Frogspawn is dying!

[fishyfoofoo]

I have a 55 gal tank with 4x48" 65 watt pc lighting. My water perameters are very good and I have a very stable and mature tank.

However, I recently added a nice frogspawn piece. Unfortunately, It is slowly dying. It was very open and looked happy the first couple of days. After that it started to contract. I have tried moving it to different locations in the tank with less water flow. I thought that it seemed to be a little happier. It never opened up as much as it did the first two days though.

Then one branch started dying off. That branch completely died after about two weeks. Now it seems like the next closest branch is doing the same thing. Each day a little bit of the edge of the frogspawn recedes and has formed into a frothy, silk like mass that is dead. Also, It does not open as much anymore. Especially in the branch where the dying is taking place.

I feed my corals phytofeast once a week. I give them a capful.

What am I doing wrong? Is the lighting not good enough? Is my piece doomed? Please help!

TIA,

Ryan

 

[pat8you]

Just to give you a heads up the experts will want all your water parameters. Pictures are always helpful too. Sorry to hear about your coral. I'll keep an eye on this post because i would like to get a piece of frogspawn in my tank eventually.

 

[fishyfoofoo]

Ok. Here are the perameters.

temp 79 degrees
Sal 1.023
ph 8.1
nitrates 0
nitrites 0
Calcium and Alkalinity added daily.
Iodine added weekly.

I will see if I can do a picture soon.

 

[roka64]

What are your calcium, alk and iodine/iodide readings? You may be overdosing your tank. Those elements will be replenished with regular PWCs.

 

[SassyAngel111]

What are the readings for the CA and ALK?
Are you testing for Iodine? If not you do not want to add anything that you are not testing for.

With regular water changes w/ RO/DI and good salt you should not need to add anything to your tank.

As for the frogspawn dying it could be to much Iodine, but someone with more expereince will chime in.

 

[roka64]

I agree, none of us that have responded are experienced reefers. I'll see if I can get you some help.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Sounds like either the coral was on it's way out when you bought it, or it didn't care for the acclimation. Most corals seem like they can put up with an awful lot before showing stress, and two days just doesn't seem like much. How did you acclimate it?

Agree with the comment about iodine - if you're doing normal water changes weekly or even every other week, I'd venture to guess you don't need to dose it. What are your iodine levels?

What other corals are in the tank? While it wouldn't kill off a frogspawn, it really has no interest in the phyto for food. It'll like meatier foods like mysis shrimp or little tiny bits of chopped clams, or things like that.

 

[Ziggy953]

STOP putting iodine into your tank! Adding iodine is more then likely the cause of this. If you are doing regular PWCs (as mentioned above) then you have enough iodine in your water. This is something that needs to be added only to takes that have a HIGH demand for it.

You need to be testing for anything that you are adding to the tank. Frogspawn does not need additional supplements. It is one of the easiest LPSs to care for. All it needs is good flow and good lighting along with good water condition. I would suggest doing some serious PWCs over the next week and see if that helps.

On a side note why and who told you to dose iodine?

 

[ccCapt]

I agree with the iodine. Stop dosing and do some big pwc's. I suspect your iodine levels are extremely high and possibly toxic.

Same goes with the ca and alk. What are your levels at for them? What products are you dosing? These can't get to toxic levels, but an imbalance of ca and alk can cause some issues with pH. Also, if one of the levels get too high, it can precipitate out of solution and you will have an in-tank snow storm, which will cause pH issues.

 

[usmcmarc]

I agree with Iodine being the culprit also. Very bad to add iodine w/o testing. I have lost corals for the same reason.

 

[melosu58]

I`m going to go another direction. I think it`s the dreaded Brown jelly disease. It`s a disease that will kill the individual heads. When you see one going bad you have to immediately break that head off and dont wait for it to deteriorate all the way. It happens to alot of LPS corals. Here is an article about it.

Corals - Bacterial

Also some pics of my torch coral when it had it. I had to bite the bullet and break off the infected heads. This will hopefully save the rest.

 

[melosu58]

This is what it looks like today.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Bump.

Any update, fishyfoofoo?

 

[ellisz]

I have always found it better to remove dead portions on lps corals. It typically will spread other wise.

 

[newbe]

it was just recommended to me from a shop to dose iodine and the next day here my frog spawn isn't looking good it is a recent addition to my tank and id hate to see it die. will water change reverse this or am i already doomed. i have also added chemiclean for a red slime issue. so my protein skimmer is turned off. it isnt a very good one lookin to up grade when i can. i also added a 1400gph power head i test my water often and everything looks ok. since i have done all this. i have noticed my fish flashing in the sand what have i done and what can i do?

 

[Ziggy953]

PWCs...

 

[newbe]

if you mean power compacts... yes. and as for as cutting of the dying part do i just snap it off with pliers?

 

[newbe]

and what are the best lights to run for corals?

 

[Sniperhank]

That depends on what type of corals you want to keep. A nice T5HO unit will do for mostly everything up to LPS. Then there is a long debate on mh/led/and lots of T5 for SPS.

 

[newbe]

when you lots of t5... do you mean like a 4 or 6 pack unit i would like a t5 fixture. the one i have been looking at is like $550. is there anyone here that has one for sale?