HELP NEEDED WITH TORCH CORALS.

[JordanD321]

Hi all,

 

I am at my wits end with keeping torch corals in my tank. so far over the last 2 months I've lost, 2 heads indo gold, 1 ny knicks, 1 auzzie purple, 1 yellow tip now i have a hellfire & blue tip dying.

 

the issues began when i had a nutrient swing a fair while back due to me setting up the new KH keeper plus on my 10 gallon and stupidly not taking into account the swings this would create dosing clean water back into the tank. ( still not re set up)

 

having past and resolved that issue which lost 4 of the torches.  i re gained stability in tank, Everything is happy.  I have a heavily stocked lps with gonis,acans, trachys a scolly, hammers octo/ frogspawns ect.

 

so i come home from work today, 2 out of 5 remaining torches aren't looking great ( also everything else is looking as it should) , the centre mouth of the blue tip is looking grey it also looks like it may have damage to one side. the hellfire is clearing bailing and is evident on one side. 

 

the tank has 2 black storm clowns, a small Randal goby, usual snails, red leg hermit & a cleaner shrimp. 

 

ALK - 8.2DKH stable

CALC -450PPM

MAG- 1350PPM

NITRATE- 10PPM

PHOS - 0.03

NITRITE - 0

AMMONIA- 0

SALINITY - 1.026

 

the tank light is an ai prime 16hd, weekly water changes and dosing alk on a doser and calc when needed which isn't often as weekly water changes.

 

I would like to point out that 3 torches are absolutely fine. 2 are positioned on a frag rack. when i had the initial issues with nutrients every coral was affected. now this seems like an isolated event to two corals that lived next to each other. i would also like to say i did feed the tank the night before all this happened with just normal frozen Mysis not target fed so each coral would have had some and a couple torches have poo'd since. 

 

as another side note i stopped dosing AF supplements the day before due to a cyano outbreak but then again i only re started that last weekend

 

I have turned the tank upside down for pest, no sign of any flatworm.  i have included photos of the corals after i have dipped them in reef dip as a last ditch effort. unfortunately the hellfire sustained more damage as seen in the polyps, it was cemented onto rock work and i had to use a lot of force to remove it. 

 

my theories, could the cleaner shrimp be given the torches grief? especially during feeding times i notice him climbing all over them or maybe the hermit crab?]

 

could stopping AF supplements cause some sort of shock? i dose them alternated days as recommended. 

 

I've included a photo i took the day before ( you can see the blue tip & hellfire doing just fine).  

 

should i just give up on torches? as i begin to loose all hope! 

 

 

thanks for your advice and opinions! happy reefing!

 

Jordan