So my tank is about 4 months old I’d say. I get what you’re saying but other than this anemone everything that I had troubles with were fixable mistakes like for example my refractometer has to get recalibrated every time we use it which I didn’t know which resulted to bad salt parameters (which is how I lost my starfish) I was upset for awhile but I realized that at least now I know to recalibrate it every time and I can prevent that from happening again. You live and you learn you know? And I am mixing it myself when I do water changes but I always let it sit over night and test salt again in the morning to make sure I’m on point.
As you go along as a reefer you learn there’s.... hmm, maybe not 100’s of, but definitely 10’s of little things, like having to re calibrate your refractometer every time you use it, that when you’re not aware of can make your reefing life difficult.
These little things you just have to learn as time goes on, I simply state this because it’s very very discouraging to have one bad thing happen after the next and it almost made me give up reefing on my first tank.
torch’s and other Euphyllia are on the “easier side” of coral too keep, but far from the easiest for sure.
I recommend before you get another Torch or Hammer or Frogspawn you get to the stage of “dosing” in terms of knowledge of reefing.
(By the way they’re not anemones per genetics they belong in the classification of of Large Polyp Stony Corals torch corals have oral disks very similar to Zoanthids.)
if I was going to make a course in reefing I’d say to learn these in this order:
1. Basic Water Chemistry & the Nitrification cycle (Complete including EVERY possible filtration method and additive.)
from filter socks and filter floss, to carbon to calcium reactors, UV Lights etc.
You want to understand all the parts of setting up a complete ecosystem and what you may or may not need. You might not have to get into calcium reactors as this stage per say, but you want to at least understand the purpose of GFO and other basic filtration media and why they're imporant (including the natural filtration of bacteria etc)
2. The fish you want to keep, I'd study up on their families and species.
3. Understanding next the basics of all coral types. SPS, Softies and LPS
4. Understanding Trace Elements and dosing with water parameters.
4A. Tying in 3 and 4 together on your owns studies
5. Now you can start specializing in areas to study, like increasing growth, dosing tricks, running parameters intentionally at different levels like high ALK and maintaining low Nitrates and Phosphates.
Without a full understanding of the above points.
Pinpointing why your coral died is like playing "a million ways to die in the west"
Who knows sometimes...... We can't tell you without more educated information based on hte last 2 weeks of your own observation without a complete understanding of the above 5 points.
The reason I say not BJD is normally BJD is onset by physical damage to the coral, resulting in an infection resulting in decay resulting in BJD.
Once the coral is decaying and dying BJD can set on at any time for sure, but I don't think it started with BJD based on her explanation.
I'd also throw inverts in between fish and coral up there somewhere.
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