Shrinking polyps on my octospawn, please help!

CrashTestBennie

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 28, 2024
Messages
315
Reaction score
280
Location
97209
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
2 days ago my octospawn was looking happy and inflating its polyps. It seemed to be settling in as it is a new addition, 11 days ago. Today the polyps around the edge of its head are super deflated. Here are my parameters:
Ph-8.66
Temp-77.3
Ammonia-0.01
No3-65.0
Alk-8.6
Calcium-445
Mag-1080 started adding 5ml magnesion 2 days ago, and will continue every other day.
And thoughts or ideas?


20241106_101525.jpg 20241107_211109.jpg
 
OP
OP
CrashTestBennie

CrashTestBennie

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 28, 2024
Messages
315
Reaction score
280
Location
97209
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I don't know why it did several pictures...maybe it's a glitch on my end. I fixed it
 

SudzFD

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 24, 2014
Messages
923
Reaction score
967
Location
Southern California
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ammonia should be zero and your nitrates are super high. Do a 20% water change and see if that helps.

Some more questions that will help us understand your tank.

What is your plan for nitrate reduction? Refugium? Media? Water changes?

How old is your tank?

Do you dose anything?

How often do you test your water?

What lighting?
 
OP
OP
CrashTestBennie

CrashTestBennie

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 28, 2024
Messages
315
Reaction score
280
Location
97209
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ammonia should be zero and your nitrates are super high. Do a 20% water change and see if that helps.

Some more questions that will help us understand your tank.

What is your plan for nitrate reduction? Refugium? Media? Water changes?

How old is your tank?

Do you dose anything?

How often do you test your water?

What lighting?
Amazon just brought my phosphate test, and I have zero. I just built a refugium a couple weeks ago. I was doing 2g water changes every day until last week when the nitrates started to reduce without any water change. I'm testing daily. Tank cycled in August. I dose alk, calcium, shrimp nutrients, and magnesium as of 2 days ago. Lighting is popbloom rl90 turned way down to ~70 PAR. I had it at 135 PAR but noticed polyp recession about 7 or 8 days ago. I have carbon, gfo and filter floss. I'll do a 20% in the morning and see what happens. Thank you so very much!

P.S. I also dose chaeto-gro
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 14, 2021
Messages
8,114
Reaction score
9,211
Location
Toronto
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
IMO 70 par is way too low for any euphyllia....

3 month old tank and dosing so many things, I counted 5 different things!!?? There is no need in such a new tank with low load of corals.

You mention your phosphate is zero but you are using gfo? It doesn't make sense.

Something is wrong with your filtration or habits to have nitrate so high like that. I'm surprised your not more concerned about this.

I think you are tying to do too much, in a tank that's too new. You have to let the tank settle down and find balance.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
CrashTestBennie

CrashTestBennie

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 28, 2024
Messages
315
Reaction score
280
Location
97209
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
IMO 70 par is way too low for any euphyllia....

3 month old tank and dosing so many things, I counted 5 different things!!?? There is no need in such a new tank with low load of corals.

You mention your phosphate is zero but you are using gfo? It doesn't make sense.

Something is wrong with your filtration or habits to have nitrate so high like that. I'm surprised your not more concerned about this.

I think you are tying to do too much, in a tank that's too new. You have to let the tank settle down and find balance.
What are you talking about? I'm losing sleep over this. Not concerned enough?! Please. I'm beating my head against the wall for my 1 piece of euphyllia. Thank you for pointing out that maybe GFO has something to do with this, but your judgement about my concern concerns me.
 

dieselkeeper

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 4, 2012
Messages
1,005
Reaction score
2,371
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Amazon just brought my phosphate test, and I have zero. I just built a refugium a couple weeks ago. I was doing 2g water changes every day until last week when the nitrates started to reduce without any water change. I'm testing daily. Tank cycled in August. I dose alk, calcium, shrimp nutrients, and magnesium as of 2 days ago. Lighting is popbloom rl90 turned way down to ~70 PAR. I had it at 135 PAR but noticed polyp recession about 7 or 8 days ago. I have carbon, gfo and filter floss. I'll do a 20% in the morning and see what happens. Thank you so very much!

P.S. I also dose chaeto-gro
What was your all, calcium and mag at before dosing? If you dosed enough to make a substantial swing, that could be the cause.
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 14, 2021
Messages
8,114
Reaction score
9,211
Location
Toronto
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
What are you talking about? I'm losing sleep over this. Not concerned enough?! Please. I'm beating my head against the wall for my 1 piece of euphyllia. Thank you for pointing out that maybe GFO has something to do with this, but your judgement about my concern concerns me.
100% correct I should not make assumption how others feel, my bad.

