Causes of this?

[HardyG]

What are some of the factors that could cause 1 head of a torch to go from this to that in a few days? Salinity, temp, testing all done regularly with Hanna checkers. Not dosing anything. The only thing to note would be that nitrates bottomed out last week so I am now dosing nitrates. Was at 1.0 yesterday.

One other thing I have seen is that around noon or 1pm every day, mostly all of my LPS shrink or retract if that’s the right word. (Shown in pic 3).

Would love any help or suggestions on what may have caused it. Noticed no changes to the coral itself (was looking for BJD) but just a gradual decline of health.

 

[not_eman209]

same thing happened to me when nitrates and phosphates bottomed out, started raising my phosphates and it seems to have helped a bit.

 

[HardyG]

same thing happened to me when nitrates and phosphates bottomed out, started raising my phosphates and it seems to have helped a bit.

So you had corals that just started “losing it” when you phosphates were out of wack? This torch was a new head with a pretty small flesh ban, so it definitely would be first if any of them were struggling..

 

[jlitz]

BJD kills super fast.

 

[HardyG]

I had some new live rock start having some die off while we were in the hospital for a week and when I got home my phosphates were 2.0 ! It has been a battle. Got the phosphate back around 0.5, but still working on nitrate. The nitrate dosing is helping.

 

[not_eman209]

So you had corals that just started “losing it” when you phosphates were out of wack? This torch was a new head with a pretty small flesh ban, so it definitely would be first if any of them were struggling..

That’s what I noticed, they were perfectly fine for months when my phosphate and nitrate were detectable, and just 2 months ago they bottomed out and they started receding, about two weeks ago I started dosing reef energy (raised my phosphates) and the torches are starting to expand more now that my phosphate and nitrates aren’t bottomed out.

 

[HardyG]

BJD kills super fast.

Does BJD ever present with no signs other than an unhappy coral? It died like it could have been BJD but I was constantly looking for signs.

 

[HardyG]

So you had corals that just started “losing it” when you phosphates were out of wack? This torch was a new head with a pretty small flesh ban, so it definitely would be first if any of them were struggling..

That’s what I noticed, they were perfectly fine for months when my phosphate and nitrate were detectable, and just 2 months ago they bottomed out and they started receding, about two weeks ago I started dosing reef energy (raised my phosphates) and the torches are starting to expand more now that my phosphate and nitrates aren’t bottomed out.

How quickly did you start noticing recession when they bottomed out?

 

[jlitz]

BJD kills super fast.

Does BJD ever present with no signs other than an unhappy coral? It died like it could have been BJD but I was constantly looking for signs.

My personal experience with it (im no expert) I lost a head of a hg torch with no signs of bjd. I honestly thought a fish ate it. But then I found the jelly signs on a nearby frogspawn a couple days later after I lost another torch.

 

[HardyG]

BJD kills super fast.

Does BJD ever present with no signs other than an unhappy coral? It died like it could have been BJD but I was constantly looking for signs.

My personal experience with it (im no expert) I lost a head of a hg torch with no signs of bjd. I honestly thought a fish ate it. But then I found the jelly signs on a nearby frogspawn a couple days later after I lost another torch.

This definitely fights like BJD…