Torch melting

Reeferkcp

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#21
Thanks for the offer. Let me see how this last torch head goes.

I did test my water. nitrates 26, phosphates 0.23, cal 425, alk 9.5, mag 1350. I like these numbers, so not sure what is going on.
My torches usually recede their flesh when I skip too many water changes and let my pH drift too low. The struggle of large fish load but I just love my fish. Not sure if this is your problem. What’s ur lowest pH reading ?
 

Jimbo327

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#22
Good news. Update on the 2 cut heads that I dremeled off the melting colony. They seem to have recovered. Flesh band is still barely there. But I did see it inflate and act normal.

This was 3 weeks ago:
IMG_1261.jpeg


Today, I see for more gold color returning:
IMG_1517.jpeg
 

2cent

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#24
How do you keep torches healthy and not melting? Mine was doing well, grown from 1 head to 5-6 heads and then just started melting. This is a 24k gold torch. I’m trying to save it with a cipro dip and I also dremel fragged it to see if I can save even 1 head. I had this before to my other HG torch, that I couldn’t save. Sad. View attachment 123622
Yea kinda looks like eefw they've been taking out alot of coral lately in people's tanks everywhere, if u you look really closely kinda looks like the eggs under the membrane, their very hard to get rid of because of the eggs, try a 5 to 10 min dip in coral rx move coral around in it very gently then put back in low flow
 

2cent

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#25
Thanks for the offer. Let me see how this last torch head goes.

I did test my water. nitrates 26, phosphates 0.23, cal 425, alk 9.5, mag 1350. I like these numbers, so not sure what is going on.
Maybe try bring alk down to 8.5 slowly also noticed their not a huge fan of high alk that's when bail out happens and also membrane reduction, hope your animals make it
 

Jimbo327

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#26
Yea kinda looks like eefw they've been taking out alot of coral lately in people's tanks everywhere, if u you look really closely kinda looks like the eggs under the membrane, their very hard to get rid of because of the eggs, try a 5 to 10 min dip in coral rx move coral around in it very gently then put back in low flow
That's the 1st thing I checked. I dipped in melafix/cipro/potassium chloride and saw no eggs or eefw. That brown is just the dying flesh band. The flesh band was originally all the way down to the plug, it was so healthy. Then the flesh band started receding slowly, and one day...one head was melting...and it started to spread to other heads. I had at least 8+ heads (this was all grown from 1 head). I pulled it out, dipped and saw nothing. Had to dremel off these 2 heads that looked the healthiest to try to save anything. I know for sure if I didn't dremel off, the whole thing would have been gone.

These 2 heads ares still not out of the woods. Their flesh band is not great, I would really like to see it go back down to the plug...but at least some yellow color is coming back.
 

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#27
That's the 1st thing I checked. I dipped in melafix/cipro/potassium chloride and saw no eggs or eefw. That brown is just the dying flesh band. The flesh band was originally all the way down to the plug, it was so healthy. Then the flesh band started receding slowly, and one day...one head was melting...and it started to spread to other heads. I had at least 8+ heads (this was all grown from 1 head). I pulled it out, dipped and saw nothing. Had to dremel off these 2 heads that looked the healthiest to try to save anything. I know for sure if I didn't dremel off, the whole thing would have been gone.

These 2 heads ares still not out of the woods. Their flesh band is not great, I would really like to see it go back down to the plug...but at least some yellow color is coming back.
ok they don't come off right away in the dip very stubborn, this looks alot like what I've seen from them in the past in tanks, hope your animals pull through
 

Jimbo327

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#28
I looked very hard for them, but it was not there. KCL is very effective against it, literally melts them. No eggs. The photo is showing the dying flesh band and some of the brown guts of torches.

But I may have spoken too soon. I can see 1 of the heads going to bail. The flesh band is just non existent.

I can dip again later, but the stem is bright white after the flesh band receded before. So any kind of eggs would be very easy to spot. And it's only 1 stem, so not too hard to find. Just nothing really ever came off.
 
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mescobar

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#30
What temperature do you run your tank? How stable is your tank temperature? How much does your temperature fluctuate?

Last night, I lost a head on my NY Knicks with what looks like BJD, after losing a double head green torch a couple days earlier :( The only thing I could think of that could have stressed the torches is my tank temperature getting a little too high or fluctuating too much, almost hitting 81 at its peak this week.

My tank temperate usually averaged at 77.5, this weeks slightly warmer weather and my non-functioning A/C meant a slightly warmer tank at 78.64 tank temperature with higher peaks than usual.
Screenshot 2025-04-12 at 9.00.46 AM.png


I'm not sure temperature fluctuations are the reason for the BJD in my case. The lost green torch could have set off a chain reaction, that maybe wasn't helped by the increase in tank temperature. This is my best guess so far, as nothing else in the tank has recently changed.