I guess I would just rephrase as "correcting the water quality would be my own action plan to making the coral happy".
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 14, 2021
Messages
8,114
Reaction score
9,211
Location
Toronto
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
And I understand my comments can rub folks the wrong way sometimes, I don't mean it like that. I've always had to make a conscience effort to make my words softer or people think I'm rude or angry, which I'm not, its just my mannerism. Anyway, I'm sorry for your coral, and genuinely want to help, cheers.
 
OP
OP
CrashTestBennie

CrashTestBennie

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 28, 2024
Messages
315
Reaction score
280
Location
97209
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
What was your all, calcium and mag at before dosing? If you dosed enough to make a substantial swing, that could be the cause.
Mag was 1072. Alk I haven't dosed for 6 days, but 6 days ago it was 8.2. I dosed 3ml. Calcium I haven't dosed for a little over a week. But, I did dose a little too much and got it just above 500. I just started testing for mag a couple days ago, and phosphate the first time was about 6 hours ago... mag and po4 I bought salifert. The rest I use hanna checker. Thank you for your time and advice, I really appreciate it!
 
OP
OP
CrashTestBennie

CrashTestBennie

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 28, 2024
Messages
315
Reaction score
280
Location
97209
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
100% correct I should not make assumption how others feel, my bad.

I guess I would just rephrase as "correcting the water quality would be my own action plan to making the coral happy".
Thank you, that does mean a lot. I have removed gfo. I've been using it because I thought phosphate was bad, and that you don't want any. Plus, I know algae is fed by phosphates. I guess I need to go through the algae phase eventually.
 
OP
OP
CrashTestBennie

CrashTestBennie

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 28, 2024
Messages
315
Reaction score
280
Location
97209
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
And I understand my comments can rub folks the wrong way sometimes, I don't mean it like that. I've always had to make a conscience effort to make my words softer or people think I'm rude or angry, which I'm not, its just my mannerism. Anyway, I'm sorry for your coral, and genuinely want to help, cheers.
I can understand that. I've been working on some **** of my own. It means a lot that you said this. I was pretty discouraged to share, but hearing this makes me feel better. Thanks.
 

SudzFD

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 24, 2014
Messages
923
Reaction score
967
Location
Southern California
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
IMO 70 par is way too low for any euphyllia....

3 month old tank and dosing so many things, I counted 5 different things!!?? There is no need in such a new tank with low load of corals.

You mention your phosphate is zero but you are using gfo? It doesn't make sense.

Something is wrong with your filtration or habits to have nitrate so high like that. I'm surprised your not more concerned about this.

I think you are tying to do too much, in a tank that's too new. You have to let the tank settle down and find balance.

Mr Mojo is correct here, this game is about stability. That is number one. With everything you have going on I feel like there must be some large swings in your parameters. I’d stop dosing anything. Check your water twice a day for a week and see what trends you see. If something starts falling then dose that to correct it. I also agree that your PAR is too low. Slowing bring it up to probably double that over the next 2 weeks.

Keep us posted and we will do our best to help.

A lot of us have found over the years that our reef tanks do best when we go through “a I don’t care phase” and then get back into it. We’ve all been there, and many of us threw up our hands at some point and just left the tank alone with whatever wanted to stay alive. Then after taking a break from it, get back into it and we can keep all kinds of stuff.

Why does that Seem to be a common story? I believe it’s because the tank has to balance itself without our meddling. I don’t know how to prescribe this, but it’s an anecdote to say less is often more.
 
OP
OP
CrashTestBennie

CrashTestBennie

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 28, 2024
Messages
315
Reaction score
280
Location
97209
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks. I have only dosed when things ask for it, with exception of shrimp minerals and chaetogro. Should I really let my numbers go below recommended? I'm willing to give it a shot. The reason I just knocked the PAR down from 130 is because the euphyllia and the candy cane were bleaching. Maybe it's my popbloom. I just bought an ai hydra 32, but haven't installed it because the current mount only extends to 9" above water surface. I did buy hardware yesterday to secure it to the wall so that I can mount the AI 32s 14" above surface. I promise you I don't add stuff just for the heck of it. When I do dose, it's by hand with syringe for accuracy. I don't do cap fulls as some recommend. Maybe I should have an ICP test run, or try having it serviced professionally? Everything else seems to be thriving. I'm just really worried about killing this beautiful octospawn...
 

kevgib67

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 16, 2022
Messages
14,810
Reaction score
86,167
Location
Canfield, Ohio
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The two things that jumped out to me are the zero phosphate, shoot for.05-.1 if you want all your coral happy. Second, magnesium needs to be around 1350. I keep mine about 1400 and my torches, frogspawn and hammers are very happy. I don’t think it’s a goner, it still has a decent flesh band. @Mr. Mojo Rising is giving solid advice and plus he’s a huge Doors fan.
 
