What’s wrong with my torch?

[Funwithreefer]

At first I thought maybe it was splitting and it was stressed. But it’s progressively looking worse and worse. Obviously it’s not very open and a number of the polyps look like they have dark spots near the tips. Also seems to be receding on the one side. My hammer and frogspawn are doing great, as is my zoas and Goni.

some stats:
Biocube 32
Ammonia and nitrite are 0
Nitrate is about 5 ppm
ALk is 8
Calcium 440
Ph 8

any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Wolf89]

Your tank looks very new. How long has it been set up? What lights do you have?

 

[Funwithreefer]

It’s been up about 2 months. I just have the stock LED. Water parameters have been very stable without any fluctuations. I do weekly and sometimes twice weekly water changes. Running the stock activated carbon filter, Purigen and phosguard as well as a protein skimmer.

 

[Wolf89]

It’s been up about 2 months. I just have the stock LED. Water parameters have been very stable without any fluctuations. I do weekly and sometimes twice weekly water changes. Running the stock activated carbon filter, Purigen and phosguard as well as a protein skimmer.

Stock LED for what? Thats probably your problem. The phosguard and Purigen concern me. You also could be starving your torch. How long have you had it?

 

[Funwithreefer]

The LED light that comes with the Biocube. I ive had the torch for about 2 weeks now. I was using th le phosguard to get the silicates down as I was getting brown algae, which is better now. Why would the torch be starving when everything else is doing really well?

 

[Wolf89]

silicates will go away given time. Do you have a phosphate test?

 

[Bleigh]

Have you recently fed it? They look really crappy when they’ve ate food. When I first started, always thought mine was dieing after it had ate.

 

[Funwithreefer]

silicates will go away given time. Do you have a phosphate test?

I do have a phosphate test. It’s been 0 and has never changed. Using RODI water.

 

[Funwithreefer]

Have you recently fed it? They look really crappy when they’ve ate food. When I first started, always thought mine was dieing after it had ate.

I have been target feeding reef Roids about 2x a week and fees the fish Mysis a few times a week. Sometimes I’ll target feed all the Euphyllia with the Mysis. Actually I did last night.

 

[Wolf89]

I do have a phosphate test. It’s been 0 and has never changed. Using RODI water.

0 is bad. you mitght me starving it. Lets wait for more opinions

 

[Funwithreefer]

0 phosphates are bad? I’ve never read anything that said phosphates were good. Everything I’ve read has said you want them at 0. Maybe I’m wrong as I am still new at this but I have been researching for about 4 months

 

[Wolf89]

0 phosphates are bad? I’ve never read anything that said phosphates were good. Everything I’ve read has said you want them at 0. Maybe I’m wrong as I am still new at this but I have been researching for about 4 months

Corals need phosphate to grow and eat. Yes, you want as little as possible, but you need at least some

 

[Bleigh]

0 phosphates are bad? I’ve never read anything that said phosphates were good. Everything I’ve read has said you want them at 0. Maybe I’m wrong as I am still new at this but I have been researching for about 4 months

I second this. There needs to be a little nitrate and phosphate. Softies like a little more than sps and certain corals, like ricordia and Yuma seem to like pretty dirty water (for reefing standards anyway). ;Happy

 

[ADAM]

0 PO4 and NO3 are bad! Your brown algae may have been from this instead of silicates. With 0 PO4 and NO3 you could have had diatoms instead. Silicates are fairly easy to diagnose if there are any sponges that hitchhiked on your liverock, if the sponges are growing you have silicate (found this out while dealing with silicates passing thru RODI trying to get the right filter setup). I wouldn't buy a sponge to add to my tank for this purpose and many I've scraped from the rocks when found, but I have left one or two small ones because I didn't want to disassemble the aquascape (never goes back the same! haha)
Seems like a lot of chemical filtration also, between the stock carbon, purigen and GFO there's not a lot of nutrients left in the water. I would likely pull all these out for a couple days and keep a check on the parameters. If your are feeding reef roids you will have PO4 shortly! Unless you are going for an ultra low nutrient system a skimmer and occasional GFO will likely be sufficient for water quality. The only time I run carbon is 1-2 days prior to taking PAR readings to make sure the water is a clear and possible, other than that my system doesn't like carbon.
To sum it up; Your water is likely "to clean"

 

[Brian1f1]

he’s target feeding roids, I doubt it’s nutrition related at two months with the feeding (at least not enough to cause appreciable decline). That’s a very new tank for a torch, and we’ve got no clue about his parameters, flow, or his lighting.

 

[Bleigh]

he’s target feeding roids, I doubt it’s nutrition related at two months with the feeding (at least not enough to cause appreciable decline). That’s a very new tank for a torch, and we’ve got no clue about his parameters, flow, or his lighting.

They also shrivel after I target feed. Lol. If only corals could talk. It’s like trying to guess why a baby’s crying. Maybe it’s hungry, maybe it’s ate too much, maybe it need more light, maybe it’s getting too much, etc.

 

[Funwithreefer]

0 PO4 and NO3 are bad! Your brown algae may have been from this instead of silicates. With 0 PO4 and NO3 you could have had diatoms instead. Silicates are fairly easy to diagnose if there are any sponges that hitchhiked on your liverock, if the sponges are growing you have silicate (found this out while dealing with silicates passing thru RODI trying to get the right filter setup). I wouldn't buy a sponge to add to my tank for this purpose and many I've scraped from the rocks when found, but I have left one or two small ones because I didn't want to disassemble the aquascape (never goes back the same! haha)
Seems like a lot of chemical filtration also, between the stock carbon, purigen and GFO there's not a lot of nutrients left in the water. I would likely pull all these out for a couple days and keep a check on the parameters. If your are feeding reef roids you will have PO4 shortly! Unless you are going for an ultra low nutrient system a skimmer and occasional GFO will likely be sufficient for water quality. The only time I run carbon is 1-2 days prior to taking PAR readings to make sure the water is a clear and possible, other than that my system doesn't like carbon.
To sum it up; Your water is likely "to clean"

good info. All my corals have been growing, hammer growing well, and zoas have been spreading out. I actually dipped the torch yesterday and moved it lower in the tank. It looks much better than it did. But I think I will pull the GFO and purigen for a few days and see what happens.

 

[Funwithreefer]

They also shrivel after I target feed. Lol. If only corals could talk. It’s like trying to guess why a baby’s crying. Maybe it’s hungry, maybe it’s ate too much, maybe it need more light, maybe it’s getting too much, etc.

I dipped it yesterday and moved it lower in the tank. It actually perked up yesterday. I’m gonna hold off on target feeding it and see how it does.

 

[Neoalchemist]

Never run media "just because". Same as the old saying "Never dose anything you can't test for. Po4 media is for when needed and doesn't make for a good proactive cure. Same with purigen, only run it when a contaminant is suspected.
New tanks absolutely need higher nutrients for the first year or so to build a strong microbial food chain.

 

[Funwithreefer]

Never run media "just because". Same as the old saying "Never dose anything you can't test for. Po4 media is for when needed and doesn't make for a good proactive cure. Same with purigen, only run it when a contaminant is suspected.
New tanks absolutely need higher nutrients for the first year or so to build a strong microbial food chain.

this actually makes a lot of sense. I’m going to pull the Purigan And Phosguard tonight.