Octospawn possibly dying

pluikens · Dec 10, 2017

So I’m afraid my octospawn may be dying. It was looking really good on my frag rack for about a week after I brought it home from the LFS. I then moved it to the sand bed after attaching the plug to a piece of rubble and it never fully recovered but did open a little after being placed there. I thought flow may be an issue so I moved it to its current location but it has since receded further showing more skeleton. My other corals look good but it's this octospawn and a hammer that I got at the same time that just haven't really opened fully. Any tips on possible placement or anything else that may help? I'm afraid of just waiting to see if it gets better because it seems to be getting worse every day. I got the octospawn Thanksgiving weekend, moved it to the sand bed from the frag rack on 12/2, and moved it to it's current location on 12/7.

I have a Jebao PP-8 running on the second lowest speed setting on the slowest wave setting on the right side of the tank. I'll be downgrading to a PP-4 next week so I can make use of more of the speed range next week but I could turn the PP-8 down even lower if needed.

Parameters:
Temp: 78-79
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
PO4: 0.061 ppm
Mg: 1500 ppm
KH: 9.8 dKH
Ca: 465 ppm

I'm currently holding off dosing so I can work my way down to 1380/9/450. On 11/24 they were 1620/9.2/535. Would this amount of instability even if working towards more desirable levels be causing the issue?

I feed 2-3 cubes of frozen food daily to a moderate fish load.

Any help to get my corals thriving would be appreciated!

The hammer and octospawn are in front of the two caves in the main rockwork. The octospawn is on the right behind the two rocks in the sandbed.

Reefing Madness · Dec 12, 2017

Faisal27 · Dec 12, 2017

Mine are near the middle-top part of the tank ..

Faisal27 · Dec 12, 2017

It either needs more light or is infected with something .. need a closer picture

pluikens · Dec 12, 2017

I'll get closer pictures tonight when I'm home from work. I'm afraid the octospawn is gone now unless they can come back from basically Justin showing the fins of the skeletal structure. If the hammer is now just open around the outer edge with a large hole in the middle, could that be a sign of infection? Would it help to dip it? I acclimate to temp in my sump, then dip in coralRX, then place in my display when I get new frags. Should I dip again?

pluikens · Dec 12, 2017

My wife brought home another AI Prime HD last night so we have two over the 40 breeder. I noticed my mushrooms didn't like the new light right away so I'm running an acclimation program starting at 50% dimming. Could it be too low of light?

Faisal27 · Dec 12, 2017

Your going to need to try to balance it really get now .. if u could get some closer pictures I’m sure the members can help you out

pluikens · Dec 12, 2017

I took more clear photos of the corals this evening. I'm fairly certain the octospawn isn't coming back. If that could be confirmed I'll pull it from the tank. There's still hope for the hammer though. Any advice on flow and light? Should it be closer to my rockscape rather than out in the sandbed?

Octospawn: