Torch not looking good???

[Goonofthelagoon]

So I’ve had this torch for 2 weeks almost now and he arrived a bit damaged. He had 2 heads and lost the one that got damaged. The other head that was doing great is now acting strange. You can see some of the white pointy bones where the skin is supposed to be over it, and he’s not very open. I know it’s not my params, bc I’m keeping hammers and acros just fine. But for some reason, torches never make it in my tank. This is my 3rd torch?

 

[Goonofthelagoon]

Here’s a picture of what it looked like a week ago. That smaller head is completely gone now. And the bigger head is not as big and open. I have him in a medium flow area of the tank.

 

[MERKEY]

How olds your tank?

What are your parameters?

 

[Goonofthelagoon]

Tank is 3 years old. It’s a 29 gallon tank. I have about 3ppm nitrates I think, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and ph is at 8.2 I think. Alk is around 9.5 if I remember correctly. Calcium is at 450. Mag is at 1300. I haven’t tested my phosphates in a bit tho. I tested everything but phosphates and the other stuff like strontium and iodine last week. As I said tho, the sps in my tank are thriving and doing amazing. I only have one acro, but it has great polyp extension and good color. My other sps are birdsnest and monti cap. I also have a hammer coral with 2 small heads that’s doing amazing. It’s grown twice it’s size since I got it.

 

[Reeffragger]

Alk is too high for that low of nutrients imo.. get your nitrates up.

 

[Goonofthelagoon]

Oh really? I didn’t think that alk and nitrates corresponded with each other?

 

[Reeffragger]

Higher alkalinity the corals will need the higher nitrates.. a dirty tank will grow corals faster with higher alkalinkty and phosphates than a clean tank with high alk.

So if your nitrates are 3ppm which is too low anyway.. your alk should be lower in my opinion.. in the 7-8 range.. not 9-10

 

[Goonofthelagoon]

I was dosing alk and calc and mag a while back bc my levels were low, I dosed slowly tho. What should I do to raise my nitrates? Feed more heavily?

 

[Reeffragger]

Thats what id do. Easiest way to get more phosphates and nitrates. Look like you have green hair algae too. Get some pink cushion sea urchins the 10$ ones in petco.. And some turbos snails.. theyre clear that up if you trim it down for em

 

[Goonofthelagoon]

I have one almost baseball sized turbo in my tank. I need a bigger clean up crew tho, I lost some of my snails a while back for some reason and I have no idea why. They just fell off the glass and died. My params where fine tho, so idk what was going on. All the snails came from the same place at the same time too tho. I’ll get a bigger clean up crew tho.