Mystery frogspawn/hammer deaths

[craiguk]

I bought 2 hammers about 4 weeks ago, local LFS, very good, plenty of buys before no issues. New purchase might be coincidence - but timing seems to align with issues so mentioning it. Both placed on same 'island' rock at one end of tank. Settled in fine, opening fully, etc. After 3 weeks one looked unhappy. Then overnight nearly dead, only a few bits of live tissue hanging off. No sign of brown jelly, took it out, couldn't see any flatworms. Dipped to see if anything came off, nothing did. 3 days ago a frogspawn (fairly close in tank) was unhappy. It was something I fragged 2 years ago, had 7 heads, very healthy. I dipped just in case - couldn't see anything. Yesterday dead.

Came down this morning, another frogspawn 80% gone. This one opposite side of the tank (and in a frogspawn garden!) - again been in tank 2 years.

Params: did icp test last week, all ok (and have been stable for a while). Iodine was low, so dosed, but don't believe that would cause this.

If its not brown jelly, or flatworms, is there something else I should be looking out for? My gut says this isn't params, but some other cause. 3 years into reefing, so have dealt with other things. I know it requires patience. But my tank is mostly euphillya - so I'm more than a little stressed....! Any ideas on causes / actions to take?

 

[tzabor10]

I run carbon to reduce chemical warfare between corals.
Pictures would help
What is your lighting?

 

[rc8t6353]

I'm sorry for your losses. Any stray voltage in the tank? Also check for any rusting magnets. Just a few things I can think of to check. Other than that I'd do a major water change, run some carbon, and maybe even put one of those metal absorbing poly filters in to be safe.

 

[craiguk]

Thanks for the replies. Good shout on carbon, I run a bag but didn't have time to change when I did my last water change. And forgot to go back to it. So I've now changed that. Lights are LED, 2.5years old, no changes for a while.

I did remove the dying frogspawn from the garden and the other two opened up well after about an hour (see pic).

Rusting - good call also, but I can't see anything. I wasn't aware you could get absorbing filters....I will look into that. I have one slightly unhappy torch this morning, but otherwise all good. Did tests for kh, nitrate, phos again -- all looks normal. Fingers crossed nothing else happens, if it dies I'll think to take a pic before I bin it next time! And yes, like most when something happens, I've upped water changes.

 

[One Reefing Boi]

Thanks for the replies. Good shout on carbon, I run a bag but didn't have time to change when I did my last water change. And forgot to go back to it. So I've now changed that. Lights are LED, 2.5years old, no changes for a while.

I did remove the dying frogspawn from the garden and the other two opened up well after about an hour (see pic).

Rusting - good call also, but I can't see anything. I wasn't aware you could get absorbing filters....I will look into that. I have one slightly unhappy torch this morning, but otherwise all good. Did tests for kh, nitrate, phos again -- all looks normal. Fingers crossed nothing else happens, if it dies I'll think to take a pic before I bin it next time! And yes, like most when something happens, I've upped water changes.

How did they fare over the weekend? Also, not to be that guy, but what is “normal”? Need numbers for the Params

 

[craiguk]

How did they fare over the weekend? Also, not to be that guy, but what is “normal”? Need numbers for the Params

Thanks for following up! Been busy this week and I was going to say 'all good after the weekend' as everything looked good. But...

This week there was more algae on glass (some of sand but not too bad). This has exploded this week. Very powdery, brown. Looks like diatoms, but also spotted some bubbles, do could be dinos. There's 2-3 patches of 2cm of red colour too. Cyano? Will get microscope out later...

And.. last night I noticed one head of a frammer completely bare, 2-3 next to it not looking good either (see pic). This I grew from 1 head to 18+. Also one head of a dragon torch completely gone.

Never mind being that guy... always good for patams. Did a sweep this morning:
Salt 35.5 (weird it's 0.5 higher than last week after showing 35.. I'll recalibrate tester later)
Calc 420 (normal for my tank)
Mag 1320 (normal)
Phos 0.93 (normal)
Nitrate 10 (bit low, I like to keep around 15, but it's something I do need to manually dose from time to time)
Kh 8.1 - ugh. Usually a run at 9.0. So a swing there, but I wonder if that's the whole story. Gut tells me I've a mini-cascade going on.

Ok here's my plan - let me know if it's wrong or I missed something:
- use microscope to check sand algae
- take off and dip frammer. I'll frag it, cut off bad head and maybe frag to 2-3 multi heads
- dip torch
- buy an icp test as i haven't got a spare and send it off
- up my 2 part dose for kh, and also do an immediate bicarb soda dose.
- dose nitrate today/tomorrow to bring it up 2 per day.
- 10 water change every 1-2 days for next week, siphoning what I can off sand
- change carbon

Adding pics of frammer, algae and torch.

I live this hobby, but can be frustrating at times!

 

[craiguk]

Small update - definitely dinos :-(

Not excessive in the samples I took. Procentrum definitely, thought I saw some osteo as well (maybe that's getting to corals?). Couldn't see cyano, so not sure where red is coming from.

I'll not do water changes as that seems to help dinos. I reduced flow to my UV to see if that helps. Considering a blackout if corals get worse.