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Need Help with my Blow Torch Frag


Bubba30

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I've got a couple torches right next to each other; the one in question has been in my tank longer than the other. Initially it opened up huge and was extremely happy with it's spot; light and flow good. I am all over my parameters as I recently had a huge hair algae issue. Phosphates leeching out of dry rock must have built up through my cycle; after cycle I was trying to grow chaeto in the sump however it was being overgrown with hair algae and the sump was a mess. I'd clean the sump and siphon out all the hair algae and a day later... boom. I gave up on chaeto and decided to run Phosguard. By the time I stopped lighting the sump and got the reactor in hair algae all over my live rock. The Phosguard make quick work of the hair algae however it got exhausted in only a week and the algae started coming back covering the rock and my frags now. I quickly replaced the Phosguard and the algae has 95% disappeared. This torch coral appears to have quite a bit of hair algae still attached to it; the algae is clear and very fine however it is all on the skeleton and appears to really be irritating the torch. At this point only half of the torch is inflating. I was worried it was some brown slime however it has not progressed at all in a weeks time. Tonight as the lights go down and everything is closing up I see the amount of algae on the coral is certainly the issue.

 

For anyone who doesn't have time to read all the above...

Is there anything I can dip my torch coral in to rid it of algae, specifically GHA, without damaging the coral? I could manually remove the majority of the algae however I am worried about taking a tooth brush to the skeleton of the coral and damaging any soft tissue.

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I felt I needed to take some action this morning as the torch was very retracted; skeleton exposed all around. I did a gallon water change and used the tank water to hold the torch. I mixed tank water in a cup with peroxide about 4:1 ratio. I lowered the frag in leaving the very top out of the dip. I used a dropper to drop peroxide on the skeleton tipping the frag so it would drip away from the tissue. I rinsed the frag in the bucket of tank water in between. I did tooth brush lightly however it didn't seem very effective; I tried a tooth pick as well. 

 

I just placed it back back into the tank in a high flow area. Fingers crossed.

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6 minutes ago, Bubba30 said:

I felt I needed to take some action this morning as the torch was very retracted; skeleton exposed all around. I did a gallon water change and used the tank water to hold the torch. I mixed tank water in a cup with peroxide about 4:1 ratio. I lowered the frag in leaving the very top out of the dip. I used a dropper to drop peroxide on the skeleton tipping the frag so it would drip away from the tissue. I rinsed the frag in the bucket of tank water in between. I did tooth brush lightly however it didn't seem very effective; I tried a tooth pick as well. 

 

I just placed it back back into the tank in a high flow area. Fingers crossed.

 

I was just about to suggest peroxide and I see you're already ahead of me, good call!!

Even if the peroxide doesn't kill the algae, it should weaken it enough to make it much easier to remove manually. Good luck!!

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The torch looks to be opening as much as it was this morning prior to the dip which is encouraging. It didn't even slime up after the dip. I put it in a higher flow section to encourage the algae to let go. I also replaced Phosguard AGAIN just to make sure it is kicking P04 out.

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39 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Watch out while using phosguard. Are you testing phos before replacing?

I am going off of algae growth honestly. I had been running Phosguard for two weeks prior to adding any coral. What gets me is the torch next to it is happy as can be as with everything else in the tank.

 
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Phosguard can strip the tank very quickly and that can cause issues with corals.

the only way to know its exhausted is by testing. 

 

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