What's wrong with this Frogspawn?

[affan]

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Good question- looks like it's kicking the bucket.
What are your water parameters?
What fishes do you have?

 

[affan]

Mr. Majchrzak, an honor once again.

Parameters:

8/22/2006

dKH/Alkalinity 10.2 dKH/3.66 meq/L
Calcium 420
Salinity 1.026 Specific Gravity
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0 ppm
Current Temperature Steady @ 79.5 degrees
Phosphates 0 ppm
Nitrates < 10 ppm
Nitrites Not Tested

8/28/2006

dKH/Alkalinity 10.2 dKH/3.66 meq/L
Calcium 440
Salinity 1.026 Specific Gravity
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0 ppm
Current Temperature Steady @ 79.1 degrees
Phosphates 0 ppm
Nitrates < 5 ppm
Nitrites Not Tested

 

[stereomandan]

Water parameters, or poor lighting are my guess. Mine only looked like that after a catastrophoc event with flatworms about 4 years ago.

Dan

 

[affan]

Lighting is 2x250 DE MH 10k K's with 260 watts of power compacts. 30" deep tank, but this coral is no more than 14" from the lights. Tests are done with Salifert and Refractometer. There are no other corals within its immediate vicinity. My fish are not picking on it, and I have not seen any flatworms. Here's a Goniopora I added a couple of days ago, seems to be doing great.

Edit: Fishlist includes: Purple Tang, GSM Clown, Yellowhead wrasse, Blue Damsel, Coral Beauty, Yellow Watchman Goby (not been seen for a week now) Firefish.

 

[stereomandan]

You bought a Goniopora? You are a brave man. I'm sure you know the success rate of those.

The frogspawn on the other hand are normally very hardy.

Did you change lighting recently, maybe causing it to bleach. Maybe you ran carbon, and it cleared up the water so much that it stressed the frogspawn?

How do all the other corals look?

Dan

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8054904#post8054904 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by affan
Mr. Majchrzak, an honor once again.

Thanks, but I'm not going to feel very honorable if I can't figure this one out. Frogspawns are relatively "hardy". I don't suspect lighting as a culprit because (judging from that pic) you have bright lighting and the coral is located up near the lights. (Maybe the Froggie is getting too much light!)
How long has the Frogspawn been going down the tubes?
There's no doubt that your new Goniopora is providing allelopathic chemicals as possible cause of the Frogspawns demise.

 

[affan]

I am stumped. I haven't changed lights/bulbs. I have not run carbon. Besides the Caulerpa in the fuge for nutrient export, and B-Ionic for Alkalinity and Calcium, there's nothing else (besides WC's) that I do. All other corals look great, the very few SPS and a few LPS here and there all have excellent polyp extension/colors. No parameters seem to be out of whack. I use 0 TDS RO/DI water. Oh yeah, I did start dosing sugar a couple of weeks ago to reduce nitrates which has been pretty successful so far. But this frogspawn did this in a matter of 48 hours. Could this be related?

 

[affan]

Ooooh.. Elaborate allopathic warfare please.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8055004#post8055004 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by affan
Ooooh.. Elaborate allopathic warfare please.

some links:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-09/rs/feature/index.php

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/cw.htm

 

[stereomandan]

Well, all I can tell you is that mine has come back from nearly the identical state. Sugar for Nitrates? I must have been out of the hobby for too long. Haven't heard of that one yet, weird.

I'd stop with the sugar unless you can point me to a thread showing it's advantages.

Some of the heads that show just the skeleton remaining... where they fine before?

Dan

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8054993#post8054993 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by affan
Oh yeah, I did start dosing sugar a couple of weeks ago to reduce nitrates which has been pretty successful so far. But this frogspawn did this in a matter of 48 hours. Could this be related?

The combined introduction of a Goniopora and sugar dosing might have caused enough stress to the Frogspawn that it's dying.

 

[affan]

Thanks for your responses, both of you guys. So as per Dan, maybe there's still hope for this guy. I am not sure as to how I can improve water chemistry or do something to prevent further stress. I guess I need to quit with the sugar and move the Goniopora further away as apparently eight or so inches is obviously not enough space. Once again, thanks to both of you for the replies and those articles.

PS> I find it very cool to have a former TOTM owner in my thread :lol:

 

[affan]

Oh, and yes, I am aware of the success rate of those flowerpots. But I went ahead and got him because I was able to keep one in a former tank for a solid 2 years until Katrina wiped out everything last year.

 

[tang named junkyard]

I do water changes once every 4-6 months and my frogspawns seem to love it. I think they like nitrates.. Some corals do..

 

[affan]

:lol: I remember you posted a picture of your tank and said that you had not done a water change in like 2 years or something and that your tank was thriving nevertheless.