Would be interested in hearing about your tank temperature, maybe the two cases are correlated.
 
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#31
Mine fluctuates 75 when I wake up. Goes to 79 before bed. My tank seems happy. Don’t think your fluctuations are an issue. But again I have no controllers, just going off the chiller reading.
 

Jimbo327

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#32
My fan kicks in at 79.5, and it's pretty cool and it's in our house with A/C. So the temp has been very steady around 78-79.5. My chiller is not even hooked up to the manifold. I only hook up the chiller closer to summer since it can get much hotter than the fan can handle.
1744486531420.png
 

Jimbo327

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#33
I'm starting to boost my dosing of trace. I don't do enough consistent water changes, so maybe this is the problem.

I dose my own DIY trace, and not anything commercial.
 

Jimbo327

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#34
This is not a good sign. The head is half bailing from the skeleton. But it is holding on. Anyone have torches like this condition and survive long term? The other head looks more healthy. I’m hoping it will reattach itself back onto the skeleton.

IMG_1537.jpeg
 
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#35
I have 1 torch that did come back but otherwise once the recession starts that head is gone. It's just a matter of time.

Where do you keep your dKh, and Mg? IME Torches seem to like lower dKh like 8-8.5 and more Mg like 1360-1400. Also keeping the P04 down to .1 or lower helps.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
 

Jimbo327

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#36
Alk 9.0-9.5. I will try to let it drift back down into the 8.5's.

Calc is around 420 and Mg is around 1390.

Nitrate is 17. (It was 25 before). Going to slowly work it down to 10.

PO4 is around 0.15-0.2 (It was at 0.3 before), but rocks/sand seems to be releasing back into the water so it's a slow grind down to 0.1.

Everything is moving in the right direction, so I'm going to take it super slow at reducing nutrient. Slow and steady.

It would be really cool if that torch head can make a comeback after about 1/2 head has detached from skeleton, but I know the odds are not good based on others experiences. But that's the interesting part about this hobby, we get to see nature work.
 

Reeferkcp

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#37
Not sure if nutrient has anything to do with it. My nitrate is usually 10-20. Phos .1.-0.4. I run high nutritient bc I got lots of fish. I don’t think it bother their growth. I go from one head to 10+ head fine with these nutrient. I would look at other issues in the tank. Flow is usually the biggest issue ime. Next is stability and pH. I tend to keep my mag high also My 2cents.
IMG_0365.jpeg
IMG_0370.jpeg
IMG_0366.jpeg
IMG_0036.jpeg
 

Jimbo327

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#38
Wow, nice torches...I envy you.

I love how your colors stay all the way through your torch. Mine is kind of dark on some tentacles and other are more color. When I got first bought them, their color is all the way through as well.

I think my flow is a bit high because of the SPS. So you have slow gentle flow? It is a tough choice.

But I don't know why it would go from 1 head to 8 heads...and then suddenly melt. I didn't change the flow. I did let my nutrients go up a bit since I do feed my fish a lot. I may have slacked on my water changes.

What do you dose or test for? Do you dose iron or what elements? How about bacteria?
 

Reeferkcp

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#39
Wow, nice torches...I envy you.

I love how your colors stay all the way through your torch. Mine is kind of dark on some tentacles and other are more color. When I got first bought them, their color is all the way through as well.

I think my flow is a bit high because of the SPS. So you have slow gentle flow? It is a tough choice.

But I don't know why it would go from 1 head to 8 heads...and then suddenly melt. I didn't change the flow. I did let my nutrients go up a bit since I do feed my fish a lot. I may have slacked on my water changes.

What do you dose or test for? Do you dose iron or what elements? How about bacteria?
Tbh I’m not sure what cause urs to melt. Maybe they get used to low nutrient and it spiked too high? Mine are used to high nutrient long term.

sometimes my colony get too big and the head at the bottom get shaded or bad flow and bail out. In the past, I was doing too much carbon dosing and the weaker heads got bjd. Now they just bail unless I frag them and put them in proper flow / light again. It’s kinda like sps colony getting too big and shade out lower branches. Not sure if that is ur issue.

I don’t bacterial dose.
I dose trace A and K from TM on a dose.
I dose maganese diy in my Ca solution for the Goni.
I rarely do icp. I check icp to make sure nothing is high. Most of my trace are undetectable bc they get used up quickly.
I do kalk and 2 part bicarbonate/ CA

I find fast flow is ok but should be changing a bit. Unidirectional strong flow will cause bailed out, bjd if ur bacterial loaf is high. My polyps on the stronger flow side always has thinner flesh than the downstream polyps.

just my experience. Every tank is different though.
 

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