Help my torch is dying!

borrowedthemoon · May 16, 2023

hello coral friends,

A few days ago maybe 5 tops my yellow tip torch coral started closing. I thought okay maybe its splitting so left it be. Wasn't until 2 days ago when I realized I have a problem. Pics and video show the torch 10 days ago, 2 days ago, today, healthy zoas shown taken today.

I put phosguard in right around that same 5 day mark, which was just a renewal of the old phosguard already in there. The torch had been fine the entire first phosguard treatment. Pretty sure thats not my cause of problem, but I am no expert.

All other parameters are good, and all other corals are okay.

PLEASE HELP …

T-J · May 16, 2023

Sooooo many questions and possibilities.
How long has the torch been in the tank? How old is the tank? What exactly are your "good" parameters?
How bad is your phosphate? What was PO4 when you put the new bag of phosguard in? Torches like some PO4 (dirty water).
Any other torches?

borrowedthemoon · May 16, 2023

Torch has been in maybe 2 months. Tank is young, but not brand new.
Salinity 1.025
Ph 7.8 (has been this way for
Months i do dose ph up every day)
Phosphate was roughly 1.0 when i started the treatments, and zero after the treatments, which i began around 6 weeks ago maybe?
I wish i tested p04 when i put the new phosguard in last week, but i
Made the decision based on a very fast burst of algae growth on my glass.
No other torches, but i do have a frogspawn that is super healthy and happy, roughly… 6 inches from this torch. My tank is a nano, 13.5g

borrowedthemoon · May 16, 2023

borrowedthemoon said:
Torch has been in maybe 2 months. Tank is young, but not brand new.
Salinity 1.025
Ph 7.8 (has been this way for
Months i do dose ph up every day)
Phosphate was roughly 1.0 when i started the treatments, and zero after the treatments, which i began around 6 weeks ago maybe?
I wish i tested p04 when i put the new phosguard in last week, but i
Made the decision based on a very fast burst of algae growth on my glass.
No other torches, but i do have a frogspawn that is super healthy and happy, roughly… 6 inches from this torch. My tank is a nano, 13.5g

Also, thank you for taking your time to read my long post, and help me with whatever advice you can. I really appreciate you.

T-J · May 16, 2023

One thing about corals is that they typically don't die right away from a problem. When we see them die-off, it's usually something that happened many weeks ago. It could be the PO4 levels. Another possibility is flow, or light. Could of also been too much of an adjustment to your tank vs where it came from (local or shipped?).
I'll also add that IMO (and I have 25+ years in this hobby), nanos are a lot harder to keep stable, which make keeping corals harder too.
Maybe give the tank a few more months to mature. See if some easier corals thrive. Then you might want to try a cheaper torch again.
Best of luck!
PS: Try to find the source of all your PO4.

Idech · May 16, 2023

Torches are hard to keep in a new tank. They’re not beginner friendly.

Graemesreef · May 16, 2023

0 phosphate = dead euphyllia especially in a new system. Rule of thumb is try to wait closer to the one year mark or feed the coral daily which could cause bigger problems if overdone. Not sure if the specimen was wild or not but wild euphyilla are being handled horribly these days and almost never make the transition.

resortez · May 16, 2023

I second everything above. Euphyllia are very sensitive to parameter swings, especially wild caught, add the stress from harvesting & it’s a matter of time. Wild usually come in discolored so they will be sensitive to the intense light fixture. Another parameter they are sensitive to is alk &/or ph, keeping those steady is very key. In a nano, parameters can swing very drastically by minute changes so any modification have to be done very slowly & in very small increments. I can’t stress this enough but good husbandry practices will yield better results over miracle media in a bottle. A strict routine does wonders to your tank but build that routine based on test results. I am curious why you need to be dosing ph up daily which would lead me to investigate what’s consuming the parameter or maybe something is leaching or there’s an abundance of an acidic compound, that would be where I start investigating. Good luck

John Bolden · May 16, 2023

That looks pretty far into dying/ being dead with a very low chance of revival... But lets find what is going on.

Auto-pilot · May 16, 2023

Brown jelly for sure. I would dip it in 50/50 peroxide for 45 seconds ASAP

fodsod · May 16, 2023

Sorry to hear you're having this issue. It could literally be one or more of a number of issues (small tanks are harder to maintain acceptable water parameters, young tank, too much/too little lighting, too much/too little flow, water parameters swinging up and down too often, ect...). The phosphates going up and down from 1.0 to zero will certainly make most coral unhappy. Zero isn't a good number for phosphates in most cases.

Torches are tough to keep in some tanks and easily the hardest Euphyllia to keep alive at least for me. I have Frogspawn and Hammers and plenty of SPS and Acros but can't seem to make a torch happy for some reason.

That one looks to be on it's way out. They seem to start downhill and just keep going regardless of what's done a lot of the time. Dipping in Iodine might help but the stress of dipping it might just be what finishes it off. Only you can make that call. Good luck.

Dburr1014 · May 16, 2023

Alk swings.
Why did you start dosing ph up?
7.8 isn't bad if it's stable.

Graemesreef · May 16, 2023

Besides over-dosing the phosguard and bottoming out I noticed two other possibilities after your clip.
1. Way too much flow for a newly introduced euphyllia. IMO
2. It appears you have a lobophyllia right under the torch? Not many corals can withstand a mesenteric filament attack especially an already stressed new addition.

borrowedthemoon · May 17, 2023

Thanks everyone for all of your replies. I never got to the bottom of why I have to dose pH up. The lfs i get my ro water from could be the source… probably should investigate that.

alk is always way high; I haven’t gotten to the bottom of that either..

and i was under the impression that the “lobophylia” was a micro lord, which could possibly be okay next to my torch? But then again what do I know I’m still new to all of this stuff..

Torch will not make it through the day.
Thanks everyone who tried.

borrowedthemoon · May 17, 2023

It sucks you invest so much time and energy into keeping an aquarium let alone a nano aquarium. And i have stylophoras and frog spawns and raja rampage and blastos and mushrooms and anemones and fish and all of them are happy and my torch seemed happy long enough for it to even get coraline on it and then in a matter of a few days GONE.

Has me super discouraged now and doubting myself about everything i thought i knew and thought i was doing right for the last few months..

Dburr1014 · May 17, 2023

borrowedthemoon said:
Thanks everyone for all of your replies. I never got to the bottom of why I have to dose pH up. The lfs i get my ro water from could be the source… probably should investigate that.

alk is always way high; I haven’t gotten to the bottom of that either...

I can tell you why. Alk is high because you dose ph up. That is what it does.