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Frogspawns/Hammer Corals NOT opening? Advice!

post #1 of 24
1/6/12 at 5:35am
Thread Starter 

Hello,

 

For the past 3 days, all my corals have seemed to keep closed? I checked my water parameters, and listed them below. What i did notice that one frag that was originally four heads seemed to be merging into two larger! I have my lights on for 8 hours, The only thing that has changed this week, i changed one t5 10k for a Wavepoint T5 reef wave (420nm)

 

Any idea why?

 

29 Gallon w/ 10g Sump

4X24W T5 (2 Aticnic (460nm), 1 10k, 1 Reefwave (420nm)

2 Coralia PW

Skimmer

GFO

---------------------------

 

Ammonia- 0

Nitrite-0

Nitrate-10ppm

pH-8.2

Phosphate-.25

dKH-10

Calcium- 500

----------------------------------

FrogspawnThis is one of the frogspawn near the bottom

Bottom headClose up of the bottom 2

Top HeadUpper 2 heads seemed like the merged

29 Reef And this was taken on Monday 1/2/12

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post #2 of 24
1/6/12 at 6:51am

Few things that could be contributing:

They hate phosphates. 

You have 3 actinic bulbs and only one daylight bulb. While the 420nm is a useful bulb, you really need the daylight spectrum for these corals (10K). You need two and two in your tank.

What is your salinity?

What is your temp?

Have parameters been stable?

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post #3 of 24
1/6/12 at 7:12am

Do an immediate 50% water change and monitor it. 

 

Your alkalinity and calcium levels are pretty high. That leads me to believe you are dosing stuff? Tell us everything you dose and in what amounts. 

 

What do you use to measure salinity? 

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post #4 of 24
1/6/12 at 8:49am
Thread Starter 

My Salinity was 1.024 and temp is always at 76.

 

I added Seachem Alkalinity buffer a week ago today. I have always had phosphates for a while now, when i do water changes, even at 50% it stays .25 constant.

I left 15 gallons mixing from yesterday so when i get home, i can do a water change.

 

I'm using RO/DI that i test with a TDS meter at 0. I'm using instant ocean salt mix.

 

In Addition I will be investing in a phos reactor in a few days! I was running GFO in a media bag in my sump, but i guess it's not doing the job right!

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post #5 of 24
1/6/12 at 8:53am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef View Post

Few things that could be contributing:

They hate phosphates. 

You have 3 actinic bulbs and only one daylight bulb. While the 420nm is a useful bulb, you really need the daylight spectrum for these corals (10K). You need two and two in your tank.

What is your salinity?

What is your temp?

Have parameters been stable?



For the most part Yes! Even the phosphate reading @ .25. The only thing the fluctuates are the nitrates to 10 from WC to WC!

 

I did take one 10k bulb of 4 days ago, I'll swap it back to have (2)10k and (1)460 (1)420 Aticnics

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post #6 of 24
1/6/12 at 10:34am

What do you use to measure salinity? 

 

Im guessing you have your own RO unit, so when was the last time you replaced your carbon filters? Test your RO water for chlorine and chloramines. 

 

 

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post #7 of 24
1/6/12 at 10:47am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 View Post

What do you use to measure salinity? 

 

Im guessing you have your own RO unit, so when was the last time you replaced your carbon filters? Test your RO water for chlorine and chloramines. 

 

 


I have a H2Ocean refractometer and it was in Mid November when i changed the filter and never have tested for chlorine and chloramines, I just used the TDS meter

 

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post #8 of 24
1/6/12 at 11:25am

TDS meter does not test for chlorine, chloramines and flouride.... they are not removed by your RO membrane.

 

When was the last time you calibrated your refractometer?

 

A quick test to see if you have chlorine in your aquarium is to take out some aquarium water into a separate bowl and use a de-chlorinator in it (with the proper amount etc.) and then test for ammonia. If ammonia shows up - you have chlorine in your water.

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post #9 of 24
1/6/12 at 11:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 View Post

TDS meter does not test for chlorine, chloramines and flouride.... they are not removed by your RO membrane.

