Extremely low Magnesium, a Torch and hammer upset

[StartingATank]

Polyp bailout can happen pretty fast too, thats the only other thing I can think of, beyond some critter eating it.

I don't think I have anything that would eat it. I did just introduce my two Clownfish the night before, so that is the only thing I can think of, but they have never been mischievous before. The only other livestock that can eat something is a tomini Tang, a hermit (if it is a critter, I bet its this one), and some snails, or an Urchin (also might be it), but neither of which are near it.

 

[BryanM]

I don't think I have anything that would eat it. I did just introduce my two Clownfish the night before, so that is the only thing I can think of, but they have never been mischievous before. The only other livestock that can eat something is a tomini Tang, a hermit (if it is a critter, I bet its this one), and some snails, or an Urchin (also might be it), but neither of which are near it.

Hermits and urchins can definitely go rogue. Theres another current thread about a $300 snack that the urchin ate.

 

[StartingATank]

I don't think I have anything that would eat it. I did just introduce my two Clownfish the night before, so that is the only thing I can think of, but they have never been mischievous before. The only other livestock that can eat something is a tomini Tang, a hermit (if it is a critter, I bet its this one), and some snails, or an Urchin (also might be it), but neither of which are near it.

Hermits and urchins can definitely go rogue. Theres another current thread about a $300 snack that the urchin ate.

I remember seeing that. My urchin has never eaten anything, just knocked corals down, but the last hermit that is alive in my tank has always been a good hermit, unlike the other two I had. I also forgot that I have micro brittle stars and bristle worms

 

[get-salty]

Here is a quick video of the torch and the hammer

That torch has no flesh. You got a bad one. 100% will not make it sadly.

 

[ReneReef]

As pointed out earlier a lot of your corals are stretching towards the surface. Corals that require even less light than hammers and torches.
I’ve had a look through several of your topics/post. I see that this has been going on for a long time.

My conclusion, you are vastly under lighting your tank.

Under lit stony corals can seem to do just fine for quite a while until at some point they just give up and melt. This fits perfectly with what you describe here.

Let us know the volume of display and what lights you are using and we can advice further.

 

[StartingATank]

I got a 33 gallon and I am using the red sea lights that came with the Nano XL, The lights were at 55% but I have increased them to 75%, using acclimation right now, and it is only blues, no whites, over a 10 hours period. But what confuses me is that I got this torch 3 days ago, and I have had the hammers for a month, so why did the torch die so much more quickly than the hammers?

 

[ReneReef]

I got a 33 gallon and I am using the red sea lights that came with the Nano XL, The lights were at 55% but I have increased them to 75%, using acclimation right now, and it is only blues, no whites, over a 10 hours period. But what confuses me is that I got this torch 3 days ago, and I have had the hammers for a month, so why did the torch die so much more quickly than the hammers?

“The red sea lights that came with…”
So i’m supposed to know every light that comes with every tank on the market???

Knowing that Red Sea advices way too little light with their tank, I’m now guessing that it is just one Reefled 50.
That is 50 watts and that is very little for that tank by itself.

It has 40w in the blue channel which you have turned down by 25%. So you are lighting a 125 Liter tank with 30 watt. Yes that is vastly under lighting. Double it, at least. Better triple or quadruple it. And add the white channel. Corals love that.

You are acclimating from dim to ever so slightly less dim light at the moment, while your corals are screaming very loudly: give us more, moooorrrrreeeeeee, MORE!!!!

As for your timing question, read my previous post again. I said “at some point” and “CAN seem to do just fine for quite a while”.

 

[Freenow54]

So I am unsure of how long my low magnesium has been going on, but this morning and last night, I noticed that my new torch and one of my hammers have shriveled up a bunch, and one of the heads on the hammer has released or lost grip of some of its heads, and I am starting to make water to do a water change. Hopefully they will recover. I'm not seeing any brown jelly, so I don't think they have BJD. It will be ~3 hours until I am able to change the water, so will my corals be ok until then?

