Dosing amino acids

Waynerock · Feb 28, 2020

SVP said:
If I am understanding you correctly by extend you just mean towards the light? everyday mine get really inflated with water/puffy and then as my lights ramp down the contract back down. Unless you are running really weak or not enough lights over your tank and your PAR is below 75 I seriously doubt that the torches are starving so much they are actually reaching for light. I have rarely seen this as the primary cause for what you call reaching. For me I understand that with my gentle flow that ebbs back and forth my torches will naturally end up with their tentacles towards the top of the water at different times of the day as my pumps cycle through their various flow patterns. very similar to a Euphyllia no flow picture just not as drastic. I have them in as high as 275 Par and as low as 125 Par. the main difference is Indo vs Aussie and bright yellow and gold vs darker colors as to where I want them to be. Please remember that every tank is different and that it is easier to kill corals with light than without. there can be too much of a good thing in this case. I have included pics of my euphyllia tank to show some examples of no flow vs light flow.

Holy torches Batman!!!!

Fishko · Feb 28, 2020

SVP said:
If I am understanding you correctly by extend you just mean towards the light? everyday mine get really inflated with water/puffy and then as my lights ramp down the contract back down. Unless you are running really weak or not enough lights over your tank and your PAR is below 75 I seriously doubt that the torches are starving so much they are actually reaching for light. I have rarely seen this as the primary cause for what you call reaching. For me I understand that with my gentle flow that ebbs back and forth my torches will naturally end up with their tentacles towards the top of the water at different times of the day as my pumps cycle through their various flow patterns. very similar to a Euphyllia no flow picture just not as drastic. I have them in as high as 275 Par and as low as 125 Par. the main difference is Indo vs Aussie and bright yellow and gold vs darker colors as to where I want them to be. Please remember that every tank is different and that it is easier to kill corals with light than without. there can be too much of a good thing in this case. I have included pics of my euphyllia tank to show some examples of no flow vs light flow.

Sorry i mean they arent staying puffy the entire day, but in the middle of the day it extends the biggest like in the picture. do your torches release sweeper tentacles a lot? My Six line wrasse seems to be nipping at them and angering the torch. its an Aussie torch. One tencticle seems to be whiteish/ gray compared to the pinkish purple. Idk if its bleached. The torch is under an ai prime running the ab plus. Not directly under but close to, i dont think its a light issue . Love your tank btw.

Waynerock · Feb 28, 2020

Fishko said:
Sorry i mean they arent staying puffy the entire day, but in the middle of the day it extends the biggest like in the picture. do your torches release sweeper tentacles a lot? My Six line wrasse seems to be nipping at them and angering the torch. its an Aussie torch. One tencticle seems to be whiteish/ gray compared to the pinkish purple. Idk if its bleached. The torch is under an ai prime running the ab plus. Not directly under but close to, i dont think its a light issue . Love your tank btw.

Mine seem to get ready for bed an hour or so before the lights go out. They start to shrink and they also like to poop at dusk too. It’s hard to tell but my DS is a monster, bigger than a softball but right before bed it shrinks badly like I said it looks like it’s getting ready for night night. The hammers and frog spawn do that as well.

Waynerock · Feb 28, 2020

Sorry tried to send this picture with it. My TT looks like it’s dying sometimes it’s so retracted it scares me but it keeps splitting like crazy so it’s healthy. That one is the biggest pooper, always an hour or two before lights out. I just took a picture of my ASD “black” torch and it’s starting to do the old night time retraction. It’s hard to see because there are like 10 heads in there. Right before lights out it’s mostly skeleton. I think they get a pretty good rhythm after a while and these guys have been on the same schedule for over a year.

Fishko · Feb 28, 2020

Waynerock said:
Sorry tried to send this picture with it. My TT looks like it’s dying sometimes it’s so retracted it scares me but it keeps splitting like crazy so it’s healthy. That one is the biggest pooper, always an hour or two before lights out. I just took a picture of my ASD “black” torch and it’s starting to do the old night time retraction. It’s hard to see because there are like 10 heads in there. Right before lights out it’s mostly skeleton. I think they get a pretty good rhythm after a while and these guys have been on the same schedule for over a year.

Ya you can see the skeleton on mine right after the lights go out but then an hour later it extends back like nothing happened

SVP · Feb 28, 2020

Fishko said:
Sorry i mean they arent staying puffy the entire day, but in the middle of the day it extends the biggest like in the picture. do your torches release sweeper tentacles a lot? My Six line wrasse seems to be nipping at them and angering the torch. its an Aussie torch. One tencticle seems to be whiteish/ gray compared to the pinkish purple. Idk if its bleached. The torch is under an ai prime running the ab plus. Not directly under but close to, i dont think its a light issue . Love your tank btw.

