Torches dying!

[Ojv81]

Hi all. We seem to be losing everything in our tank and are panicking a bit. We noticed our Anthias acting strange about a week ago (they were in our tank about 10 days and no, we did not QT). One barbonius anthias and one fathead sunburst anthias died before we could get them in the QT. We had to tear down the tank to get everyone else out and never did get the blenny. Our other barbonius anthias died in QT the next morning. Each Anthias was from a different fish store, if that matters. Dosed the QT with copper and started feeding Dr. G's anti-parasitic caviar and anti-bacterial caviar as we aren't sure if it's ich, velvet, worms - no clue. We are putting a tiny bit of caviar in the main tank for the blenny. Our LFS said the caviar would not harm the corals. Our torches are now declining rapidly. One of the aussie golds was doing great and now looks like it is hours away from dying. Almost overnight. Today, I noticed the sweet tooth torch is also turning white around the edge. When we broke down the tank, the torches remained on the frag rack and were simply moved to the other side. Its so frustrating and heartbreaking! Below are photos and current parameters. I can take a video to show flow if needed. Thank you in advance for any and all advice!

Salinity 1.025
Alkalinity 7.1
Nitrate 8
Phosphate .25
Magnesium 1320
Calcium 415

 

[Ojv81]

 

[Ojv81]

This is the sweet tooth

 

[Marlon C]

Where torches in qt when you dosed copper

 

[Ojv81]

Where torches in qt when you dosed copper

No, the torches stayed in our main tank

Where torches in qt when you dosed copper

No, torches are still in main tank which was never dosed with copper.

 

[Malifry97]

bump

 

[Ojv81]

 

[SPR1968]

The Phosphate level is fairly high, I assume it hasn’t suddenly jumped up following what you’ve added To the tank has it ?

If the alkalinity is 7.1 it’s a bit on the low side taking into account potential test margins of error (it could be less than 7.1)

its says the Dr G is reef safe but it seems a bit odd this occurred after adding it but we’ll see if we can get some more ideas

#reefsquad

 

[Ojv81]

Trying to add a video. My wife gently blew off the torch and it was shocking what happened...

 

[Xmoji]

Water change! water change! water change!

 

[LIreefguy]

Honestly I feel people should test once a week

A lot of times people will say my numbers are fine and post numbers. But there is no way to know for sure if they are stable everyday. Now I wouldn’t test everything everyday. But when I was having trouble with my tank the more I tested the better my tank did

Alk I would do every 3 days everything else once a week.
Make sure your numbers are stable
Also like others said your phosphate is high

 

[Ojv81]

Can’t seem to post it but here’s a screenshot...

 

[DLHDesign]

Dr G's Marine Aquaculture - Anti-Parasitic Caviar

Dr. G's Marine Aquaculture. Vitamins Reef Aquarium Fish Food.

www.drgsmarineaquaculture.com

Active Ingredient: Chloroquine phosphate.

I'd guess that the corals are reacting to the addition of this - and/or the overall disturbance of the tank. I suggest running carbon if you are not already, and doing as large a water change as you can (with water matched as close to tank params as possible, of course).

That product baffles me. Parasites exist outside the fish, not internally. Soaking food in CP and then feeding it to the fish makes no sense to me as it doesn't target the area of the fish where the problem exists - externally. Perhaps someone else can explain the theory of how this product is supposed to work, but I would never use this product, myself.

 

[Ojv81]

Dr G's Marine Aquaculture - Anti-Parasitic Caviar

Dr. G's Marine Aquaculture. Vitamins Reef Aquarium Fish Food.

www.drgsmarineaquaculture.com

Active Ingredient: Chloroquine phosphate.

I'd guess that the corals are reacting to the addition of this. I suggest running carbon if you are not already, and doing as large a water change as you can (with water matched as close to tank params as possible, of course).

We are running chemipure and rowas already. Should we take out the chemipure and run carbon?

 

[Ojv81]

Honestly I feel people should test once a week

A lot of times people will say my numbers are fine and post numbers. But there is no way to know for sure if they are stable everyday. Now I wouldn’t test everything everyday. But when I was having trouble with my tank the more I tested the better my tank did

Alk I would do every 3 days everything else once a week.
Make sure your numbers are stable
Also like others said your phosphate is high

We test at least once a week if not more. When we noticed phosphates were a bit high we added rowas. Thanks so much for your advice! Will have my wife do a water change.

 

[kireek]

Dr G's Marine Aquaculture - Anti-Parasitic Caviar

Dr. G's Marine Aquaculture. Vitamins Reef Aquarium Fish Food.

www.drgsmarineaquaculture.com

Active Ingredient: Chloroquine phosphate.

I'd guess that the corals are reacting to the addition of this. I suggest running carbon if you are not already, and doing as large a water change as you can (with water matched as close to tank params as possible, of course).

Oh my! That could be it. Yes ! Run that carbon!

I notice on the first photo there appears to be some breaking down or possibly the beginning of brown jelly disease. You may want to remove any frags that look like the last photo.It is very unlikely that they will recover. If it is brown jelly developing it could infect the others.Be sure to turn off the pumps if you decide to pull one. A small Tupperware like container works well for scooping up decaying specimens.

Other than that possibility I would suggest looking for parasites.

Flatworm infesting Aussie torch

Has anyone ever had flat worms infest a Aussie torch before or any other coral?

www.reef2reef.com

 

[LIreefguy]

We test at least once a week if not more. When we noticed phosphates were a bit high we added rowas. Thanks so much for your advice! Will have my wife do a water change.

Be careful with rowa,gfo. They work so great that phosphate tend to jump around a lot.
It’s better to use small amounts and change more often

 

[DLHDesign]

We are running chemipure and rowas already. Should we take out the chemipure and run carbon?

If you usually run those, keep running them. If you added them in response to this, I would stop running them. The goal is to get your tank back to normal as quickly as possible as smoothly as possible. A 50% water change (or as much as you can do up to that) will start the recovery. Carbon will help pull whatever leaches out of the rocks and surfaces, without impacting too much else. Follow that up with another 50% water change in 24-48hrs. Then repeat that cycle until the tank is in recovery.
Unfortunately, there isn't a viable test kit for CP. So you have to go off the look of the tank to tell you if you've gotten the medication out.

 

[reef_daddy]

Get those phosphates down. I had something similar happen to me a few months back. Phosphates spiked after a lot of excess food accidentally got into the tank. All of my stony corals were super stressed. The torch lost most of its skin almost to the head and I lost an Acro from Rapid Tissue Necrosis (RTN). I ran GFO in a reactor and did 30% water changes every few days for a couple weeks until things started to look better. The good news is everything is almost fully recovered. Target those phosphates down around 0.04

 

[Adamantium]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the video sure looks like brown jelly to me.