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Thread: GSP and Frogspawn closed up tight

  1. #1

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    GSP and Frogspawn closed up tight

    A little more than a week ago I bought a friends entire 25 gallon livestock, I put it all in my 55 tank right after cleaning both my scrubber screens and I got a nice little phyto bloom (less than 6" visibility). I assume it was caused by a N and or P spike from dumping all the live sand into my sump while my algae scrubbers were weak from cleaning. I put in a aquaclear filter with some floss and activated charcoal to help strain a bit of the phyto out of the water, I was hoping to get it clear enough to organze stuff without squishing anything.

    When i put frogspawn and the green star polyps in the tank, they looked amazing, they were doing GREAT. As the tank got to be about 12" of visibility I took out the aquaclear (and charcoal) and topped off the tank with a gallon of kalk into the sump (2 tsp powder and 90ml vinegar). The next day it seemed that only a couple polyps in the GSP were open and the frogspawn was only partially open as well. The day after that the GSP was totally closed and the frogspawn was very close, now it has been 3 days and the water is looking good but both of them are shut of as tight as can be. About a day ago I put some charcoal back in the tank, thinking there might be some coral warfare going on with everything getting moved, but there was no visible result.

    Throughout this whole time I have been messing around with my uberbright LED fixture, trying to get everything adjusted to it without burning the crap out of them, it is possible the frogspawn got a little sunburnt, or is not happy with the light changes, however the GSP is in like 5 spots all over my tank, in high light areas, medium light areas, and in shade, since every colony is closed as tight as can be, I assume it is not the light affecting the GSP, although it is not impossible.

    So now it has been 3 days and I havent seen a peep from either one. Any idea what might have caused this, and what I could do to fix it?

  2. #2
    kotlec's Avatar
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    Mine GSP closes when alk is on the low side. Usually it not opens few days more after I have fixed alk. One of todstols does the same , but second one dont cares at all.

  3. #3
    kerry's Avatar
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    My colt coral closes/shrinks/limp when alk is low to.
    150G. Reef/Mix
    125G. 3 Regular Oscars/1 Jack Dempsey
    75G. 20+ Africans
    40G. Fish/Reef. Algae Scrubbers on ALL my SW
    10G. SW Fish/Reef.
    10G. SW Hospital/new fish quarantine/pod breeder tank
    6 stage RO/DI system 200 GPD.

  4. #4

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    Odd to think my alk might go down AFTER adding kalk.... I mean I know its possible, under extreme circumstances... but I dont think its very likely...


    I ordered new salifert test kits for mag, alk and cal. Hopefully they get here soon.

  5. #5
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    Joelespinoza - the sand from your friends tank that you put in your sump - it wasn't a deep sand bed was it?

  6. #6
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    Well, that could explain some of your cloudiness. If you add to much Alk at once it will cause a precipitation event, which ends up leading to LOWER Alk and CA levels than you started because the Alk you added combines with the calcium in the tank to form solids (aka snow).

    IMO it sounds like you're in "panic mode" and trying to do too many things at once (I have been there myself in the past, and I am sure just about every reefer has at one point). I would suggest backing off dosing anything and putting your LEDs really low for at least a week, talking blues @ no more than 50% and whites at no more than 25%. The corals will be fine at that lighting, even if it ends up being on the low side. There are cloudy/stormy days/weeks in the ocean as well and corals do just fine. I don't think you really have enough corals to require dosing much at this point. My 60G I only dose about 2x a month, when I clean my screen. I put in 20ml of Alk and 10ml of CA 2x a month and everything is fine.

    What are your Alk/CA readings today? What are your N/P readings? What is your salinity and temp at? If all your parameters are reading within acceptable levels then I would look at the 2 other things you mentioned, chemical warfare (doubtful, but using carbon will fix that) or lighting (really what I believe the issue is, seen so many people have similar issues after switching to LEDs because they keep trying to make it look, to their eyes, similar to their old lighting, which is the worst thing a person can do).

  7. #7
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    I do have a concern that all of this is due to bacterial die off within the sand. All of the bacteria in the sand has evolved populations regarding there exact requirements within the sand layers. When mixing up the sand from a different system, none of the bacteria ends up in the correct areas of the new bed, then they die, all at the same time, lots of trouble. I would ditch the sand to be safe, or at least isolate it from the display pending further investigation.

  8. #8
    kerry's Avatar
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    Good advice Ace!!! I always have to remind myself to take a step back and look at the parameters, and I mean all of them!!!!! Then take the baby steps to correct it.
    150G. Reef/Mix
    125G. 3 Regular Oscars/1 Jack Dempsey
    75G. 20+ Africans
    40G. Fish/Reef. Algae Scrubbers on ALL my SW
    10G. SW Fish/Reef.
    10G. SW Hospital/new fish quarantine/pod breeder tank
    6 stage RO/DI system 200 GPD.

  9. #9
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    I agree with Garf as well.. everything he said is correct about the sand bed issues.

  10. #10
    kotlec's Avatar
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    Does your tank smells ? If you have massive bacteria death enough to cloud your tank - you will be able to smell it for sure. Healthy tank has almost no odour ( At least unpleasant one).

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