 

When was the last time you calibrated your refractometer?

 

A quick test to see if you have chlorine in your aquarium is to take out some aquarium water into a separate bowl and use a de-chlorinator in it (with the proper amount etc.) and then test for ammonia. If ammonia shows up - you have chlorine in your water.



It's brand new, 2 months old @ the most, it says uses RO water to test for calibration. Will do the test today to check for chlorine after work!

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post #10 of 24
1/6/12 at 6:07pm
Thread Starter 

When I got home, they seemed a bit more open!

 

I did a 15 gallon water change and will monitor my parameters in an hour.

 

In addition, I replaced the 10k bulb back, and now have Two 10k and One 460 and One 420!

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post #11 of 24
1/6/12 at 10:34pm

Well, let us know how everything goes soon enough! :D

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post #12 of 24
1/8/12 at 12:34am
Thread Starter 

*** UPDATE ***

 

All day today my frogspawn opened up 1/4 of the way. I took a water sample to my preffered LFS, 45 min away since they use Elos and Hannah digital test, and learned that my Phosphate level was @ .01 and my refractometer was off my .002, So my salinity was actually 1.027!!!!!!!!

 

I have been removing half a gallon and replacing it with RO every 12 hrs. He had calibrating fluid and it's all squared away,

 

However one of my torch is still closed and has realesed like a mucus, could it be waste?

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post #13 of 24
1/8/12 at 6:59am

I would look up brown jelly disease to see if that is the substance that you may have seen the torch excreting. 

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post #14 of 24
1/8/12 at 10:04am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gemmy View Post

I would look up brown jelly disease to see if that is the substance that you may have seen the torch excreting. 


From what I looked up, Brown Jelly disease looks to be browning spots on the flesh, on my torch it was white cloudy substance, that was about 1.5" long, that the current swept away. As of now it has retracted, the rest of the hammers, frogspawn, and torch are about 1/4 way open. that one torch near the bottom is still closed, The lights  turned on a minute a go, so will update later on!

 

Thanks!

 

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post #15 of 24
1/8/12 at 11:12am
Thread Starter 

Water Parameters

 

                 1-6-12        1-8-12

 

Ammonia   0                0

Nitrite        0                0

Nitrate       10              5

pH            8.2             8.2

Phos         .25            .01

dKh          10              8

Calcium    500            420

Salinity     1.027         1.025

Temp        76              77

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post #16 of 24
1/8/12 at 2:37pm

What happened in those two days to cause changes in the parameters?

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post #17 of 24
1/8/12 at 2:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Tiger View Post




From what I looked up, Brown Jelly disease looks to be browning spots on the flesh, on my torch it was white cloudy substance, that was about 1.5" long, that the current swept away. As of now it has retracted, the rest of the hammers, frogspawn, and torch are about 1/4 way open. that one torch near the bottom is still closed, The lights  turned on a minute a go, so will update later on!

 

Thanks!

 



 

 

I've experienced brown jelly disease, and that white film is another form of it. The white film version is actually more dangerous as it can attack all you LPS, not just the euphyllia sp. I lost 1 torch, 1 golden torch, 1 Aussie neon green wall hammer, 1 branching hammer, 2 frogspawns, 3 blastomussa colonies, 1 large acan colony and a bunch of acan frags due to it. I had to dip ALL my LPS 2x a week for 2 weeks to get rid of the bacterial infection.

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post #18 of 24
1/8/12 at 5:49pm
Thread Starter 

@Gemmy, Water change of 15 gallons

 

@BTL, I have set up a Coral QT, Tomorrow i'll get a dip. Any recommended dip out there?

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post #19 of 24
1/8/12 at 6:51pm

I used Lugol's and Melafix Marine.

I was adding Lugol's to the main tank as well.

 

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post #20 of 24
1/8/12 at 8:59pm
Thread Starter 

I will pick some up tomorrow,

 

Quick question, Can i use Methylene Blue as a dip for corals?

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