Advice required regarding receding behaviour on a torch

[Spitfire]

Hi folks,

I’m looking for some advice regarding my first torch coral, which I purchased about three weeks ago. I placed it on the sand bed in an area with what I calculated to be medium flow and moderate light intensity. Before adding it to the tank, I acclimated it slowly and followed all the proper steps.

For the first 3–5 days, the coral seemed fine. However, I noticed the flesh at the base starting to recede. Upon closer inspection, it looks like it’s receding to a pinch point (see pictures below). I’ve read that this can happen during splitting, and I can see three mouths forming, with the split appearing to move toward the right.

To support it, I’ve been feeding Reef Roids every four days with the pumps off, but it doesn’t seem very interested in feeding. Despite the recession, the coral’s arms are fully extended and look healthy, even extending far toward the back. I took this as a sign it was doing okay, but the continued recession has me increasingly concerned.

For some background, I’m relatively new to the hobby, though I did reef-keep years ago. I recently adopted a mature tank with plenty of thriving Euphyllia corals like frogspawn and hammers, which have grown numerous heads previously with their old owner. I’m just not familiar with growing or splitting torches and want to ensure this one is thriving, not struggling.

Here are my tank parameters:

• Alkalinity: 7.0 dKH (Hanna Checker)
• Calcium: 500 ppm (Salifert)
• Magnesium: 1320 ppm (Salifert)
• Phosphate: 0.07 ppm (Hanna Checker)
• Nitrate: 0.2 ppm (Salifert)
• Salinity: 1.026 (recently lowered from 1.029)

I dose magnesium, calcium, and alkalinity with an Alkatronic system and test weekly. Aside from the salinity spike (which I corrected slowly), the tank has been stable.

Day 2:

Day 4:

Week 2:

Week 3

Does this sound like typical splitting behaviour, or is this coral in trouble? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as I want to give this torch the best possible care.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

the alk is very low, most keep alk at 8~9, so the coral has to adjust to your low alk.

The nitrate and phosphate is very low, can almost say zero, which is bad for corals.

I would say the coral is still acclimating, acclimation can take days, even weeks, some corals even take months or longer to acclimate to a new tank. 3 weeks is nothing in a coral's life.

The coral overall looks good, I would leave it alone, and just correct the parameters.

 

[Pntbll687]

Since it's taken that long for it to happen, I'd lean toward splitting.

Polyps out and fluffy, no pieces coming off, all good signs.

I would take a turkey baster and gently blow the area to see if anything comes off. If flesh peels away, get ready to dip the coral.

KFC Dip
- Amoxacillin, ciprofloxacin, chemiclean, mixed in 4g of water. Add in restore or BCAA product after medicine has dissolved. Can be dipped for up to 48 hours, just need a small heater and powerhead or filter of some kind to move water around.

Other dip I use
- 3% peroxide, mixed to 100ml peroxide per gallon of tank water used. Add in iodine until water is slightly tea color. Dip for 10min, use turkey baster to get the coral on all sides. I'll use this dip and dip multiple times in a day, and use a separate bucket with fresh water to keep the coral in between dips.

 

[Spitfire]

Thanks, both! I'll keep everything as it is for now and make small, careful adjustments based on the advice for low nitrate and phosphate. I’ll continue monitoring the splitting and start educating myself about the KFC Dip method.

Appreciate the help!