Is my frogspawn doing ok?

[micl10]

I forget how they originally looked from the store but I'm not sure if it's retracted or not.

It's a bit weird. The arms I think are fully expanded, but the tips seem small.

 

[reeferfoxx]

What are your parameters and what type and brand of lights?

 

[micl10]

Params are in the high side except four calcium...but still normal range. 380, 10.4, 1400.

Po4: 0.06
No3: 10

Light is kessil 360 that maxes at 70. Maybe 10th inches up.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Params are in the high side except four calcium...but still normal range. 380, 10.4, 1400.

Po4: 0.06
No3: 10

Light is kessil 360 that maxes at 70. Maybe 10th inches up.

Your parameters look good. I would up your calcium to 420-440 range. Monitor alk after you do that in case you see a drop.

Your tank looks a little large for one kessil pendant. You might need to add another one. I say that because your coral are "browning" out, so to speak. Lacking color but not bleaching. Typically that happens with high nutrients and inadequate light coverage. Look in to adding another kessil or some type of supplement light.

 

[micl10]

I thought Browning was due to over abundance out zoox which is caused by high but non fatal amount of light?

 

[reeferfoxx]

I thought Browning was due to over abundance out zoox which is caused by high but non fatal amount of light?

Yes, browning is due to an abundance of zoox. But the abundance is coming from photosynthesis and nutrient uptake. You have enough light to keep the zoox reproducing but not enough for the coral to grow or expand. So basically you got a lot of tenants in a small building. Increasing light and coverage will allow for higher rate calcification. Lower light with higher nutrients will inhibit growth.

 

[micl10]

gotcha. thanks.

my plan is actually to have all my high light corals in that little crevasse. then low light corals on the lower light areas, then NPS behind the rocks.
Right now, those octospawns are (nearly) directly under the lights. So at least for this case, a second light wouldn't really help.

Should I increase the intensity of the light then?


Here's my layout

 

[reeferfoxx]

gotcha. thanks.

my plan is actually to have all my high light corals in that little crevasse. then low light corals on the lower light areas, then NPS behind the rocks.
Right now, those octospawns are (nearly) directly under the lights. So at least for this case, a second light wouldn't really help.

Should I increase the intensity of the light then?


Here's my layout

You can definitely try increasing intensity. If blues aren't at 100% I would start there.

 

[micl10]

Cool. I'll try that. Up until recently, my nitrates were at 50. i managed it down to 0, and i don't think the corals liked it. (acans were a bit retracted) So I let it go up to 20, and everyone seems to be good. so maybe the browning is still a residue of my formerly high nitrates.

anyway, so back to the octospawn..does it look ok?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Cool. I'll try that. Up until recently, my nitrates were at 50. i managed it down to 0, and i don't think the corals liked it. (acans were a bit retracted) So I let it go up to 20, and everyone seems to be good. so maybe the browning is still a residue of my formerly high nitrates.

anyway, so back to the octospawn..does it look ok?

Yeah, I think it looks fine! Just lacks some color. You are right the nutrient swing would cause some issues.

If it were me, this is a list of things I would do to keep things going smoothly.

-Weekly 15% water change with matched alkalinity. Gotta keep this number stable. That is very important.
-Blow detritus off rock with turkey baster about 3 times a week.
-Monitor Alk at least once a day for a couple weeks. If daily tests show a +/- .5dkh difference, test again before making any adjustments.
-Slowly increase calcium by 20ppm/per day,for the next couple days, till you reach 420ppm.
-Monitor PO4. 0.06 is on the cusp of being on the high side. I would try to focus between 0.02 - 0.04 range.

If by any chance you go too low on nutrients, either up nutrients or let your Alk fall slowly to a more appropriate range for low nutrient setup. Which would be the 8-9dkh range.
Make sure you don't make sudden changes on any parameters. Cheers!

 

[Surfandturf]

Great aquascape!

 

[micl10]

Great aquascape!

thanks!!!


Just a bit of a follow up. Fairly new to the hobby so perhaps I'm just overly worrying, but I'm starting to see fresh skeleton from the coral. Dunno if it's a result of growth or perhaps it's the beginning of coral bail out.

This is after lights out btw so the coral is retracted

 

[Roy 9121]

What's the flow like in your tank?

 

[reeferfoxx]

thanks!!!


Just a bit of a follow up. Fairly new to the hobby so perhaps I'm just overly worrying, but I'm starting to see fresh skeleton from the coral. Dunno if it's a result of growth or something I need to be concerned about

This is after lights out btw so the coral is retracted

Hard to tell whats going on at that stage. If it were to get worse, it will.

I've had experience with high flow ripping away polyps. Though, not completely and they've recovered. Actually to the point where you can see the inside. All I did was temporarily moved the coral to a low flow spot on the sand. Ended up not losing any polyps.

If in the next week it more than doubles from where its at now, you'll need to reduce flow to that area or move the coral.

 

[micl10]

Varied. If you look at the screen from first post, there's a gyre on the right side. The brunt of it is then is taken by the torch then as the laminar wave comes back to the frog down, is fairly weak

Torch is doing really good with that flow btw

 

[reeferfoxx]

Hard to tell whats going on at that stage. If it were to get worse, it will.

I've had experience with high flow ripping away polyps. Though, not completely and they've recovered. Actually to the point where you can see the inside. All I did was temporarily moved the coral to a low flow spot on the sand. Ended up not losing any polyps.

If in the next week it more than doubles from where its at now, you'll need to reduce flow to that area or move the coral.

Basically, dont worry about it. If it more than doubles. It would then be a flow issue. The way it looks now, is nothing shy of weird euphyllia things. Again if it gets worse........

 

[micl10]

Cool. Thanks. I'll keep an eye on it.

I've also lowered my alk to 9.5. Still a tinge high but lower than before. I stopped using my ph buffer. Ph stable at 7.93

 

[jonathan9573]

May frogspawn like that doesn't like flow at all. I would say minimal flow at the most.