Issue with LPS

pickupman66 · May 1, 2013

OK. so I really dont get it. I have finally gotten my tank back on a recovery road. its not perfect but its getting there. all of my new pretties are doing great except the orange zoas and the GORGEOUS torch. the torch is my largest concern as it was the most expensive piece i bought. as of now, I have lost two heads that brown jellied out on me and the tissue has receed up the skeleton considerably on the others. I really dont want to lose this coral. water is 8.01 PH, 9.1 DKh, nitrates were at 25 (coming down) phosphate was .14 but it is consistently in the .02-.03 range on my hannah. Ca is at 400. no temp swings, no PH swings, salinity was a bit low at 31ppt, but is back at 35ppt.

ALL my other corals look impressive. including the frogspawns and hammers. all SPS are really looking awesome and I have the greatest polyp extension I have ever seen now. it did fall over and down about 6" when I first got it in. that may be my issue. It has had a pretty good bouncing current on it but nothing that was extremely hard or that I would think would harm it. all the other heads extend to over 2 inch polyps.

anyone with insight?

here is what the good heads look like regularly.

also, just for reference here are a few SPS shots. They are now showing feeding behavior when i feed the fish. Very cool to see snotty corals.

Dowtish · May 1, 2013

What is your magnesium level?

pickupman66 · May 1, 2013

That I do not know. I dont dose for it nor do I test. I think I do have a test kit I got from Josh that I can give it a shot tonight...

NanaReefer · May 1, 2013

Whenever I've had issues with my LPS it was always do to water issues....several wc later and they recovered nicely.

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ibbennyb · May 1, 2013

did you let any of the heads touch sand at any point? anytime you have one head die. it usually starts to effect the rest of them. also. i learned the hard way.. watch for fish picking on it. i would frag off the dead heads to keep the infection from spreading to the others. def make sure you get it dipped as well.. if more heads are looking bad its from the others.. its a domino effect till the infection is gone

pickupman66 · May 1, 2013

sadly the two lost were pretty darn close together. I took it out and fragged them off tonight. remainder looks good.

also tested the Mag tonight. it was 1350

Jeremy S. · May 2, 2013

From my experience Lps can get messed up bad from falling any or shipping. The skeleton can pierce the tissue and cause an infection like you described with them turning to brown jelly. I would almost blame the fall, but it could be something in the water.

saratj1 · May 2, 2013

I have issues with Lps as well, I've lost a couple frogspawn over the last year. My sps and zoas do fine though, open everyday and decent growth.

Dowtish · May 2, 2013

Mag levels seem perfect. I remember you had brown jelly issues with a frogspawn a couple of years back. Makes me wonder if it is something with your parameters, or it could just be a weird coincidence???

pickupman66 · May 2, 2013

Chris, only thing I can think is that it is because it was pushed off the rock by a certain un-named spiked creature who will remain nameless. I think the same thing may have happened with the other Frogspawns I have had.

on that note, it is on the sandy bottom now. with the two bad heads cut off. the remainder does look good so crossing fingers, lets hope it remains. I will move it back up later this weekend when I get some epoxy to offer it some more stability.

shellynjason · May 2, 2013

Sounds like the unnamed spike creature needs to go in 'timeout' .... I hope your frogspawn recovers fast .

slayeroftheshadow · May 4, 2013

Biggest issues with euphyllia are proper flow and once infected, some iodine dosing.

But I agree with the above, water quality & parameters all play a role. But most LPS are fairly forgiving.

Have u fragged it? I would, the iodine 1 drop per 25 gallons.

Just my 2 pennies.

pickupman66 · May 4, 2013

yes. I fragged off the bad heads. what I have now looks AWESOME TODAY. ill move it back up tonight to mid tank in the spot i want it. but it sure does look happy where it is...