String Mucus on Frogspawn

Last night I noticed a little string mucus coming from my Frogspawn with some on the shell nearby. This morning there was a lot more of this mucus stuff coming from it. The mucus color was kind of brownish. I did a small water change just on Sunday and the tank has been established for 9 months now. Any help on identifying what it might be and what to do about it? Thanks

I'm not sure which Frogspawn you are talking about or maybe that's a Duncan on the left. Anyway, it doesn't look so good either. I'm seeing a couple issues with the coral in that pic.

Please 1) post a pic of the whole tank and 2) answer these questions:

A. What is the Salinity and is it measured with a Hydrometer or a Refractometer? 

B. What is the temperature?

C. If you know it, what is the Alkalinity level?

D. If you know it, what is the Calcium level?

E. What coral and anemones have you tried and what is their history in your tank?

EDIT> I had just posted the text above, when I found another new thread, also about your tank. I suggest we combine and tackle these issues together.  <EDIT

you wrote: ] I currently have 2 sunsun 800 gph wavemaker pumps In my tank on opposite sides yet I am still having trouble on making sure all my corals have some water flow. I have a frogspawn in which a couple heads on one side don't get water flow but all the other heads do. As a result they will not open fully. Is there any pumps that are better for covering a wider area? Or is the only thing I can really do is just mess around with they locations? I have a couple pieces of small rock with some zoas on it. 1 I have had for a few months and one just a couple weeks. I can't seem to get them to open at all. The new one is about 15 inches down and the 5 month old one is about 17 inches. Any suggestions on what I might do to get them to open? Is it lighting? I don't believe it is water parameters because I have quite a few other corals in the tank that are doing well. Thanks for all the help and or suggestions. :)

F. What size is this tank?

G. Is there a glass lid or cover over the tank or can you do a pH test early in the morning before dawn?

I. What is the lighting?

Aloha,

Mark 

Thanks for answering the questions. I'm sorry I didn't have time to talk when we did the trade a few weeks ago. Okay, I'm going to answer the questions as honestly as I see them. I can see that the coral in the middle of the pic was a frogspawn, but it's dead. The coral on the left looks like it may be a Duncan. If it's also a Frogspawn, then I'm sorry to say, it's struggling.

A: 1.030 (Surprised it is running this high right now) I actually expected that. I could see it in the pic. (crazy huh!) If you are using a Hydrometer that has never been cleaned, the salinity is actually even higher, probably 1.033. Clean the Hydrometer with a 10 minute soak in White Vinegar and a rinse in RO water. Remove 3 gallons of tank water and replace with RO water. Do this once daily until the Salinity is at 1.025.

B: Temp- 79 F This is also contributing to the coral difficulties. Higher temperature combined with inadequate flow makes it difficult for the animals to breathe. Unplug the heater and let the tank run at room temperature, but not below 70 degrees F. Let us know what temp it stabilizes at with the heater unplugged. (Ideal is around 74 degrees and there are several good reasons for 74 as the optimal heater setting.)

C & D- No idea It's critical that you know and understand these values and Mg as well. After the Salinity is at 1.025, get the water tested for Alk, Ca, and Mg by a fellow hobbyist or a LFS and come back and report the numbers. I suspect they are low and need to be raised. We can talk about how to do that when we have the test results.

E- I've successfully had 1 RBTA anemone, 1 large GBTA, 1 Rose anemone, devils hand leather, a green hammer coral, and kryptonite candy cane. I've struggled with zoas and frogspawn. The tank is 9 months old. I run activated carbon, have a protein skimmer, sump, on sunday I did a 10% water change. Back in November you had a struggling Anemone. Whatever happened with that? It's normal for Frogspawn to do worse than Candy Cane, but the Candy Cane is also struggling. I'm sorry, you may not know it, but it is.

