Frogspawn looks unhappy

[JRR1285]

As the title says my Frogspawn looks unhappy and I am at a loss as to why. I got it just around 2 months ago and it has looked great everyday up until I just got back from my honeymoon this Monday.

My father took care of the tank and everything else looks great. I have been busy the passed couple of weeks to a month plus so my maintenance kind of dropped off. Nothing in the tank looked distressed however. When I got back my father said everything looked great except for the Frogspawn on Saturday or Sunday I can't remember. He didn't spend hours looking at the tank obviously so I just chalked it up to a moment or two where it was deflated. It has been like that more or less since I've been back.

I didn't want to panic so I just began getting the tank back up to par. I scrubbed the algae off the rocks and did about a 6 gallon water change (tank and sump are max 35 to 40 gallons total water volume [29 display 20 long sump]) That was Wednesday and today I am in the process of testing all parameters. I also dipped it in Revive this morning and I got excited because it seemed to perk up a couple of hours later but it's back to how it was.

SG with refractometer 1.026 (calibrated using pinpoint salinity solution)

Phosphate is undetectable using an API test kit

dKH is 9

Calcium is high at 520, but I was just reading that a higher than normal SG can inflate the number slightly and I was a gallon down due to evap. Would it be off base to think my CA is more around 460-480? Still a little high though.

pH is 8.2

Nitrate test will be done shortly but I'm guessing 0

MG test will also be done shortly because it's a PITA (Salifert)

I have not tested for ammonia or nitrite but I doubt they are present

I'm just confused because everything looks so great. Any input would be awesome and helpful.

Here are some pics.

How it used to look

Right now

Zoomed out next to a Hammer that looks fine

Another LPS Acan coral doing good growing babies

FTS

 

[triggreef]

try a bayer dip I'd bet on pests. Like white bugs. Read up on them theres some info on RC. Check if you see some little tiny almost invisible white specs on the tissue. If you have good eyes once you see them you can spot them move.

I had frogspawn infected and right next to a hammer coral that was fine. It seems to only be a frogspawn thing. But the bayer dip works. So does a 4 min fresh dip although anyone here will tell you it would kill the coral, but I tried it and the coral was very stressed but lived and is still doing good several months later, and grew a new head in the meantime.

 

[JustClownin]

If everything checks oit on parameters, do like mentioned and check for pest. I had flatworms congregsting on a frogspawn once, and they were hard to see until I got in for a close inspection. Once the flat worms were gone, the frogspawn looked great.

 

[Ghetto Man]

I agree with the others. If the other LPS look good, it's likely a pest.

 

[JRR1285]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I plan on doing the bayer dip in the next couple of days. The revive dip didn't seem too stressful but I figure it may be best to wait so it's not too stressed. It extended a bit more earlier but retracted pretty tightly shortly after.

 

[triggreef]

Just FYI I noticed no NO indications of stress after the bayer dip. In fact the coral looked much better just a few minutes after. Also in no way would I recommend a fresh dip, I was just sharing my experience. And I use 4 to 5 ml of bayer to 2 cups of tank water. which is I believe less concentrated than the more recent advocates on RC and it worked great.

 

[Jblank44]

What is your nitrates? Never did say... You were guessing 0 but never had it tested

 

[nommarune]

Check for copper. Mine was acting really weird all params were good. ended up finding an hob filter that i use for phosphate control had brass bushing and non surgical aluminum shaft that had started rusting leaking heavy metal into the tank.