Emergency Torch corals melting away

[FishOkay]

I'm having major issues with my torch corals! I already had one purple torch die, just mted away over 2 days randomly and now it appears another torch is showing the same signs on a couple of heads. I don't know whats going on! Has to be some sort of disease. Anyone have any ideas on what I can do to stop it spreading!
Have attached icp results and pic of coral

 

[Koty]

How old is your tank?

 

[Koty]

KH stability is the prime prerequisite for all euphylia

 

[FishOkay]

Tanks about 1 year old. I have another torch which is doing well (for now atleast) and the non affected heads are fully extended and it was growing nicely. Have hammer corals, soft corals and sps growing well.
My kh has seemed stable at 9.5. I'm dosing equal 15ml of triton other method and it's keeping my kh and calcium okay but my magnesium gets low so have to top that up with triton magnesium.

 

[Bxr126]

Is this still an issue for you? I went through something similar a couple years ago.

 

[Koty]

The question is whether your Mg is low or your salinity is on the low side. How do you check salinity? For me., several dead euphilias were needed to establish that my Amazone refractometer was a piece of crap.

 

[Dburr1014]

Running carbon for coral warfare?
See any brown jelly?

 

[FishOkay]

Is this still an issue for you? I went through something similar a couple years ago.

Yeah still an issue although I think I over reacted this morning with the green torch it seems open now il keep an eye on it though. But yeah still don't know what caused my other purple torch to just melt away over 2 days so suddenly

 

[FishOkay]

Running carbon for coral warfare?
See any brown jelly?

Yeah running carbon in a reactor and I have had a fungi coral die of brown jelly disease after I caught it siphoning sand bad. But I didn't see any brown jelly on the torch it kind of just eroded to nothing!

 

[FishOkay]

The question is whether your Mg is low or your salinity is on the low side. How do you check salinity? For me., several dead euphilias were needed to establish that my Amazone refractometer was a piece of crap.

I have recently calibrated my salinity refractometer with calibration fluid so it should be accurate. I only calibrated it because triton is messing up my salinity!

 

[MaxTremors]

You have high phosphates and low magnesium, both of which can cause issues with Euphyllia.

 

[FishOkay]

You have high phosphates and low magnesium, both of which can cause issues with Euphyllia.

Oh really, but for them to just melt away like that so quick? I would thought bleaching or something. I never really thought 0.1 phosphate was too high lol but i suppose its higher than most run il add more rowaphos.
But yeah I'm not sure why my magnesium is going down so quick only 3 weeks ago it was 1380 on a triton test. Maybe it's dosing equal part triton I'm hoping if I just keep dosing equal and top up the magnesium it will eventually balance

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Repost:

I found this on another forum and feel it's a good read for any of us who keep euphyllia/fimbriaphyllia...

Thread 'Euphyllia (especially torch coral) buying help' https://www.ultimatereef.net/threads/euphyllia-especially-torch-coral-buying-help.885184/

An exerpt:
"A major issue here is, apart from signs of recession of flesh these corals will look amazing right upto the point of death. I have countless times seen torch corals with their heads hanging off, at the point of no return still looking amazing with long flowing polyps and then stone cold dead the next day.

"To even an experienced eye deterioration in these corals is rarely noticed until one day when half the coral rots away or polyps float off. The owner normally assumes it is something they did recently, in reality the cascade of events that caused the death most likely happened months down the line.

"A slight change in flow, causing a microscopic nick, a bit of algae or stuck food, where flesh meets the skeleton, a drop in nutrient or starvation which caused flesh to retract a bit and cut on its sharp septa etc etc.. followed by an unseen bacterial infection and the slow spread through the coral over months. All hidden from the proud owners eye."

 

[MaxTremors]

Oh really, but for them to just melt away like that so quick? I would thought bleaching or something. I never really thought 0.1 phosphate was too high lol but i suppose its higher than most run il add more rowaphos.
But yeah I'm not sure why my magnesium is going down so quick only 3 weeks ago it was 1380 on a triton test. Maybe it's dosing equal part triton I'm hoping if I just keep dosing equal and top up the magnesium it will eventually balance

As mentioned by @Erin1971Texas, a lot of corals will look good right up until they don’t. Many times there will be an event that will cause a coral to die (whether instability, a parameter swing, whatever), but it will take weeks to show up. You may have a power outage where the temp goes down into the low 60’s, and when the power comes back on everything looks fine and then 2-3 weeks later a few corals that looked fine the day before die. What I’m trying to say is that it can take time for corals to show the effects of a negative or adverse event. If your parameters have been unstable or have been consistently out of range, it’s very possible that your torches would look healthy and then seemingly randomly melt. I would look to getting parameters in range and keeping them stable before jumping to bacterial infections or some sort of disease.

 

[Dburr1014]

Your test says you have copper. Where would that have come from?

 

[Dburr1014]

Oh really, but for them to just melt away like that so quick? I would thought bleaching or something. I never really thought 0.1 phosphate was too high lol but i suppose its higher than most run il add more rowaphos.
But yeah I'm not sure why my magnesium is going down so quick only 3 weeks ago it was 1380 on a triton test. Maybe it's dosing equal part triton I'm hoping if I just keep dosing equal and top up the magnesium it will eventually balance

I can't believe it would be phosphate. I have several colonies and my phosphates are always 0.08~0.12 and sometimes higher. Where does your tank usually run at?

 

[FishOkay]

I can't believe it would be phosphate. I have several colonies and my phosphates are always 0.08~0.12 and sometimes higher. Where does your tank usually run at?

Yeah thats similar to me. Tanks usually anywhere from 0.08 to 0.14. I just did a test using hanna test kit and at the moment it's at 0.05 but replace rowaphos on Sat.

 

[FishOkay]

Your test says you have copper. Where would that have come from?

I haven't a clue at the min, last month icp test was 7.00 so I removed a rusted clamp on return pump tubing which was the only thing I could think of causing it. And this months icp is 10.00 so I removed an old eheim pump which was just sitting in the sump not being used. Did a few water changes aswell each time. So if its still elevated next time I haven't a clue, maybe salt contamination or something

 

[Shirak]

Corals disintegrating within a couple days if water and nutrients are reasonably within normal ranges is most likely a disease. The fact that it's happening to one and then another also leads me to believe some disease that is slowly spreading. My guess is BJD even if you can't see it. It could be down inside the head and within a day or two a torch head goes from happy and puffy to deflated and breaking apart.

 

[Lavey29]

Especially if it is just hitting euphyllia corals only. I had some recently a few weeks back where I started losing heads on torches and hammers that had been healthy many months. Once I ruled out any parameters issue my coral vendor told me it was bacterial infection. I dosed one 125mg ciprofloaxin pill and problem solved everything healthy again.