Looks like you had a wall frogspawn, judging by the skeleton. You mentioned it started receding from the back side - was that the freshly cut side? That's probably where the infection started, from the original fragging. It just took time to consume the health of the piece. Brown Jelly is a terrible thing to witness - sometimes it's just a matter of hours and a small colony will melt away.
Personally, I'm not a fan of wall frogspawn - they're on my do not buy list. I think it's time to stop exporting these. You can have the most stable tank in the world, but it seems like walls will decline slowly over time and drive you crazy thinking something's wrong with your parameters. Just my two cents.
Help with ailing frogspawn in my pico reef coral hospital
Re: Help with ailing frogspawn in my pico reef coral hospital
It does resemble a wall, and I can see why they're notorious for being finicky. Their culturing process can be particularly challenging, to say the least.
Still, I must admit that I'd be a bit concerned about the low kH levels - anything below 7 does make me a tad uneasy.
Still, I must admit that I'd be a bit concerned about the low kH levels - anything below 7 does make me a tad uneasy.
Re: Help with ailing frogspawn in my pico reef coral hospital
I've got a link to our DT build thread if you're interested in checking it out - we've been dosing seachem reef builder in the ato to combat low kh and since starting that, our kh has been stable at 7.2 with a ph of 8.3. Now that we've got it stable, I'm planning to add another 1/2 teaspoon to give it a bit of a boost, but I want to do it gradually so we don't shock anything in the tank.
Re: Help with ailing frogspawn in my pico reef coral hospital
I've been pretty busy lately, so the DT build thread hasn't been updated in a while. Been spending most of my time researching and taking care of the tanks. Not much has changed, just the dosing, and we recently got the 120w Maxspect Razor.
Re: Help with ailing frogspawn in my pico reef coral hospital
I'm the boyfriend of brunobear, I just wanted to clear up that I'm the one who's been taking care of the DT, and the link I provided is to our DT build thread, it's been a bit stagnant lately since we've been busy with research and maintenance.
Re: Help with ailing frogspawn in my pico reef coral hospital
Thanks so much for all the help and advice, I really appreciate it. I had no idea the top off would cause an alk drop, that's good to know for future reference. I'm still holding onto hope that my frogspawn will come back and thrive in our tank, I love this coral and it's been really tough to see it struggle.
I do have one concern, I've read that new skeleton and tissue has an easier time growing new rather than growing back over dead stuff. I was thinking of cutting off the clearly dead skeleton and excess rock, is this a bad idea?
I do have one concern, I've read that new skeleton and tissue has an easier time growing new rather than growing back over dead stuff. I was thinking of cutting off the clearly dead skeleton and excess rock, is this a bad idea?
Re: Help with ailing frogspawn in my pico reef coral hospital
No, BoldVoy is actually my boyfriend and partner in the hobby, he's been doing most of the work with our nano reef.
Re: Help with ailing frogspawn in my pico reef coral hospital
Got it now. So, no new corals added, and how's the anemone doing - did it survive? I'm a bit surprised you added an anemone just a week into the tank's life, they usually don't do well in new setups.
I've found that euphyllia actually does better when encrusting onto existing skeleton after damage, unless algae starts growing over it, then I just trim it off.
I'm curious, what's the plan with this hospital tank - is it just a safe space for the frogspawn to recover, or is there something specific you're trying to achieve? Honestly, if there's any chance of recovery, I think it'd be better in the DT.
Try not to rush things, your tank is still pretty new - only a month in, and corals usually don't do well in brand new tanks. I'm guessing that's why the frogspawn got worse after going into the pico.
No worries, we've all been new to this hobby at some point. That RO/DI alk drop is a common mistake, but at least you know now.
I've found that euphyllia actually does better when encrusting onto existing skeleton after damage, unless algae starts growing over it, then I just trim it off.
I'm curious, what's the plan with this hospital tank - is it just a safe space for the frogspawn to recover, or is there something specific you're trying to achieve? Honestly, if there's any chance of recovery, I think it'd be better in the DT.
Try not to rush things, your tank is still pretty new - only a month in, and corals usually don't do well in brand new tanks. I'm guessing that's why the frogspawn got worse after going into the pico.
No worries, we've all been new to this hobby at some point. That RO/DI alk drop is a common mistake, but at least you know now.
Re: Help with ailing frogspawn in my pico reef coral hospital
We haven't added anything new recently, our anemone was actually added closer to a month ago and it's doing really well. I've only just started learning about all this stuff over the past week or so, so I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything. I did notice that my frogspawn seemed to do a bit better when I moved it to the pico, but if it would have a better chance of recovering in the DT, I'd be happy to move it back. My main concern was the potential for the brown jelly to spread to our other corals, which is why I isolated it in the first place.