Torch Help

[Coral-Zone]

I’ve had a torch for about 3 months. I’ve been keeping perimeters great over the timeframe and haven’t had any issues. Earlier this week one of my torches has retracted completely. Just checked perimeters and everything is stable. Any ideas ?

 

[chivobp]

Magnesium ?

 

[Coral-Zone]

That is one I don’t check often. Being such a small tank I have relied on water changes to keep everything balanced and dose alk only. Let me check Mag since you mentioned it. Thanks!

 

[BryanM]

That is one I don’t check often. Being such a small tank I have relied on water changes to keep everything balanced and dose alk only. Let me check Mag since you mentioned it. Thanks!

If you're doing regular water changes mag almost certainly is fine.

Can you get a better pic w/o all blue lighting?

 

[chivobp]

That is one I don’t check often. Being such a small tank I have relied on water changes to keep everything balanced and dose alk only. Let me check Mag since you mentioned it. Thanks!

How big is the tank. I had the same problem . I started dosing mag till I got it to where it needed to be. Now I just dose it 1 time a week. I also do weekly water changes .

 

[VintageReefer]

Looks like it has a bacterial infection but would need better pictures in whiter lighting to confirm

 

[Coral-Zone]

Just updating for educational purposes at this point. I’ve been pretty good at keeping perimeters in check. Tank started in April and have been pretty slow adding corals. I’ve learned patience is key. The two torches have been in my tank for several months now and they have been doing great. Last month I had a big swing with phosphates almost going to 0. I caught it quickly since I’ve been testing everything multiple times a week since adding corals in May. I’ve dosed Brightwell Neophos to keep phosphate around .05 and I have been on the comeback at getting things stable again. On a regular I only seem to need to dose Alk.

-Phos .05
-Nitrates I try to keep around 8 but they’ve been at 12 ppm last month. I do not feed heavy so not sure
-Alk 8.8dkh
Calcium 430
Mag 1300
Salinity 1.025

Lighting and power head I have not adjusted so don’t think it has anything to do with changes to lighting or flow.

The only thing I did notice was my calcium dropped to 360 for about a week before I tested and caught it. I corrected that issue around the time the first torch looked upset. Unfortunately I lost that however the cotton candy stayed healthy. This morning the cotton candy torch retracted. No major changes to the tank. Everything seems great. No algae issues. Perimeters are great. All other corals look great it’s just been my torches. Acans, goni, montipora, blastos, all look fine.

I do water changes every Sunday. Which I just did one and the torch has a film over it that almost looks like a sponge but it’s not.

I think it’s about to RIP. Not sure where I went wrong, I feel like with this tank I’ve really focused on keeping things in check. The only thing I can think at this point is the calcium issue that took me a week to catch was enough of a drop to stress the torches out. Any other thoughts?

 

[Coral-Zone]

Heres a pic of the torch before it got sick

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[VintageReefer]

Heres a pic of the torch before it got sick

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Started to split. A stressful process for torches. The flesh band is stretched and needs to naturally separate into two. The flesh band usually recedes during this process and sometimes develops a tear in a bad spot. Becomes an open door for infections as now the seal is broken that keeps bacteria out, they get in, proliferate, and cause infections. Currently torch has no flesh band and is in a weakened / stressed state. Is there infection yet? Hard to tell. What is rent blue stuff on the center of the left head? Is it brown or jelly like discharge?

Another test is to take the torch out and smell it. If it smells like the ocean it’s ok. If it smells like rotten milk, eggs, etc. it’s infected

 

[Coral-Zone]

The blue stuff is actually like a white film. I removed it and dipped it. I don’t know if I should just give up on it. I don’t have a quarantine tank to put it in. I just put it back in the tank. I’m going to give it until tomorrow to see what’s going on. I don’t want it to affect my other corals.

 

[VintageReefer]

White film could just be excess slime being expelled which isn’t bad. I just added new torch to my system and it was close up a few days and had some white slime.

What are you dipping with

 

[Coral-Zone]

Well as I’ve been updating I think I figured the problem. Looks like my alk dose somehow messed up today. Alk is at 11.1 and Calcium 495 which is significantly high for my tank. This might have nuked my torch today. Luckily I don’t see any other issues.

 

[VintageReefer]

It will stres them but there is chance it can be saved, I wouldn’t give up quite yet

The split process is also stressful and it is normal for torch to not extend fully during this time. Not as retracted as you are seeing, but also not extending as normal. So don’t expect it to look perfect at this time.