Losing torch coral

[Dag95833]

I have been slowly losing my torch coral over the last couple months. It started with a small one they slowly recedes. Next it went to one that I had for quite some time that had about 6 heads. It went through them one by one. I was doing coral rx dip and removed the heads as they died. This morning I woke up and I noticed one that looked funny yesterday is also receding now(assume it’s a torch just next extended like some torch I have had). I have a hammer and anther torch that seem to be fine right now. I have had no swings with what the apex and trident measure. When I dipped I saw nothing more then normal pods .you would see in a healthy tank. Have not noticed and brown jelly. What else could be causing theism to happen. Never seen a fish mess with them as they are all reef safe. Any ideas?

 

[RVA REEF]

move it to the sandbed away from other corals, looks close to the nem in that 2nd pic

 

[ScubaFish802]

What are your water parameters? I agree with the above reply, but if this has happened to other torches in different parts of the tank list your params

 

[Dag95833]

The Nem is actually a good distance. Looks really close in the photo. No other corals can reach. This is what apex shows. I did a water change last night so you see a little jump in levels. Like calcium dropped below 400. I have a test kit at home where I can also test nitrates, nitrites and ammonia. Will run those when I get home. All other corals are doing well including a goni and a Duncan that is putting out new heads like crazy. One thing I did do about 2 months ago is change the salt. LFS recommended Red Sea from instant ocean. They had me due a slow change over gradually using more Red Sea and less instant ocean. That was prior to the start of having issues with torches and they seemed fine for some time after. Wanted to put that out there.

 

[Dag95833]

Just got home from work and the head has almost completely receded.

 

[Mical]

If your params are inline (including salinity) I'm suspecting tank is fairly young - eh? It took my tanks to stabilize almost 2 years before torches, hammers and frogspawn showed any growth. They can be very picky with params, lighting and flow.

Torches are my bain, I'd love to have them but with rabbitfish and foxface always nipping at them - just not happening.

 

[Timmtom49]

mine was doing the same wen I added reeflux its dropped my nit and pho to zero i waited it out did a big water change spot feed a couple weeks and now its almost back to normal

 

[Dag95833]

I just checked with the API kit I have. Nitrite 0 nitrate look close to 0 ammonia worried me a bit. It’s so hard to tell with this kit but it’s somewhere between 0-.50. May run out and see if I can find a different ammonia test.

tank is about a year old. wondering if changing salt could of created a mini cycle.

 

[Dag95833]

 

[Kmetz1999]

I caught a peppermint shrimp eating 2 of my torchs. Remove it and they have made a recovery.

 

[Afterburner]

I had a similar issue where I lost a Torch and Hammer along with a few other SPS. The first to go was all of my birds nests, then everything went sort of dormant and my ALK started to rise so I had to lower my dosing (because the corals were no longer growing and there were fewer left). I eventually sent off an ICP sample and it returned a high tin content (suggested I have a magnet rusting). Sure enough, I found it and removed it, did a zillion water changes and tried a few other things. There really is nothing I could find that specifically removes Tin. It took a while and now my tank is finally back to normal ALK consumption and everything that lived is starting to grow again. The funny thing is that some corals really didn't care about the Tin. My Goni's kept growing, and the Chalices, Slimers, Monti's, etc..... SPS except Birds nests seemed to survive, just quit growing. I guess the Tin is pretty hard on LPS, but the amazing thing is that during this, I had tiny torches and hammers show up all over the tank (I think the stress caused a spawn before they died). Many eventually died, but there are a few that survived (mainly the hammers). I plan to eventually get another birds nest to use as a canary in the mine shaft in case I ever have another magnet's coating fail.

 

[living_tribunal]

I just checked with the API kit I have. Nitrite 0 nitrate look close to 0 ammonia worried me a bit. It’s so hard to tell with this kit but it’s somewhere between 0-.50. May run out and see if I can find a different ammonia test.

tank is about a year old. wondering if changing salt could of created a mini cycle.

Where’s your phosphate at?

 

[mike321]

I’m having the same issue. I noticed my torches were spewing out brown jelly. I did an iodine dip for 5 min every 2 days. So far, my torches are looking much better after the first dip. Will update soon.

 

[RVA REEF]

Why did you switch salt? I have had problems switching salts with certain corals. My euphyllia love purple instant ocean.

 

[Dag95833]

I didn’t feel I was getting uniform quality with the instant ocean. I switched to the Red Sea, need to look which one I switched to.

 

[terraincognita]

I didn’t feel I was getting uniform quality with the instant ocean. I switched to the Red Sea, need to look which one I switched to.

You mix your salt before you mix your saltwater yes? I've found with Red Sea you have to mix your salt in the bag. Just take it out of the bucket, and hold the bag end really tight and upend it about 20-30 times.

Also Was the torch every happy and healthy in that spot in this tank?

While generally you can use a single coral as a tank indicator, if the rest of everything in your tank is doing fine, it's not smart to change entire tank conditions for a single coral.

If other corals are looking less bright, less extended though then there's an overall problem.

 

[Dag95833]

I mix the salt with the RODI in a trash can with a powerhead.

Everything ok else looks good, another hammer, Duncan making tons of new heads and various others. Just seems to be slowing going through the torches. This most recent one was very happy in the spot just a couple days ago. The one I lost before that had been in the spot for months and grew new heads.

picking up a phosphate test after work. Bought a new ammonia one last night that read 0.

 

[CindyKz]

Do the clownfish hang out in the torches much?

 

[Dag95833]

Do the clownfish hang out in the torches much?

They barely leave the anemone. Have never seen them near any of the torches.

 

[terraincognita]

I mix the salt with the RODI in a trash can with a powerhead.

Everything ok else looks good, another hammer, Duncan making tons of new heads and various others. Just seems to be slowing going through the torches. This most recent one was very happy in the spot just a couple days ago. The one I lost before that had been in the spot for months and grew new heads.

picking up a phosphate test after work. Bought a new ammonia one last night that read 0.

You mis understand what I'm meaning by mixing.

You have to mix your salt dry before you mix it wet. Do you mix it dry? Red Sea specifically requires dry mixing before wet mixing IME. Like mix up the dry salt because it's various elements all together, not just salt, and sometimes they pocket or something