Need help - Gold torch diagnosis

[pinkpork]

Hello!

Need help reviving my gold torch

Bit of context, I got this gold torch about 3 weeks ago, had it dipped and put on the sandbed to adjust for 5ish days like every other coral in my tank.
For the 5 days, the torch’s been very happy and open.

5 days past, I plopped it higher up in my tank where there’s more light and flow, and it started sulking after about 2 days, so I immediately placed it back to the same spot on the sand.

It’s been two weeks since then, and the torch stayed sad as shown in pic 1. It didn’t get worse nor better.

I picked it up and checked on it today for potential pests, and found two vermetid snails which I’ve popped off. But strangely, I saw tiny dots (balls) on the torch, about 0.5mm in diameter, which I shook off and can be seen floating around my tank. I’ve also isolated 1 in a white dish.

Someone please help revive my gold torch

Salinity: 34ppt
No3: 10
Po4: 0.07
Alk: 7.6
Ca: 450
Mg: 1450

Light: ai prime 16hd on 60%

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What size is the tank? An AI Prime on 60% is very low light. I keep my prime at 75% on a 15 gallon tank for zoa's and mushrooms. Torch also like random flow patterns... Seeing the zoa's on the sandbed, I don't think the sand is a good place for the torch due to low flow low light, I would move it up higher and wait for it to acclimate. Its in a very low light spot now, it will need longer time to acclimate to stronger light. Alk is also a bit lower than I would like it. How old is the tank? Torches generally do better in more mature tanks..... Can you post your water parameters? Basically need a little more info

 

[pinkpork]

What size is the tank? An AI Prime on 60% is very low light. I keep my prime at 75% on a 15 gallon tank for zoa's and mushrooms. Torch also like random flow patterns... Seeing the zoa's on the sandbed, I don't think the sand is a good place for the torch due to low flow low light, I would move it up higher and wait for it to acclimate. Its in a very low light spot now, it will need longer time to acclimate to stronger light. Alk is also a bit lower than I would like it. How old is the tank? Torches generally do better in more mature tanks..... Can you post your water parameters? Basically need a little more info

Tank is a waterbox 25 peninsula.

Maybe a lil higher up would benefit it

Tank is around 6 months old, still a baby.

Am trying to raise Alk to 8ish, with Kalkwasser.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

IMO your light should be at about 80-85% for best effectiveness.
Sounds like your on the right track and going slow, good on you. Good luck.

 

[VintageReefer]

Tank is a waterbox 25 peninsula.

Maybe a lil higher up would benefit it

Tank is around 6 months old, still a baby.

Am trying to raise Alk to 8ish, with Kalkwasser.

I had an ai prime on a 15 Waterbox peninsula and I was at like 75-80% blues and violet, 15% white, and green / red I kept at zero.
This was for for zoa, torch, and Goni and tank is 60% the size of yours

 

[skey44]

Has the change been since starting Kalk? What method are you using to dose it? How much are you raising the kH per day? Wall hammers like the one in your picture are very sensitive to changes in flow/damage. I suspect it got damaged/irritated when you moved it up. Also secondarily could be pH/alk spikes from your kalk dosing if you’re not going slow with it. It still looks like it has a chance to recover with a good flesh band. What are your other parameters? You don’t have dinoflagellates do you? My euphyllia were very unhappy like this when I had Dinos.
I get a feeling it’s not pest or light related.
More likely flow, damage/irritation, pH spikes.
You could do a quick revive dip to rule out the presence of a pest. But this could stress the coral even more so be aware.

 

[Shirak]

Can't really see much in your pictures. I agree on the light setting. AI Prime is not a very powerful light and the spread is not very good so it tends to drop off quickly in par when you move sideways away from the light. I have one on a 5gal set around 80% and 10" off the water. I would be hard pressed to go much larger than that with this light.

Dip again and see if any pests come off sounds good too. Try and get closer pictures if you see anything.

Would be easier to just bump the alk up a little with some baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and then just use the kalk for maintaining it.

 

[pinkpork]

Has the change been since starting Kalk? What method are you using to dose it? How much are you raising the kH per day? Wall hammers like the one in your picture are very sensitive to changes in flow/damage. I suspect it got damaged/irritated when you moved it up. Also secondarily could be pH/alk spikes from your kalk dosing if you’re not going slow with it. It still looks like it has a chance to recover with a good flesh band. What are your other parameters? You don’t have dinoflagellates do you? My euphyllia were very unhappy like this when I had Dinos.
I get a feeling it’s not pest or light related.
More likely flow, damage/irritation, pH spikes.
You could do a quick revive dip to rule out the presence of a pest. But this could stress the coral even more so be aware.

I did have a mild Dino issue when I added the torch… too much nopox
The Dino is still more or less around, but not all bubbly like before.

Kalk was a recent addition, only started dosing after the torch’s gone bad… Its been dropping around 0.2 dkh everyday, and I used to keep it up with water change, but now I’m on 24/7 continuous dosing, adding around 0.3 dkh to the tank everyday till it reaches 8. Testing everyday asw.

Visually I don’t see any pests, but will keep an eye on it.