Torch Coral Challenges

Morpheosz · Feb 17, 2022

I bought this torch coral a month ago. For the first few weeks it looked fantastic, huge extension, even more than at the LFS. Then one day ~2 weeks ago it just stopped extending and retracted quite a bit. After a week or so it started to show signs of extending a bit so I thought it might be coming back but a day later it vomited some of its zooxanthellae in the afternoon. I don't believe it has too much light as it's in a lower area on the edge of my tank, probably in the 75-100 par range at most (I did rent a par meter when I set the tank up)

Since then, it continues to look to not be receding further but not really extending further either. I had the same thing happen in my nano tank before this with another torch and it slowly receded over the course of 4-6 weeks until it faded away. This is a completely different tank and by all other measures this tank is doing very well even though it's only 2 months old. I have very stable params, lots of coralline growing, all the other corals seem to be thriving (including another hammer / frogspawn hybrid) and a few acros, bunch of acans, and various other frags. I've been spot feeding and broadcast feeding all my corals a few times a week and feeing my fish 3-5x per day as my nutrients have been staying quite low. I've also looked really closely at the base and see no apparent signs of vermin.

In a conversation with my LFS unrelated to this a few months ago they mentioned "unlike other euphyllia, torches seem to have a tendency take a nose dive one day for no reason sometimes" - is there anything to that sentiment? I love torches, and they are pricey, and i'd like to have more of them eventually, but these two experiences give me pause.

I have my tank setup with the full Triton method as of now. I have a fuge with a softball of chaeto that isn't growing much as my nutrients remain pretty low but it's healthy. I have the 4 part dosing dialed in to maintain my alk at 8.0.

My params:
pH 8.1-8.25 daily
Alk 8.0 dkh
Ca 440-450
Mg 1350
PO4 .01-.06 ppm (I have to dose this daily to keep it from bottoming out)
NO3 4-6ppm (dosing weekly as it also declines slowly)

I don't have a photo of it when it looked good, but it had ~2 - 2.5" extension.

This is what it looked like on 2/6:

And on 2/16 (a bit better):

A Young Reefer · Feb 18, 2022

to me it looks perfectly fine, parameters look fine as well. are you sure that what it expelled is Zooxanthella? euphyllia poops brownish black threads of waste which is perfectly normal. Give it some time until it properly settles in.

Jekyl · Feb 18, 2022

Rocks look pretty new. Most coral survives in new tanks but doesn't really thrive. Torches are for sure on the picky end also.

Morpheosz · Feb 18, 2022

A Young reefer said:
to me it looks perfectly fine, parameters look fine as well. are you sure that what it expelled is Zooxanthella? euphyllia poops brownish black threads of waste which is perfectly normal. Give it some time until it properly settles in.

I don't know for sure, but that was the impression I got. This is what happened to my last torch in my previous tank as well but it did it a number of times over a week or so until it just continue to recede to nothing over a few more weeks.

All the tissue sort of went limp and the mouth on the main head opened a lot (1cm or so), and brown stringy stuff came out. An hour later or so it was done.

Morpheosz · Feb 18, 2022

Jekyl said:
Rocks look pretty new. Most coral survives in new tanks but doesn't really thrive. Torches are for sure on the picky end also.

You are correct, the tank is 2 months old, but it was started with Ocean Direct sand, about 10 lbs of live rock from my last tank, seeded with coralline, pods, phyto... Everything I could do to accelerate it to "maturity". So far every other coral appears to be thriving and I have near complete coverage of the tops of the upper rocks in coralline algae so all signs point to things going really well.

Sharkbait19 · Feb 18, 2022

Is that an Aussie? They are a bit tougher to keep than indos.
It could be in the splitting process.
They can be quite hardy given proper conditions, but stress very easily.

Morpheosz · Feb 18, 2022

Sharkbait19 said:
Is that an Aussie? They are a bit tougher to keep than indos.
It could be in the splitting process.
They can be quite hardy given proper conditions, but stress very easily.

Great question, I have no idea, I'll ask my LFS next time I'm over there. They had a dozen or so of these for $60 each which seemed like a steal for a colorful torch.

cancun · Feb 19, 2022

Morpheosz said:
I bought this torch coral a month ago. For the first few weeks it looked fantastic, huge extension, even more than at the LFS. Then one day ~2 weeks ago it just stopped extending and retracted quite a bit. After a week or so it started to show signs of extending a bit so I thought it might be coming back but a day later it vomited some of its zooxanthellae in the afternoon. I don't believe it has too much light as it's in a lower area on the edge of my tank, probably in the 75-100 par range at most (I did rent a par meter when I set the tank up)

Since then, it continues to look to not be receding further but not really extending further either. I had the same thing happen in my nano tank before this with another torch and it slowly receded over the course of 4-6 weeks until it faded away. This is a completely different tank and by all other measures this tank is doing very well even though it's only 2 months old. I have very stable params, lots of coralline growing, all the other corals seem to be thriving (including another hammer / frogspawn hybrid) and a few acros, bunch of acans, and various other frags. I've been spot feeding and broadcast feeding all my corals a few times a week and feeing my fish 3-5x per day as my nutrients have been staying quite low. I've also looked really closely at the base and see no apparent signs of vermin.

In a conversation with my LFS unrelated to this a few months ago they mentioned "unlike other euphyllia, torches seem to have a tendency take a nose dive one day for no reason sometimes" - is there anything to that sentiment? I love torches, and they are pricey, and i'd like to have more of them eventually, but these two experiences give me pause.

I have my tank setup with the full Triton method as of now. I have a fuge with a softball of chaeto that isn't growing much as my nutrients remain pretty low but it's healthy. I have the 4 part dosing dialed in to maintain my alk at 8.0.

My params:
pH 8.1-8.25 daily
Alk 8.0 dkh
Ca 440-450
Mg 1350
PO4 .01-.06 ppm (I have to dose this daily to keep it from bottoming out)
NO3 4-6ppm (dosing weekly as it also declines slowly)

I don't have a photo of it when it looked good, but it had ~2 - 2.5" extension.

This is what it looked like on 2/6:

And on 2/16 (a bit better):

Hi! Years ago I lost a huge dragon soul torch. Along with another large 10 plus head neon green torch. At that time I didn't dose 2 part and my alk was 7.9-8.0. My LFS that always has beautiful, torches said he maintains alk at 9.5-10. After that I dosed 2 Part and maintain my alk at 9.5-10 and never had a issue again.

Also I kept my alk closer to 8.0 because I had a mixed reef with SPS and LPS. That was tough, so now I keep all LPS except a large spongodes and a large stag acro that I had forever and grows like a weed.

So maybe look into slowly increasing the alk a bit if possible.