Torch dying??

[Dburr1014]

Is the par meter something to buy? Do you think it was possible for a LK to drop when I switched over to rodi water?

You can buy, borrow, or rent a par meter.
Lots of people don't bother but when they come across problems and can't figure it out, it is another tool. Check your lfs or another reefer or club. BRS sells them and can be returned for a stocking fee.
I bought the parwise recently, love it. Won't use it much but when I do it comes in handy. https://www.par-wise.com/

RODI is only going to help. Not using RODI could have been the problem.
LPS can have problems but not physically show up for weeks later. What type salt are you using?

https://www.freshwatersystems.com/blogs/blog/reverse-osmosis-water-for-your-aquarium

 

[robreefer91]

You can buy, borrow, or rent a par meter.
Lots of people don't bother but when they come across problems and can't figure it out, it is another tool. Check your lfs or another reefer or club. BRS sells them and can be returned for a stocking fee.
I bought the parwise recently, love it. Won't use it much but when I do it comes in handy. https://www.par-wise.com/

RODI is only going to help. Not using RODI could have been the problem.
LPS can have problems but not physically show up for weeks later.

Do you think maybe doing small water changes so that I don’t shock the coral but get rid of waste may help? I have about 7.5 gallons of rodi water I filtered yesterday. I could do like a gallon or half at a time to get pure clean water in and drop pho slowly. Or do you think that method won’t work in my favor.

 

[iamacat]

I didn’t rinse the whole thing only the media. And I put the old media from the old one as well

I would have recommended cleaning the canister first as they tend to have oils on the plastics which can irritate corals.

but the way your Torch looks is telling me that this is not a new issue and you are just now seeing the poor health due to retraction. On the bright side there have been a lot of great reply’s in here to help you sort out the water parameter issues that likely lead to the poor health.

don’t make multiple sweeping changes tho. Allow inhabitants to adjust slowly

 

[Dburr1014]

Do you think maybe doing small water changes so that I don’t shock the coral but get rid of waste may help? I have about 7.5 gallons of rodi water I filtered yesterday. I could do like a gallon or half at a time to get pure clean water in and drop pho slowly. Or do you think that method won’t work in my favor.

What salt are you using?
What is pho? Phosphate?
PO4 (phosphate) is bound in sand and rock and tries to stay in equalibrium with the water. Water change will lower the po4 in the water and the rock will leech it out. This process will take months this way.
The use of gfo is common because it stripes out po4 from the water and keeps it low even though the rock is leeching until the gfo is exhausted. Then you replace the media.

Another thing to keep in mind is your alkalinity level. High alk leads to feeding coral. I'm other words, the higher the alk, the more nutrients needs to be in the water column. The lower the alk, you can have less nutrients.
At 0.5 po4 you are fine. If you do ever get to 0.05 po4, I would recommend you lower the alk to 8ish.
Best thing to remember is high alk, high nutrients; low alk, low nutrients. Always stay off zero nutrients.
Zero will most likely bring in dinos.

 

[GatorGreg]

Man I just read through this and you’re messing with a lot of stuff. If you keep messing with stuff continually to try and solve a problem for ONE coral. You’re going to make all your corals suffer. I never make changes to my tank based off one coral being irritated.

Plus your water just seems very cloudy to me. It could just be the photo quality. But no matter how bad my photos are my water never looks that cloudy. That’s just my opinion.

As far as shocking the coral. The amount of water change isn’t as crucial as matching the salinity, temp and alk are. I wouldn’t be afraid to do a 100 percent change in my display as long as I matched my 3 parameters mentioned above. I’d bet it wouldn’t phase my corals one bit. They may even puff up and enjoy it. Especially with the full bellies my corals always enjoy having.

I don’t change that much though because I fear bottoming out my nutrients. I have dialed in my feeding portions so much that I can get close to guessing what my nutrient levels will rise by testing day to if I overdo the feeding a little bit.

I have found the exact amount I want to feed and have my export (water changes and skimming and gfo) dialed in to where my nutrients stay stable. If I increase feedings they go up.

 

[robreefer91]

Man I just read through this and you’re messing with a lot of stuff. If you keep messing with stuff continually to try and solve a problem for ONE coral. You’re going to make all your corals suffer. I never make changes to my tank based off one coral being irritated.

Plus your water just seems very cloudy to me. It could just be the photo quality. But no matter how bad my photos are my water never looks that cloudy. That’s just my opinion.

As far as shocking the coral. The amount of water change isn’t as crucial as matching the salinity, temp and alk are. I wouldn’t be afraid to do a 100 percent change in my display as long as I matched my 3 parameters mentioned above. I’d bet it wouldn’t phase my corals one bit. They may even puff up and enjoy it. Especially with the full bellies my corals always enjoy having.

I don’t change that much though because I fear bottoming out my nutrients. I have dialed in my feeding portions so much that I can get close to guessing what my nutrient levels will rise by testing day to if I overdo the feeding a little bit.

I have found the exact amount I want to feed and have my export (water changes and skimming and gfo) dialed in to where my nutrients stay stable. If I increase feedings they go up.

Should I take it out of the tank? It looks mostly gone and has lost most tissue. Will dead coral cause ammonia spike? I think I have lost it. The skeleton looks dark red/brown like the color of my rock. Should I take a pic and upload? There is still some of the neon green flesh but a lot came off last night