Calcium- 420ppm
Nitrate- 1ppm
Nitrite-0ppm
Phosphate- 0.02ppm
Alkalinity- 8dkh
PH- 8.0
Magnesium- 1280
Haven’t had any swings in any recent history.

 

[leekly]

Hahah completely understand!
Parameters are the following:

Salinity- 1.025
Temperature- 79°
Calcium- 420ppm
Nitrate- 1ppm
Nitrite-0ppm
Phosphate- 0.02ppm
Alkalinity- 8dkh
PH- 8.0
Magnesium- 1280
Haven’t had any swings in any recent history.

I don’t have a par meter unfortunately. Are there any apps that could tell me?

 

[kevgib67]

Hahah completely understand!
Parameters are the following:

Salinity- 1.025
Temperature- 79°
Calcium- 420ppm
Nitrate- 1ppm
Nitrite-0ppm
Phosphate- 0.02ppm
Alkalinity- 8dkh
PH- 8.0
Magnesium- 1280
Haven’t had any swings in any recent history.

Ok, I see some things that if you address could help turn this around. Nitrate 1 and phosphate .02 is starving your corals. Your phosphate is close to holding the door open for dinos and you don’t want that. Get your nitrates up to 10-15 and your phosphates up to.05-.1. I don’t know what salt you are using or how you got your magnesium so low. Torches, frogspawn and hammers thrive with magnesium around 1400. Keep it in medium random flow and par (average 150 but can be acclimated to higher par).

 

[leekly]

Ok, I see some things that if you address could help turn this around. Nitrate 1 and phosphate .02 is starving your corals. Your phosphate is close to holding the door open for dinos and you don’t want that. Get your nitrates up to 10-15 and your phosphates up to.05-.1. I don’t know what salt you are using or how you got your magnesium so low. Torches, frogspawn and hammers thrive with magnesium around 1400. Keep it in medium random flow and par (average 150 but can be acclimated to higher par).

Oh shoot good to know. Always thought that keeping everything so low would be better, especially for some of the acros in my tank. I’m mainly concerned about accidentally “dirtying” the water too much. I do 15% water change weekly, and feed every other day. Should I just start adding an extra day or two to the feeding schedule, or cut back on the water changes?

 

[leekly]

Ok, I see some things that if you address could help turn this around. Nitrate 1 and phosphate .02 is starving your corals. Your phosphate is close to holding the door open for dinos and you don’t want that. Get your nitrates up to 10-15 and your phosphates up to.05-.1. I don’t know what salt you are using or how you got your magnesium so low. Torches, frogspawn and hammers thrive with magnesium around 1400. Keep it in medium random flow and par (average 150 but can be acclimated to higher par).

Your tank is stunning btw!

 

[19Mateo83]

Good looking tank Kev! I agree with getting your mag up in the 1400 range, po4 in the .05-.1 range and no3 in the 10-15 range. My system ran at your levels when I first started it up and things struggled. I’m now sitting at .07 po4 and 8 no3 with 1440 mag and everything seems to be loving life., especially the euphyllia.

 

[kevgib67]

Oh shoot good to know. Always thought that keeping everything so low would be better, especially for some of the acros in my tank. I’m mainly concerned about accidentally “dirtying” the water too much. I do 15% water change weekly, and feed every other day. Should I just start adding an extra day or two to the feeding schedule, or cut back on the water changes?

Do both and as always make changes slowly, nothing is an emergency at this point but as your parameters improve I think you’ll like the changes you see.

 

[kevgib67]

Your tank is stunning btw!

Thank you for the kind words.

 

[leekly]

Good looking tank Kev! I agree with getting your mag up in the 1400 range, po4 in the .05-.1 range and no3 in the 10-15 range. My system ran at your levels when I first started it up and things struggled. I’m now sitting at .07 po4 and 8 no3 with 1440 mag and everything seems to be loving life., especially the euphyllia.

Wow crazy colors on your corals everything looks beautiful, I love the way your hammer in the front left looks. It’s day two of feeding every day, nothing too noticeable yet. I just tested my nitrate, magnesium, and phosphate again this morning and am seeing some minor changes. Nitrates are sitting at 2ppm, magnesium is still at 1280, and phosphate is at 0.03. Hoping by next week I’m sitting closer to your numbers. Thanks for the help!

 

[leekly]

Do both and as always make changes slowly, nothing is an emergency at this point but as your parameters improve I think you’ll like the changes you see.

Yeah definitely don’t want to make any changes too quickly. I think the feeding every day is helping out already a little bit. Don’t see any changes in the appearance of the coral but some up ticks on my magnesium, phosphate, and nitrate readings. Magnesium hasn’t changed, phosphate is now at 0.03, and nitrates are now at 2. I’ll keep you updated on how everything is looking, and I’m hoping I can get my numbers up to around what you have within a week or so. Feeling positive though, thanks for the help!