Frogspawn growth secrets...

XeniaMania

XeniaMania

Active member
I have a neon frogspawn that I've had for 2 years. It's not as big as it should be mainly because I didn't really pay attention to water parameters for the first yr, and then I had a heater go out for 2-3 months w/o me even noticing. Anyways, my current water parameters are
SG 1.025
Calcium 450-500ppm
Ph 8.6(day) 8.2(night)
Alk "High" Red Sea tests don't give numerical value
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates 0,0,0
Phosphates 0-0.1
Temp 79
Strontium and Magnesium test en route via mailorder.
I feed it cyclops and thawed out frozen food, but still doesn't seem to be growing. I can see the original size of the skeleton when it retracts, and I can see that it's forming a new base and has grown some. Just want to get some feedback on some other possible ideas for stimulating growth. Picture is attached to show positioning in the tank. Thanks
after.jpg
 
Ok, thank you. I'm pretty sure the Nitrates are correct since I've been battling Nitrates since Feb, and I've dropped it from 100mg/l to 0. The phosphate test I question since I don't think my Red Sea tests are as accurate, but the coralline growth reaffirms me that phosphates are low, or else they won't grow. Most likely it's lighting and flow..:)
 
"but the coralline growth reaffirms me that phosphates are low"
Sorry I have never heard that before. I guess you can have some phosphates (below 40) and still grow coralinne

As for the purple tip frog spawn, I have one with increadible growth, flow helps, but I would give most of the credit my MH lights. I have it right smack dab in the middle/center of the tank.
 
Coralline can't grow if there's excessive phosphates in the water. I'm not familiar with the number 40 as my phosphate test range is .1-.9. Oh well, I'm gradually switching over to the Salifert tests anyways, so I guess I'll need a PO4 test soon..lol. Aigh, yet at the same time I do need some phosphates for my xenias.
 
It looks bleached if thats it in the top-left of the pic.

As stated move it down some, give it some flow and keep everything else you've been doing up.
 
A good healthy branching frogspawn, will have an inch of more flesh on the sides of the stalk. Tiny new heads will develop from there but even when you see the little ones it takes a good year to show any appreciatable size. The tops will start to divide as well.

When you only have couple heads, it can take a while before you start to see multiple heads particularly if there isn't that nice inch of more flesh on the sides of the stalk to start with.

Once you get say 10+ heads though it seems to develop new heads quite rapidly because some many of the splitting at the same time.

Patience and with stable water quality parameters and it will be fine.
 
What about the non-branching type? The one I have isn't a branching type. But yea, it use to be where the clam was on the right and it opened up more. I'll try lowering it into a lower flow and light area, thanks guys.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7076464#post7076464 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by XeniaMania
It's not bleached, it's a neon green one. It's been that color for the past 2 years.
Click to expand...


Just looks lighter than my neon green, nonbranching frogspawn is all. Could be the pic

P3250001.jpg
 
Never had a non-branching frogspawn. I have a non-branching hammer that started out say 6-8" ( skeletal base part across) and took about 5 years to double in size. I have since fragged it into about 5-6 pieces all of which are now the size of the original and that is at the 8 year mark. It is slower than braching type.
 
They react to high or low alkalinity, too, and don't like certain corals upwind of them: leathers and some buttons are particularly prone to irritate them. I have mine 20 inches from a 250 mh, at 9 alk, 420 cal, 1320 mg, with a very light fish load: fish all under 2" in a 52 gal. I don't feed, except for what the fish put into the system. Light period is about 10 h actinic, 6-8 mh.
 
lol...it's right next to a green polyp leather now..opps...we'll see, 1 thing at a time. I'll know Mg next week when my test arrives. I use to have 9 hrs MH, but I recently bumped it up to 12.
 
talked with a lfs in MASS. about his frogspwan. He has a tank loaded with them, huge colonies, and I mean huge, hundreds of heads. He said one thing... Calcium Reactor.

Naturally water parameters needs to be decent but he was confident the big difference was the Calcium Reactor. He said once he put it on the tank, the FS took off.

Good luck, Kevin
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7087735#post7087735 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by km133688
talked with a lfs in MASS. about his frogspwan. He has a tank loaded with them, huge colonies, and I mean huge, hundreds of heads. He said one thing... Calcium Reactor.

Naturally water parameters needs to be decent but he was confident the big difference was the Calcium Reactor. He said once he put it on the tank, the FS took off.

Good luck, Kevin
Click to expand...

Do you know what type of lighting he's running?
 
sorry no, but the name of the place was AQUA-DREAMS I believe. Nice people. I bet if you called them they would tell you.

Kevin
 
april.jpg

Well, I lowered the coral and the polyp does seem a tad bit bigger, but too soon to tell for sure. I finally got my Mg and Sr tests and both levels were low so I'm correcting that now. Increasing the Mg has improved the looks on my xenias immensely I can tell a difference. While running the Sr test though, I got a surprise result, my Red Sea Ca test was showing 400ppm-450ppm, but the Salifert test shows only 380 which can explain the retarded growth, and my Sr was at 0-3, so that needs to be bumped up. I'm using Red Sea Calcium +3 which boosts Ca and Sr so I'll retest after dosing for 2 days and see what the elevated results are.
 
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