F- Tank size is 55 gallons. & G- No cover just a light stand on top. I don't currently have stuff to test ph with  Thanks, that's okay. I can figure the approximate pH. The flow is moving in an ineffective manner, not good for pH.  Take those powerheads, move them down about 8 inches and point them both up to the water surface so the streams hit at center top surface. This will improve conditions for the health of all the life in the tank, even bacteria. What that means is that the biofiltration will work better and coral will do better. You might even try disassembling, inspecting and completely cleaning the powerheads to make sure they are operating at full capacity. They look a little clogged. If they are broken, especially the impeller, I'd replace them with two $20 Maxijet 1200's.

I- Lighting is 2 Blue actinic T5 HO 48" bulbs and 2 Sunlight T5 HO 10,000 bulbs. How old are the tubes? If older than one year, they need to be replaced. Consider using two blue tubes, one actinic tube and one Pink/Purple tube. Colors will show better and coral will be healthier and happier. Don't switch them all at once, as suddenly brighter light will cause a sunburn. 

Now for another observation and a question.

The Anemones look a little stressed. This again may be partly a pH issue due to improper water flow and gas exchange, exacerbated by the high salinity issue. 

Does the Sump utilize an RDP Refugium and may we see a pic of what's below  

Thanks for being such a good sport to reveal all about your tank and to listen to my advice. Sometimes I wonder if I've been at this hobby way too long.  My wife tells me I spend too much time do too much for free. 

Aloha,

Mark  

Well, Candy cane are closely related to Frogspawn so it's an assumption. I hope I'm wrong.

Are you using 1-2 cups of AC in a good flow area replaced every two weeks? AC needs to be moved around/jostled once or twice and then replaced because it becomes saturated.

 A water stream pulls other water with it. When all that water hits the surface it turns and rolls over all around the tank, lots of turbulence. Below are pics of a 40 and a 55 showing the turbulence achieved with just one powerhead pointing up and a third pic of a 75 gal utilizing two powerheads in like manner. Just for fun, can you find the powerheads in these tanks?

May we see a pic of the sump?

Aloha,

Mark 

80, 82?   I went looking for where in the world you would have read that. I easily found one reference to it at Marine Depot.

http://www.marinedepot.com/reef-tank-parameters.html

I've gotta go but I'll come back tomorrow to add detail to my answer in B. above, what's better and why.

Thanks for the pics.

In this Refugium it looks like the ASM Skimmer is submerged up to the collection cup, leaving the exit pipe completely submerged. Am I seeing that right? If so, I recommend placing it on a raised platform so the Refugium water level sits at about the top of the intake elbow. Works a lot better that way. A round cylinder sponge can be purchased that quiets the exiting water and filters it too. A silencer is easy to make if the intake air tubing is noisy. Cleaning the venturi with a grabber screw is very important so the air intake works properly to produce plenty of foam.

Do I see a rusty metal hose clamp holding vinyl tubing to the return pump outlet? Iron actually helps the Macroalgae grow better, but it can also pollute the water and it can rust away until the tubing slips off the powerhead at just the wrong time.

If the electrical power goes off, can the sump overflow? If no, how close to the top does it get?

I see nice vibrant growth of Caulerpa Taxifolia.

Aloha,

Mark 

Well actually I am still confused about which coral in that pic you are talking about. I see a Euphyllia(Frogspawn, Hammer, or Torch) in the center that's either mostly dead or completely dead with only skeleton showing. From the pic it's hard to tell exactly. Maybe that center piece is the one you called a shell. It's actually called the skeleton of the coral.

The other coral is on the left side and is in such bad shape that it doesn't even look like Frogspawn. Frankly, it looks to me like it's dieing. I can't say whether it was a disease or not because it appears the conditions in the tank are such that I'm not surprised that Frogspawn has been having difficulty and Zoanthids are not doing well.

Aloha,

Mark 

P.S.

I'm pretty confident with what I'm saying about your tank. I've been evaluating tanks in person at hobbyist homes and businesses for over 20 years and here on the forum for as long as the forum has been around (2002). Some of my own tanks are pictured here. They show that I know what I'm doing. http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=37523