Hammer & Frogspawn issues

[fort384]

First off, I am very new to coral & SW tanks in general - this is my first reef tank/SW tank. I bought a nice hammer coral and a frogspawn from my LFS and it opened up somewhat for the first few days after acclimation but never as full as it was in the LFS. For the past several days, it has not been open at all. The frogspawn opened up quite a bit as well for a few days, and now it too is completely retracted.

Tank specs:
57 gal tank, 20 gal sump. Newly established (running for about 3-4 weeks). Stock is only 2 small percula clowns at the moment and some tiny hermit crabs.

Lighting: 2 AI SOL pods, currently running at 20% white, 20% blue (it was 50% for the first week, but I have reduced it as I thought maybe too much light was the issue). 3 hour ramp up from 0 to that, 4 hours at that intensity setting, 3 hour ramp down to 4% blue (moonlights).

Flow: eheim 1262 return and 2 Vortech MP10s running on ECOSmart mode during the day, night mode at lights out. Powerheads are each 4-6" under the surface, pointing roughly at each other, and set to ~50% of max speed.

Skimmer: BG NAC 3, collecting about 1/3 cup a day

All other corals were doing fine, but today under this new lower intensity light setting, 1 of the 3 zoa colonies did not open.

Water Parameters:
0 NH4
0 NO2
10 ppm NO3
0.12ppm PO4
9.8dKH
1.025 SG
460 ppm Calcium
79F temp

Here is a link to a youtube vid I took of both the LPS. It is from a few days ago, and they are actually more closed up now than they were in the vid. The frogspawn is now so retracted, the tentacles aren't even moving at all.
LPS coral - YouTube
I also did a 10% water change on Saturday, but it seemed to have no effect.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you!

 

[fort384]

Here are some pics of the hammer, zoas, and frogspawn in the state they were in today:

And what they looked like when I first put them in my tank 7-8 days ago:

 

[arch85]

Did you dip the corals before putting them into your tank? Also how is the flow where you put them?

I would put them somewhere in the tank where the flow is not too high -- they like moderate flow (at least in our tank). Also do a 25-30% water change, twice in the next week; it'll help with anything if there's a water quality issue. Hopefully that'll help.

Otherwise, in my experience, frogspawn are EXTREMELY hardy and grow super fast. We've a HUGE colony we're trying to sell to make room because its growing so fast lol

 

[fort384]

Thanks arch.

I did a dip in lugols before adding to the tank.

They started in higher flow as I had dual MP10's running at around 80% in ecosmart mode. But, when they started to decline, I reduced the flow to 40-50% on each of the MP10s, and also moved the MP10s up a bit and back a bit (the frogspawn is in the front left corner, and the hammer in the front right, both on the sand bed). I would definitely call it low to moderate flow now (but what do I know?).

Based on the look of how they are moving in the youtube vid, do you think the flow is still too high?

I did a water change on saturday, and I will do 2 more this week and see if that helps. I can only do 12 gallons at a time unfortunately as that is the limit of my holding tank for my RODI system.

Any opinion on the lighting? I am getting recommendations on some forums from way too much light to not enough light. 20% intensity on 2 AI Sol pods looks pretty dim to me... but again, what do I know.

 

[arch85]

no problem!

I'm not an expert myself, but I can recommend based on what works and doesn't for our frogspawn. I think the flow and lighting looks ok ... it feels really weird to see the frogspawn all closed up. I would move them both to a little bit more shaded area and leave them there for 3-5 days to see if it helps. You can try to feed them something, but of course, don't force it in there

By the way, how's the temperature in your tank? I know our corals were un-happy when either the temp fluctuated too much at nights, and/or when our sump ran out of water and started shooting bubbles into the tank

One last thing I can think of, is maybe the sand -- if you have any fish that like to stir up the sand, then the sand might be irritating the corals too. That's pretty much all I can think of from my short experience..

 

[josh4107]

Do you know what your ph and alkalinty are? From my experience frogspawn is a very hardy coral. My only guess is your tank may not.be fully cycled or there are other water parameter problems. I'd just do a couple water changes this week and see how that affects them. Whatever the problem is, they are definitely po'ed about something. Sorry I can't be of more help but I don't think the flow or lighting are the problem.

 

[Connie]

Maybe your tank has not finished cycling yet? That would be my guess.

 

[TheEngineer]

They're both hardy corals, but they can be picky. That flow looks quite high to me in the youtube vid. They like a passing current, but they don't like getting blown around like that. You should see the tentacles get pushed slowly and gently every few seconds or so. They don't like that violent hard hit like they're getting.

That aside, they are both temperamental when it comes to change. I would lower the flow and leave them alone. Give them some time to come out. Are your clowns trying to host them?

 

[fort384]

I can mess with the flow some more. Temp is holding stable at 78-79F. I have two heaters in the sump for redundancy. Alkalinity is 9.8 and pH is holding steady at 8.2-8.3. I have a pH meter and have done a two point calibration on it an confirmed it with a titration test so I am pretty sure it is accurate.

As far as not being cycled, I am not seeing any ammonia or nitrite and the tank went through a normal cycle (using dead shrimp) before I added any fish or coral. I have a lot of experience with high tech planted tanks so have done a lot of testing and have backups for almost all the tests. I have also confirmed the test kit accuracy based on expected values from my established FW tank so I am somewhat confident in my water parameter readings.

 

[fort384]

They're both hardy corals, but they can be picky. That flow looks quite high to me in the youtube vid. They like a passing current, but they don't like getting blown around like that. You should see the tentacles get pushed slowly and gently every few seconds or so. They don't like that violent hard hit like they're getting.

That aside, they are both temperamental when it comes to change. I would lower the flow and leave them alone. Give them some time to come out. Are your clowns trying to host them?

Yes each clown has paired up with one of the LPS... I initially thought that was the issue but the frogspawn has been pretty much left alone the past couple days and the other clown stayed away from the hammer yesterday I think because there is not much left for them to get into since they are so retracted.

 

[CJO]

The flow looks fine in your video and the lighting sounds like it is good, though you should probably start raising it over time. 3-4 weeks might be a bit early to be adding corals to your tank, but your ammonia and nitrites look fine. My guess is that they are getting aggitated from the clownfish. They are pretty small to be hosting one.

CJ