Please Help my Torches are dying and im not sure why.

[Shadows Reef]

Hello everyone, I have a 60 GA tank with a Roller-mat fleece filter, Aquamaxx Skimmer, Vortech and Vectra pumps with Radian G5 Lights, Apex with trident, DOS ,ATO and etc...
I run ROX. 0.8 and high capacity GFO in a Reactor, and use Tropic Marin Pro mixed to when it reads 1.026 and 34ppt on a calibrated Milwaukee refractometer then I add my bicarb in to elevate ALK to 9.5.

Daily I add Coralamino from Brightwell and Phytoplankton from AlgaeBarn, I also have a huge population of pods.

Every other day I target feed reef roids and add my trace elements A,B,C,&D from Red Sea as necessary 1 ml per 51ml of my calcium dosed.

Weekly I do a 10-15% water change and dose vibrant(i now dose every other week)

Whenever I see a coral not doing well I dip in medicoral(iodine) for 5-7 minutes and put back in tank.

Corals that come in I dip in either Bayer, Revive, CoralRX or Coral MD depending on the coral.

My Current parameters are Temp: 78.2 Salinity: 1.026, ALK: 9.48, Cal: 443, MAG: 1370, Phosphate: .15 , Nitrate : 7

I had to go out of town for three weeks and so my whole system was in the hands of my apex. minus my daily doses and water changes.

While I was gone my nitrates climbed above 8, I wish I did a high range test on my tank to know exactly where it was but I did the low range test twice and when I knew it was higher for sure I did a 50% water change, now its for sure between 4-8 PPM my guess 7 PPM but you know those test kits.

I also took my two torches and Duncan off the rock and glues them to frags to I can iodine dip and move them to lower lighting.

Do you think my Torches and Duncan are dying because of that nitrate spike or do you think its possible it could be something else? never had a torch coral die before so its sad for me.

 

[Shadows Reef]

im trying to upload the pictures I took with my canon macro lens but the files are too big, anyone know the picture requirements?

 

[Pistondog]

Hello everyone, I have a 60 GA tank with a Roller-mat fleece filter, Aquamaxx Skimmer, Vortech and Vectra pumps with Radian G5 Lights, Apex with trident, DOS ,ATO and etc...
I run ROX. 0.8 and high capacity GFO in a Reactor, and use Tropic Marin Pro mixed to when it reads 1.026 and 34ppt on a calibrated Milwaukee refractometer then I add my bicarb in to elevate ALK to 9.5.

Daily I add Coralamino from Brightwell and Phytoplankton from AlgaeBarn, I also have a huge population of pods.

Every other day I target feed reef roids and add my trace elements A,B,C,&D from Red Sea as necessary 1 ml per 51ml of my calcium dosed.

Weekly I do a 10-15% water change and dose vibrant(i now dose every other week)

Whenever I see a coral not doing well I dip in medicoral(iodine) for 5-7 minutes and put back in tank.

Corals that come in I dip in either Bayer, Revive, CoralRX or Coral MD depending on the coral.

My Current parameters are Temp: 78.2 Salinity: 1.026, ALK: 9.48, Cal: 443, MAG: 1370, Phosphate: .15 , Nitrate : 7

I had to go out of town for three weeks and so my whole system was in the hands of my apex. minus my daily doses and water changes.

While I was gone my nitrates climbed above 8, I wish I did a high range test on my tank to know exactly where it was but I did the low range test twice and when I knew it was higher for sure I did a 50% water change, now its for sure between 4-8 PPM my guess 7 PPM but you know those test kits.

I also took my two torches and Duncan off the rock and glues them to frags to I can iodine dip and move them to lower lighting.

Do you think my Torches and Duncan are dying because of that nitrate spike or do you think its possible it could be something else? never had a torch coral die before so its sad for me.

Nitrates from 7 to 8?
Not much of a spike.
Can you describe the torches symptoms.
For pics, I always reduce size to 20% in some image editor.
This cuts the upload size way down.
Excellent tank details in your description.

 

[Tamberav]

Uhh on my LPS 25g with tons of euphyllia I ran Nitrates around 30 and everything looked fantastic. All I did was dose 2 part and change the water and feed fish.

So I doubt it is the Nitrate. Seems you are running so many different things that pinpointing the problem might be a challenge.

 

[amps]

I'm gonna say disease. I lost a TON of LPS a few years ago and so did a lot of other reefers in my area. Turns out some bacteria or pest was infecting them and eating the flesh at the base of the heads.

Iodine dips seem in order for sure but I'd consider running a regimen of Chemiclean. It cured my issue and I know a particular high-end dealer that specializes in $400 LPS that doses Chemiclean every 3 months no matter what.

 

[Shadows Reef]

usually, my nitrates are usually closer to 1 sorry should have mentioned that,

the tips of the torches seem to have holes in them and are slowly receding into their crown

 

[Shadows Reef]

 

[Pistondog]

usually, my nitrates are usually closer to 1 sorry should have mentioned that,

the tips of the torches seem to have holes in them and are slowly receding into their crown

I've 3 torches and nitrates 5 to 10.
But that does sound like it needs your attention.

 

[Shadows Reef]

I sent in an ICP test and an N-Doc a few days ago hopefully I find there a problem there but I today i mixed a new batch of water and ill do another 50% water change tomorrow.

 

[Ulm_nano_diybudgetreef]

I've read mixed reviews about the ROX 0.8 carbon, that it affects corals if ran all the time. Might be worth doing some reading to see some of the experiences people have had with it.

 

[Shadows Reef]

 

[Shadows Reef]

 

[Shadows Reef]

 

[IKD]

Sounds you have been dosing a lot of things. When you went away for 3 weeks, did all of that stop or was it automated?

 

[Shadows Reef]

I wish I had it automated the phytoplankton, aminocoral, trace elements and feed reef roids stopped along side with my weekly 10-15% water changes

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Alk swings will cause recession but I will assume you have that pretty stable with the apex. I notice some of the tips are missing is something like a fish eating them?

 

[IKD]

I wish I had it automated the phytoplankton, aminocoral, trace elements and feed reef roids stopped along side with my weekly 10-15% water changes

Sounds like stability got shaken up with the absence. I’m not an expert but getting things back to routine would be my recommendation.

 

[Shadows Reef]

I've read mixed reviews about the ROX 0.8 carbon, that it affects corals if ran all the time. Might be worth doing some reading to see some of the experiences people have had with it.

I have read that as well but I’ve been using it for years I can’t imagine that now be the problem

 

[Shadows Reef]

Sounds like stability got shaken up with the absence. I’m not an expert but getting things back to routine would be my recommendation.

That’s definitely what I’m trying to do hopefully the 50% water changes every other day isn’t to much stress on the corals, I match all my water change parameters with my tank parameters to be as friendly on the corals as possible.

All my other coral are doing great.

 

[Shadows Reef]

Alk swings will cause recession but I will assume you have that pretty stable with the apex. I notice some of the tips are missing is something like a fish eating them?

I wish then I could take them out and put them in the “dungeon” lol but I took numerous time lapse videos over the past few days hoping it was my cleaner shrimp, hermit crabs or maybe one of the fish but nothing. That’s how I usually find eaters lol
But yeah my ALK is on point with the trident controlled dosing.