OP
OP
CrashTestBennie

CrashTestBennie

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 28, 2024
Messages
315
Reaction score
280
Location
97209
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The two things that jumped out to me are the zero phosphate, shoot for.05-.1 if you want all your coral happy. Second, magnesium needs to be around 1350. I keep mine about 1400 and my torches, frogspawn and hammers are very happy. I don’t think it’s a goner, it still has a decent flesh band. @Mr. Mojo Rising is giving solid advice and plus he’s a huge Doors fan.
Right on! I'm slowly bringing up mag, as I just started testing for it this week. It's recommended to add only 5ml every other day. By the equation, I need to add 149ml, which at 5ml every other day would be 60 days. Do you recommend otherwise?
Yeah, I love the Doors. Mr. Mojo came on a little strong but I really appreciate the fact that he cares and is trying to help!
Thank you for help, both time and advice!
 

Shirak

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 3, 2019
Messages
2,363
Reaction score
1,310
Location
Thousand Islands, NY
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
What other stony corals do you have? If it's only the one LPS or maybe just a few then regular weekly water changes should be enough without any dosing of minerals. With maybe just a light touch up of sodium bicarbonate for Alk. here and there.

The coral looks pale and has lost a lot of flesh all around the outside of the skeleton where that white area is. This is most likely from lack of nutrients the coral can use. Try target feeding the coral defrosted mysis while your tank water gets back to normal levels. When the Nitrates and phosphates are that out of wack dosing one or the other may be necessary.

I am surprised your Mg is that low. What are you using to test with? Most salt mixes have plenty of Mg and it doesn't get used fast. That concerns me that your salinity is not correct and you have dosed other stuff to bump things like Ca. What are you using to measure salinity?


What product are you dosing for magnesium? You can raise magnesium 100ppm a day using epsom salt.
 

kevgib67

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 16, 2022
Messages
14,810
Reaction score
86,167
Location
Canfield, Ohio
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Right on! I'm slowly bringing up mag, as I just started testing for it this week. It's recommended to add only 5ml every other day. By the equation, I need to add 149ml, which at 5ml every other day would be 60 days. Do you recommend otherwise?
Yeah, I love the Doors. Mr. Mojo came on a little strong but I really appreciate the fact that he cares and is trying to help!
Thank you for help, both time and advice!
I just dose the water I’m adding for a water change. More than likely we are using different products, I would just follow the directions given on your product.
 
OP
OP
CrashTestBennie

CrashTestBennie

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 28, 2024
Messages
315
Reaction score
280
Location
97209
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
What other stony corals do you have? If it's only the one LPS or maybe just a few then regular weekly water changes should be enough without any dosing of minerals. With maybe just a light touch up of sodium bicarbonate for Alk. here and there.

The coral looks pale and has lost a lot of flesh all around the outside of the skeleton where that white area is. This is most likely from lack of nutrients the coral can use. Try target feeding the coral defrosted mysis while your tank water gets back to normal levels. When the Nitrates and phosphates are that out of wack dosing one or the other may be necessary.

I am surprised your Mg is that low. What are you using to test with? Most salt mixes have plenty of Mg and it doesn't get used fast. That concerns me that your salinity is not correct and you have dosed other stuff to bump things like Ca. What are you using to measure salinity?


What product are you dosing for magnesium? You can raise magnesium 100ppm a day using epsom salt.
Well, I raised the lighting both blue and violet up. The octospawn looks better than it ever has in my tank. Twice a week I feed it thawed pe mysis shrimp. On Thursday night I do reef roids. Target feeding, of course. I have nothing but lps. 2 ricordea, 1 rhodactis, an ultra acan lord, candy cane and nephthea leather. Yes, there was skin reduction on the octospawn and learned that it was in too much light. It and the candy cane were losing flesh. I use fritz rpm blue line. I just purchased a rodi system from brs, and started making my own water this week. I have hanna checker for all test with the exception of magnesium and phosphate. For those I use salifert. But ordered hanna mag from brs on the 6th, their last day of hanna 25% off sale. I'm positive my salinity is correct as I have 3 testers and use 2 every time to confirm accurate results. I'm almost positive it's either too low of phosphate or, more likely, I had too much PAR on it. That's why I cut back so much this week and am trying to acclimate it slowly.

Salinity testers: hanna, refractor generic and another electric generic tester. I calibrate when 2 readings are different.
 

TOP 10 Trending Threads

Back
Top