the bottom picture is it just pooping totally okay. Heres my rule of thumb for torches and I watch my torch tank like a hawk when I am home, It is the tank closest to me from where I sit and I have to walk by it to go anywhere in the house. If a torch looks unhappy I make a little mental note of the torch and the time. by unhappy I mean every other coral is out and inflated and it is closed with the tentacles pulled in and you can see the teeth on the rim. thats worst case unhappy. anyway I just chill out for an hour or so and check it again. if no change I will, dependant on which coral, give it another 30 minutes or start testing for ones that just do not close up that much. If in 30 minutes it is still off I start with my apex if I haven't done so and work backwards until I am done manually testing. i always start with Po4, No3 then do mag,alk,calc. Mag plays a big role with happy euphyllia.
Waynerock and fishko said it best and it can worry some. I have seen them so far retracted they look like theyve bailed out, yet they come back out all happy and beautiful. My Aussie Gold HG is notorious for doing this. I like to take that time to investigate how far along the splitting process is and how fast it is doing so with pics to compare if possible. As to the why they do this and other really strange behavior, I wish I knew and I do not think anyone really does from a scientifically provable viewpoint.
To directly answer your question I would first start with any nipping fish. If you have a nipper then you have an issue that is directly ticking that torch off. Torches do not like to have their tentacles chewed off. it goes without saying. next maybe it is just me but I cannot see the white you speak of in the tentacles. but if that is happening it is more than likely because of a change in the zooxanthellae it has, or has too many of. Thats is my opinion though I am not a scientist. But if there has been NO changes to lighting or light schedule in the past 6 months and you are offering a stable environment then that would be the next logical choice for bleaching.
are you getting good growth? what are your parameters and length of light schedule? Have you ran a Par meter in your tank? all questions that need to be answered before any honest evaluation or opinion can or should be given. So far I have only heard or seen 1 real issue with yours and that is the fish chewing on it.
I keep my tank at or close to I do not chase
Po4 .05ppm
No3 5-10ppm
PH 8.35-8.5
mag 1450 ppm
alk 10.25 DKH
calc 450ppm
Sal 35ppt
temp 77-78 dependent on time of year
I run an ATI 8 bulb dimmable fixture with 2 XHOs for 13.5 hours a day with both ramping up and down maximum PAR 275 minimum Par 125

Fishko · Feb 28, 2020

SVP said:
the bottom picture is it just pooping totally okay. Heres my rule of thumb for torches and I watch my torch tank like a hawk when I am home, It is the tank closest to me from where I sit and I have to walk by it to go anywhere in the house. If a torch looks unhappy I make a little mental note of the torch and the time. by unhappy I mean every other coral is out and inflated and it is closed with the tentacles pulled in and you can see the teeth on the rim. thats worst case unhappy. anyway I just chill out for an hour or so and check it again. if no change I will, dependant on which coral, give it another 30 minutes or start testing for ones that just do not close up that much. If in 30 minutes it is still off I start with my apex if I haven't done so and work backwards until I am done manually testing. i always start with Po4, No3 then do mag,alk,calc. Mag plays a big role with happy euphyllia.
Waynerock and fishko said it best and it can worry some. I have seen them so far retracted they look like theyve bailed out, yet they come back out all happy and beautiful. My Aussie Gold HG is notorious for doing this. I like to take that time to investigate how far along the splitting process is and how fast it is doing so with pics to compare if possible. As to the why they do this and other really strange behavior, I wish I knew and I do not think anyone really does from a scientifically provable viewpoint.
To directly answer your question I would first start with any nipping fish. If you have a nipper then you have an issue that is directly ******* that torch off. Torches do not like to have their tentacles chewed off. it goes without saying. next maybe it is just me but I cannot see the white you speak of in the tentacles. but if that is happening it is more than likely because of a change in the zooxanthellae it has, or has too many of. Thats is my opinion though I am not a scientist. But if there has been NO changes to lighting or light schedule in the past 6 months and you are offering a stable environment then that would be the next logical choice for bleaching.
are you getting good growth? what are your parameters and length of light schedule? Have you ran a Par meter in your tank? all questions that need to be answered before any honest evaluation or opinion can or should be given. So far I have only heard or seen 1 real issue with yours and that is the fish chewing on it.
I keep my tank at or close to I do not chase
Po4 .05ppm
No3 5-10ppm
PH 8.35-8.5
mag 1450 ppm
alk 10.25 DKH
calc 450ppm
Sal 35ppt
temp 77-78 dependent on time of year
I run an ATI 8 bulb dimmable fixture with 2 XHOs for 13.5 hours a day with both ramping up and down maximum PAR 275 minimum Par 125

The wrasse doesnt nip at the tencticle it usually nips at the “poop” that the coral lets go weekly. My parameters currently are
10.1 dhk
Calc 440
Mag 1290
Nitrate 1ppm almost 3ppm getting there (Nyos)
Phos .02- .04ppm .02 increase from last friday
Salin 1.026

The torch is splitting currently in two heads have had for about a month. Light stays on form From 8am- 10pm with 2 hour ramp respectively. Im going to try shortening this just realized it is too long. Dont have a par reading.
edit: i changed the schedule to 9am-10pm with 3hour ramp time

Got a better picture with the lights whiter. Tanks been up for a year now, got lights maybe 4 months ago so dont have much coralline but its slowly growing. Thanks for the help!