Frogspawn not looking good (1 Viewer)

[dvs]

I just picked up a frag of branching frogspawn on Sunday and it does not seem to be doing well. When I brought it home, three heads were exposed, now there is only one and all of the others have receded into the branches. This is my first attempt at keeping corals besides the kenya trees and mushrooms that I have had a while. Everything else in my tank is doing excellent. My parameters are....
ph 8.8
Alk 300 ppm
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

I know that the Ph is too high. This happened tonight when I was adding lime water to the system. I am prepping some change water right now for tomorrow. The coral was declining before tonight.

Can anyone help me out? I really do not want to lose this one. I just picked up a frag of monti cap as well and I do not want lose it either. This is my first attempt at keeping corals.

 

[AquaNerd]

what's your salinity and temperature? also, how did you acclimate it?

 

[skeeter76]

also, what lighting was it under previously, and what is it under now?

 

[dvs]

Temp 76.8 F
salinity 1.022

I drip acclimated it for about 30 mins. I have it under 4x54w t5. I am not sure what lighting it was under before I think it was t5 as well. Brandon can you help me out with the lighting question?

 

[AquaNerd]

did you get it from bay area aquarium??? if so, the frogspawn was under metal halides. so your lighting should be fine. the temp and salinity are lower than i'd like to keep them at, but they are fine. i usually acclimate for 2-3 hours, regardless of what it is. then i float it for another 30 minutes just to make sure the temp in the bag is the same as the temp in the tank. a 30 minute drip isn't bad, but i'd definitely suggest a longer drip for future corals.

how tall is your tank? if it's too tall and the coral is near the bottom, it might not be getting enough light. you might want to move it around to see if it likes other spots with either higher light and/or better flow to see if it gets better.

 

[dvs]

Yeah I got it from Bay Area aquarium. I thought it might be to low in the tank so I moved it up to a higher spot today. I have a standard 4'x18"X? 75. I am not sure how high they are. I will acclimate longer next time. I thought that 30 mins would suffice. That is what I usually do for new stock. Thanks for the help. I will keep you updated on how it turns out.

 

[Tempset]

For any stony coral I wouldn't try anything less than the following:

SG: 1.025 (1.027 for me)
pH: 8.2
Temp: 80.0F
Calcium: 400


Drip & float acclimate everything. Why risk it?

Use RO/DI for top off. RO as a minimum.

Water change with any salt you hear of us using (oceanic sits in my fish room @ the moment) at LEAST once per month. I try to keep mine @ once per week, but fail sometimes. Skimmers, media reactor's, sumps, refugiums, UV lights and anything else we use as hobbyists are ONLY patchs for our system to make the time between water changes feel a little longer.

Have a conversation with Anthony Calfo. He's a major believer in severe water changes. And he's not for off.

Make SURE you are using a surface skimmer(not to be confused with regular skimmers). These are invaluable and are automatically accomplished with hang on back overflow boxes. NEVER allow any kind of film to build up on the surface of your water!

 

[MMaddox]

Don't move your coral any more. The worst thing you can do for new corals is to move them. Just because the coral isn't extended doesn't mean it's dying, either. Give it some time, make sure there's no laminar flow hitting it, and *leave it alone*!

To chime in on water changes, I pretty much drain my tanks to as low as the fish can stand, once a week, every week. FOWLR, Reef, doesn't matter, drain it. Just turn off the halides when you do to prevent light shock. When I had a fishless reef, I drained it all the way to the bottom every week! (Obviously, replace with water that has the same temp/ph/salinity!)

 

[MarkieB]

DVS,

My thoughts,

I have grown HUGE frospawn and hammers colonies in my tank.

1. Raise the temp to 80
2. Over a 5 day period raise the salinity to 1.25 and keep it there.
3. Check the flow, they will not open if they are getting hit by any direct flow
4. Check the phophate level. I have found Euphylia to be very sensitive to phosphates.

 

[Guest]

Is there anything in the tank that is bothering it?

 

[Timanator]

Are you sure your PH is 8.8?

Thats really high, it's the top limit of my tester.

 

[dvs]

DVS,

My thoughts,

I have grown HUGE frospawn and hammers colonies in my tank.

1. Raise the temp to 80
2. Over a 5 day period raise the salinity to 1.25 and keep it there.
3. Check the flow, they will not open if they are getting hit by any direct flow
4. Check the phophate level. I have found Euphylia to be very sensitive to phosphates.

Okay, I turned up the heater last night. The temp is now at 78.5, I will keep an eye on it until I get it up to 80. I thought that our tanks were supposed to stay between 76 and 78. I was always afraid of having it over 80. I am changing the water later on tonight when I get out of class as well to raise salinity and drop ph.

I do not have a way to check phosphates. I need to pick up a kit. Thanks for the replies guys.

update: Two of the three heads are completely recessed. There is only one head that is barely visible. I will take some pictures tonight after class.

 

[dvs]

Is there anything in the tank that is bothering it?

My red hermit was on it the first night I put it in, but I have not seen it around since then.

 

[dvs]

Are you sure your PH is 8.8?

Thats really high, it's the top limit of my tester.

I did not think of this. I will recheck after the water change this evening.