Frogspawn not opening up

[sroot17]

My 2 month old frogspawn stopped opening up recently. I figured that I placed my powerhead in a slightly different position after a thorough cleaning and that it was now hitting it with too much flow. The frogspawn was open for the first six weeks that I've had it and has been in the same spot for probably a month.

I played around with increased flow and reduced flow with no luck. Its placed higher up in my tank, medium-high, under 4 39w T5s in a 50g. Water parameters are good apart from a .5-.75 ppm phosphate level.

sg 1.023
ph - 8.3
akl - 8.6 dkh
calc - 440
amm, nitrite and nitrate are all zero.
mag - 1250
phos - .75

Is there a chance that it is placed too high up and being exposed to too much light? Thats the only thing left I can think of, either that or my coral beauty is picking on it although I've never seen it take even the slightest interest in it over the countless hours I've watched the tank.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[guarda]

Have a clown? Mine occasionally likes to host my euphyllia at night, lovingly causing damage.

 

[tttony]

Ive got 4 frogsspawn and others, they dont like flow, lo.l period try turning off most of your pumps and wait two days.

 

[sroot17]

Just realized I posted this in SPS instead of LPS! ooopss.....

I have to ocellaris clownfish but they have never come near the frogspawn. I tried turning off most of my pumps for a day but that did nothing, I will give that another try but keep them off for even longer.
Going to do a big water change on Sunday after the swap and if after that no luck then I guess this guys getting moved to a lower spot in the tank (its a shame because I love its position now and its glued to the rock)

 

[wonderballz]

My froggy defi didn't like even moderate flow. When I moved him into a low flow area, he pretty much doubled in size

 

[bigdog1428]

I have mine on the sandbed where there is barely any flow ,, and he is fully extending ,, my tank is 20 inches deep ,, hope this helps


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[sroot17]

Well the reduced flow and lighting does not seem to be making any difference.

Anyone got any other ideas? Is there something I should be supplementing?

I did notice this started happening after I switched from activated carbon to chemipure elite. Maybe that has something to do with it?

 

[PetShopBoy]

Well the reduced flow and lighting does not seem to be making any difference.

Anyone got any other ideas? Is there something I should be supplementing?

I did notice this started happening after I switched from activated carbon to chemipure elite. Maybe that has something to do with it?

I used chemipure elite and my 3 heads extend fully even with medium to high flow. What else do you have in the tank? Is it near other corals that may cause this?

 

[Reeftanker3295]

My brand new frogspawn is in the lowest flow in the tank and is doing great. Its polyps doubled in size in the last few days.

 

[sroot17]

I used chemipure elite and my 3 heads extend fully even with medium to high flow. What else do you have in the tank? Is it near other corals that may cause this?

There are no other corals around that could be bothering it. Could phosphates of .1 be an issue? My other theory is that maybe its starting to grown another head and thats why its been all retracted these past couple of weeks.

Besides that I'm completely stumped! It does not look like its dying, the color is still a nice bright green and there is no mucus or film developing which I know is common when head begin to decay.

Thanks!

 

[Deep Dive Coral]

Are they not coming out at all or are the head just not extending. If they are not extending then I would say that it is because of the phosphates. And check your test kit because trates can't be 0 with that high phosphates.

 

[sroot17]

The are out probably 1/8 of an inch, the recede further when the lights are off.

Going to not feed anything until the weekend and see if that helps

 

[sroot17]

Well another week has gone by and the frogspawn is still not opening up.

I just moved it to a shady spot with no flow, lets see what happens but its not looking good.

Should I give up?! Is there anything else I should be testing for that could be causing this?

Thanks everyone

 

[guarda]

Maybe try putting it in a friend's tank for a week or two?

 

[E.intheC]

it sounds like you're moving the coral around a lot. I would try to find a spot with lower flow and medium light (low to mid range in your tank should suffice) and leave it alone for a while.

What are you using to test phosphates? .75 is very high.

Also, do you have peppermint shrimp? I had a similar issue a long time ago and couldn't figure it out.. one night I came back to my tank and saw the peppermint shrimp eating the frogspawn. Going to town on it.

 

[sroot17]

I'm using a red sea phosphate test kit which I think has to be wrong... I do not have the algae growth to support as high of a reading as I'm getting.

No peppermint shrimp but funny you should say that as I was going to pick two up this week to deal with some aiptasia thats taking over a zoa colony.

The frogspawn was in the same place, medium light and flow, for months and was thriving until all of a sudden this happened. I do not think me moving it around is whats caused it but I'm going to keep it in its new spot for a month and see what happens.

Unfortunately I'm alone in this hobby and don't have any friends with a tank although I like the idea of having someone else take it for a little while to see if we can isolate the problem

 

[Vic8361]

Well the reduced flow and lighting does not seem to be making any difference.

Anyone got any other ideas? Is there something I should be supplementing?

I did notice this started happening after I switched from activated carbon to chemipure elite. Maybe that has something to do with it?

go back to the carbon and see what happens.
Vic

 

[Mikei70]

I had a similar issue a long time ago and couldn't figure it out.. one night I came back to my tank and saw the peppermint shrimp eating the frogspawn. Going to town on it.

Same thing happened to me once with a torch. A peppermint shrimp attacked it as soon as I put the torch in the tank. Like two-fisting it--just ripping it apart. I figured he must be hungry so I chased him away and threw some food in. He didn't touch it again that I know of, but I soon switched tanks and when I did I moved the two shrimp to the sump. I didn't trust them anymore.

Most reef folks don't believe me when I tell them.