If you think that Magnesium is the issue use " all for reef "

 

[StartingATank]

I got a 33 gallon and I am using the red sea lights that came with the Nano XL, The lights were at 55% but I have increased them to 75%, using acclimation right now, and it is only blues, no whites, over a 10 hours period. But what confuses me is that I got this torch 3 days ago, and I have had the hammers for a month, so why did the torch die so much more quickly than the hammers?

“The red sea lights that came with…”
So i’m supposed to know every light that comes with every tank on the market???

Knowing that Red Sea advices way too little light with their tank, I’m now guessing that it is just one Reefled 50.
That is 50 watts and that is very little for that tank by itself.

It has 40w in the blue channel which you have turned down by 25%. So you are lighting a 125 Liter tank with 30 watt. Yes that is vastly under lighting. Double it, at least. Better triple or quadruple it. And add the white channel. Corals love that.

You are acclimating from dim to ever so slightly less dim light at the moment, while your corals are screaming very loudly: give us more, moooorrrrreeeeeee, MORE!!!!

As for your timing question, read my previous post again. I said “at some point” and “CAN seem to do just fine for quite a while”.

Yes it is the 50 watt. So do you think I should do maxed out blues? Also, I do have a coupon for orphek lights, is there one of those I should get?

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Yes it is the 50 watt. So do you think I should do maxed out blues? Also, I do have a coupon for orphek lights, is there one of those I should get?

Yes max them out and work your way down if needed. That amount of light is about equivalent to 1.5 T5 bulbs that would fit that tank. Give them some of the white spectrum during the day. ~10-12 hour photoperiod with a ramp to 100% for about 7-8 hours and ramp down to shutoff. You probably want to look at upgrading that light also as if you want more coral, you are definitely going to need a better coverage/higher output fixture.

Also - instead of solely relying on food for PO4, you might want to try just a bit of NeoPhos or similar and slowly raise it artificially to help stabilize the other corals - especially the euphyllia. I didn't realize how many you had in there already. That should help get nutrients under control until you get the lighting figured out.

 

[StartingATank]

Would this be good for lighting. I know white light is good for corals, but I hate the way it looks on them, because it makes them look bleak and brown to me. The solid is where it is at now, but over 20 days, it will get to the dotted one

 

[ReneReef]

Would this be good for lighting. I know white light is good for corals, but I hate the way it looks on them, because it makes them look bleak and brown to me. The solid is where it is at now, but over 20 days, it will get to the dotted one

In my opinion. A 50W light is never going to be enough for that size tank.

Juat make a period of 6-8 hours mid day where you have all channels at 100%.
Morning and evening dusk you van make as blue as you like.

Adding the white and intensity will actually help your corals color up an look even prettier in the evening.

Regardless of taste in light color your current husbandry is not providing your animals what they need to survive. I’d say any coral is prettier alive than dead, no matter the color of the lighting.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Looking good comes directly from healthy corals and not just lights alone. We all love the actinic pop, but it's very important that they receive full spectrum lighting. You are going to keep wasting money on coral if you don't address this extremely important aspect of keeping a reef aquarium.

 

[StartingATank]

Would it be ok if I kept white light at 50 percent max for now, to see how my corals react

 

[StartingATank]

And here is my updated schedule

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Is the end the actinic/violet phase? I don't have Red Sea lights so it's tough to understand what I'm looking at.

 

[StartingATank]

Is the end the actinic/violet phase? I don't have Red Sea lights so it's tough to understand what I'm looking at.

That is moonlight. I mostly find that it helps the fish settle down after eating

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

If it were me, I would crank all spectrums up to max due to the light only being 50W. You aren't going to penetrate very deep into the water with such little wattage. White light will penetrate through the entire water column and allow the coral like the Euphyllias you have to actually utilitize the alk/cal/nutrients and grow. They will die like what you experienced without it. You are doing yourself a disservice to the coral by wanting it to solely look good all the time. Up to you though!