Why are my torches and hammers doing poorly

EyeReef

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#1
I have not had great success with these corals. They would just look great for a few months and suddenly one day look miserable and shrunken and eventually die. My yellow torch is on its last leg and a few heads on my other lps looks bad as well. I know I have some high risk angelfish but I have seen them nip at them at all. Other corals are doing great.





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EyeReef

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#3
My nitrates is under 10 but I know my phosphate is somewhat high. I feed quite a bit and my glass tend to get algae every 2 days.


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#4
Is there to much flow right where they are at? Reason why I ask is because my friend had the same issue where they look good then start getting small then die off, untill he moved it else where in his tank with less flow and then sure enough it started come back and started to reproduce. So the problem with his was to much flow for the torch.

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reefes pieces

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#5
I know Ali's tanks at Amazing reef are predominantly LPS and he doesn't use powerheads except for his SPS tank. Like Jeff mentioned, too much flow might be the reason.
 

Tangwich

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#6
My guess is some sort of bacterial infection (i.e brown jelly) I only say that because I have a gold torch that has been in direct line of fire/flow for over a month and it's loving it. But about 4 months ago I had a couple torches and a couple hammers all die within a week and a half. Some were in low to no flow and some in higher flow.
 

joseserrano

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My guess is some sort of bacterial infection (i.e brown jelly) I only say that because I have a gold torch that has been in direct line of fire/flow for over a month and it's loving it. But about 4 months ago I had a couple torches and a couple hammers all die within a week and a half. Some were in low to no flow and some in higher flow.
I second this. Dip them.
 

EyeReef

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#8
What dip do you guys recommend for brown jelly?


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Zoarder

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#12
seems like PolypLab's Reef Primer is getting some publicity. I'm curious to try some myself but can't vouch on it's effectiveness

https://reefbuilders.com/2015/11/12/reef-primer-save-corals-bacterial-infections/#
That is very interesting!

I always thought that LPS die because of alk swings, well in my case it did when I switch salts. I can keep torches in my nano but not in my display which has more nutrients. Its so weird... but I gotta look more into the brown jelly stuff didn't think of it as a bacterial thing. I know Acans usually come with pests inside them that kill them from inside out.
 
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#14
My guess is some sort of bacterial infection (i.e brown jelly) I only say that because I have a gold torch that has been in direct line of fire/flow for over a month and it's loving it. But about 4 months ago I had a couple torches and a couple hammers all die within a week and a half. Some were in low to no flow and some in higher flow.
I had the same thing happen to me , I had a collection of gold torches(indo/Aussie ) all of them took a dump within a week of each other. When they dies the skeleton top would be covered in a white slime also lost some acans during that time . My tank is mostly sps but nitrate stays around 10ppm, phosphate at .16 ..
 
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#15
Seems like a bacterial infection probably caused by temp/salinity swing that stressed them out. Iodine works best for that
 

EyeReef

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I think I found the culprit :(. I saved a couple of my hammer heads and it was doing very well in the frag tank. I put it back in the display and the next morning it looked like crap again and eventually withered away. It has to be my angelfish!


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#19
I would say brown jelly disease as well and yes Lugol's solution is the solution to this problem. Depending on how big the Euphyllia is, size of a fist, just 5 drops into the dipping container, and I use a turkey baster to mix the solution as well as blow gently into the coral. If the polyps are not coming out all the way I would Lugol dip it. After 15 minutes, remove coral and put back in tank. Day 1 dip, Day 2 dip. Usually by Day 3 the coral looks great and no need for a 3rd dip. I lost 1 head on a 2 head torch but just the 1 left is doing excellent in a low light high flow area.

Hope that helps. Happy reefing! :)
 

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