Torch issue

Docdiggy · Mar 24, 2015

I've had a green torch for over a year with about 9 heads. I'm losing a head today for some reason. Alk is about 8.5, salt is 1.025, and temp is 79. All the beginner parameters are 0. Nothing has changed in the tank. . It has a little bit of brown on it, but I'm not gonna diagnose it as bjd yet. What would cause a head to die out of the blue?

13jake · Mar 25, 2015

Well your Alk is defiantly low which if that's to low it inhibits corals to use calcium and therefor can't grow.

Tab28 · Mar 25, 2015

Could you take picture of it and the brown area?

Docdiggy · Mar 25, 2015

I've never heard 8.5 being too low. I'll try to post a pic after work. I'm a big euphyllia guy and all others are doing great.

SeahorseKeeper · Mar 25, 2015

I would be interested in what the brown looks like. It could be brown jelly disease.

GreatWhiteTang · Mar 25, 2015

Are the tentacles recessed... Or. Falling off?

GreatWhiteTang · Mar 25, 2015

I keep my alk around 10.. But 8.0 to 9.5 is generally a good lps level so I. Think this is not the issue..

Docdiggy · Mar 25, 2015

It's real hard to get a good pic. It's slowly shrinking and melting. The film is kinda white and tan. It could be Brown jelly but, all the pics I've seen show it all gunked up. This is swaying and stretching.

Docdiggy · Mar 25, 2015

The tissue is definitely dissolving.

GreatWhiteTang · Mar 25, 2015

Hmm.. Don't see anything i would. Consider. Bjd.. Could the flow be overwhelming where it's at?

Docdiggy · Mar 25, 2015

I dialed down both my mps. This was after the damage was done though. I'm wondering if flow was an issue.

SeahorseKeeper · Mar 25, 2015

If it were flow, wouldn't the other heads be affected? The other heads look great. I'm stumped.

Docdiggy · Mar 25, 2015

This particular head isn't as big as the others. Maybe it got a blast of random flow and tore it a bit. I'm just hoping nothing else gets infected if this is something contagious.

GreatWhiteTang · Mar 25, 2015

SeahorseKeeper said:
If it were flow, wouldn't the other heads be affected? The other heads look great. I'm stumped.

You would think, but I've had a similar issue with frogspawn and flow, if a head isn't as healthy as the others the flow could effect it more and cause tearing whereas the healthier heads would be strong enough to resist

Docdiggy said:
This particular head isn't as big as the others. Maybe it got a blast of random flow and tore it a bit. I'm just hoping nothing else gets infected if this is something contagious.

I keep my torch in a pretty dynamic flow from barely moving to waving one direction throughout the day. If it's not as healthy to start or one head isn't doing as well I would agree that it could cause tearing in an individual head. Imo u shouldn't worry about bjd keep an eye on the healthy ones and keep flow down a bit for a few days and see what happens, it otherwise looks healthy

Docdiggy · Mar 26, 2015

Update. It looked like brown jelly this morning. I grabbed a hose and all of it came off clean as a whistle. It smelled terrible. Now I can only hope it didn't infect another.