frogspawn receding

[night_cloud]

About a month ago I started to notice white dots on the stalk of a frogspawn frag. I wasn’t real sure what they were and after a couple searches and comparisons, I assumed they most likely resembled spirorbid worms. They eventually disappeared. The stalk is mostly free of white dots. 

 

What I’ve been noticing in the last two weeks is this. I have no insight as to what is causing this as the frag has been doing fine for months now. If anyone has experienced similar instances where euphylia has started to recede and skeleton started to expose, kindly advise. My thought is that one directional flow may be the cause, since the frogspawn’s polyps all generally sway the same direction but I’ve also been told that polyps will shrivel up under too much flow, something I have not seen happen. Could this be a bacterial issue taking hold? What steps should I take in order to save this frag?

 

Parameters are 25 nitrate, .25phos, alk 8.4, cal 400, mag 1450, 79F, 1.026 sg and 8.2 pH

 

Pls advise 

 

 

[Staticmoves]

To much flow can irritate or damage euphyllia some times. 
At first glance, it looks like flow related tissue separation.

but let’s see what everyone thinks.

[night_cloud]

I’ve moved the frag to a lower flow area and have also lowered the flow. 
 

it’s a 14gal cube with normally about 300gph turnover, currently closer to 250 gph turnover 

 

 

[Staticmoves]

11 hours ago, night_cloud said:

I’ve moved the frag to a lower flow area and have also lowered the flow. 
 

it’s a 14gal cube with normally about 300gph turnover, currently closer to 250 gph turnover 

 

 

200 - 250 sounds reasonable for turn over. What about flow from a power head. That would be the usual culprit.

 

if it is indeed a flow related issue.

let see some pictures of the tank.

and coral placement.

[braaap]

Looks flow related to me. They should kinda drape over the entire skeleton with slight movement. Looks like it has been blowing/hanging to one side.

[night_cloud]

I’ve definitely been struggling with placement. There are some frags that have been acclimating on the sand bed for a few weeks now. 
 

 

There is a fuzzy green mushroom and a zoa that are glued on the bottom left rock. The torch, duncan, goni, gsp and frogspawn have been hanging out on the sand.  Moved them all around according to the water movement I was noticing. It’s a very one dimensional, one directional kind of flow as I’m using the Aquaclear 50 and a sicce nano pump for additional flow. The AC 50 and pushes about 200gph and the sicce pump is 70-100ish

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by night_cloud
pics

[Staticmoves]

The other corals may be ok with the one directional flow, but hammer, torches and frogspawn defiantly benefit from light wave maker action.

since the pumps you have are on or off, a possibility may be to have the pumps flow diverge or cross paths to see if you can create some kind of random flow oscillating flow.

I don't know much about that power head, but there may even be some inexpensive nozzle attachments online to help randomize its flow output.

 

just some ideas…..😎

 

some nice coloration with that light by the way…..cheers……

[mcarroll]

Any chance of getting a better flow pump (eg Tunze) or maybe using something like a Hydro FLO accessory to break up the flow from those powerhead you're using now? 

 

This is the Hydro flo....I used a couple of these on a pair of old powerheads when I was starting out, until I could afford some Tunze nanostreams.

[night_cloud]

Thanks for all the ideas and insight. I moved the frogspawn to a near dead zone in the tank. The area gets indirect flow and is relatively gentle. This was my very first aquascape and although I initially wanted a large and open arch passageway I’m now realizing that it probably would have been a better idea breaking up the rocks and making caves, overhangs and arches; I think this probably could have reduced the one dimensional flow. The exposed white tissue on the frogspawn now appears to be hardened and shrunken up. Got a feeling this thing is slowly on its way out, keeping an eye for any brown stuff or exposed tissue. When I moved it a few weeks back, a polyp or two did fall out. A couple weeks after I put the frag into my tank, I did have very low magnesium for a whole. I think I can also attribute that to the poor condition this thing is now in. I did lose some other LPS frags at that time, the frogspawn has held up since that event back in October but clearly it’s been hit. 
 

saw this the other night at 2AM, do y’all think this is is a bristle or fire worm?

 

[night_cloud]

 

Thing is still kicking… I think I’ve finally found a good spot for it. Really hope it doesn’t give out as this was one of the first corals I ever purchased.

[Staticmoves]

57 minutes ago, night_cloud said:

 

Thing is still kicking… I think I’ve finally found a good spot for it. Really hope it doesn’t give out as this was one of the first corals I ever purchased.

Looking good.

did you get your mag levels sorted out with water changes.

that way your calc and alk don’t fall out of alignment.

love the color of that frogspawn.

[night_cloud]

I actually haven’t tested mag in a month but have been monitoring alk and cal 2-3 times a week. I think I’ve been able to tune in on the alk consumption and so with water changes replenishing alk a little bit, I just manually dose 2 part once a week to help keep things stable. 
 

Unfortunately the flesh band on this thing still looks receded but I haven’t seen any polyp bail out or anything that looks as concerning as the first pic in this thread. Just gonna cross my fingers and hope this thing keeps! Consistent weekly water changes is the way.

[night_cloud]

Frogspawn is still kicking. Stable parameters and low moderate flow brought it back from the brink