Can’t keep torches…

[Formulator]

Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions too quickly and simply had a parasite or physical damage from my goby sand blasting it, but after spending $200 on a beautiful piece and losing it within 3 weeks, I’m a bit discouraged.

I have thriving acropora, monti, goni, acans, brains, and leathers. Also a hammer coral that grows new heads like nobody’s business. So not all euphyllia hate my tank…

Before I set my wallet on fire again, is there anything unique with regards to water chemistry needs for torches?

Salinity: 1.026
Alk: 9.4
Ca: 430 ppm
Mg: 1350 ppm
NO3: 10 ppm
PO4: 0.2 ppm
Temp: 78-79
pH: 7.9-8.2

 

[krissiRLT]

Was it just the one torch you lost or were there previous ones lost?

 

[reefpanda]

Was the torch stung by other corals?

 

[Formulator]

Was it just the one torch you lost or were there previous ones lost?

Just the one. So it could have been a parasite, and my diamond goby was building mounds around it. If I get another I will put it on the rock work. I run metal halide and T5 lighting so my sand bed is close to 200 PAR. 750+ at the top.

 

[Formulator]

Was the torch stung by other corals?

It was pretty well isolated.

 

[reefpanda]

It was pretty well isolated.

Not an expert but maybe try putting it up at the lower rock work. High probability that it got irritated by the sand dumped onto it.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Did it have any signs of brown jelly disease? Any trauma to it like falling down?

 

[gbroadbridge]

Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions too quickly and simply had a parasite or physical damage from my goby sand blasting it, but after spending $200 on a beautiful piece and losing it within 3 weeks, I’m a bit discouraged.

I have thriving acropora, monti, goni, acans, brains, and leathers. Also a hammer coral that grows new heads like nobody’s business. So not all euphyllia hate my tank…

Before I set my wallet on fire again, is there anything unique with regards to water chemistry needs for torches?

Salinity: 1.026
Alk: 9.4
Ca: 430 ppm
Mg: 1350 ppm
NO3: 10 ppm
PO4: 0.2 ppm
Temp: 78-79
pH: 7.9-8.2

Torches can be tricky.

Some folks have no problems, others like me can keep even the most difficult SPS colonies happy but never have success with Hammers or Torches.

After losing half a dozen I decided that there are plenty of other beautiful coral out there so I spend my money on them instead.

I do have one survivor - no idea why he lives whilst others have all died.

 

[Formulator]

Did it have any signs of brown jelly disease? Any trauma to it like falling down?

Didn’t look like brown jelly while it was dying, but I did notice some brownish/clear snot like substance after it had lost all polyps. Trauma is possible, and my leading hypothesis ATM. My diamond goby liked to stir up the sand near it, and I think one of my clowns was trying to host at night.

 

[VintageReefer]

They don’t need special water parameters. They hate certain conditions however. They won’t tolerate sand and they don’t like being hosted by clowns. I keep mine in 150par these days. But years ago when I ran halide/t5 I had a torch that grew phenomenal and it was at the top of my rockwork about 12” below a 716w fixture.

My guess is it was annoyed to death

Try a different color. Inexpensive one. Just to test the waters and see how it does before jumping into an expensive one.

To keep off the sand you can use a frag stand

I don’t have great pics of it but here’s a torch of mine on the stand, and to the right are other stands just in a different colors. I use these all over

 

[PeterC99]

How old is your aquarium setup?

What is the longest coral you’ve had in your aquarium?

 

[Coral Kai]

Yeah sometimes I check if there’s rock or sand in my torches … some fish are jerks

 

[Formulator]

How old is your aquarium setup?

What is the longest coral you’ve had in your aquarium?

Almost 9 years old. I had much more mature coral a couple years ago until a catastrophic failure. I just did a major overhaul 6 months ago. The leathers in there are original as they pulled through my crash. Everything else is about 6 months old, but the water was never drained, rock and sand are original and were never removed. So although the coral is not mature, I consider the tank quite mature.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I dont keep any torches directly on the sand, they don’t seem to like it at least in my tank. I have a couple of them that are on stands on the sand bed but the rest are on the rock work. Another thought is PAR being high; I keep mine between 75-150; I had one slightly higher in the tank and it wasn’t happy. Are you able to run an acclimation cycle with your lights if you introduce another torch? Might help to get them used to your lighting.

 

[Formulator]

They don’t need special water parameters. They hate certain conditions however. They won’t tolerate sand and they don’t like being hosted by clowns. I keep mine in 150par these days. But years ago when I ran halide/t5 I had a torch that grew phenomenal and it was at the top of my rockwork about 12” below a 716w fixture.

My guess is it was annoyed to death

Try a different color. Inexpensive one. Just to test the waters and see how it does before jumping into an expensive one.

To keep off the sand you can use a frag stand

I don’t have great pics of it but here’s a torch of mine on the stand, and to the right are other stands just in a different colors. I use these all over

Thanks for the insight. I actually just picked some of those stands up from PrintedReef, so I may try that if I can’t find a good spot in the rocks. While I have your attention - do torches do OK with shipping? I bought the previous one at my LFS, but might look for better deals online…

 

[Formulator]

I dont keep any torches directly on the sand, they don’t seem to like it at least in my tank. I have a couple of them that are on stands on the sand bed but the rest are on the rock work. Another thought is PAR being high; I keep mine between 75-150; I had one slightly higher in the tank and it wasn’t happy. Are you able to run an acclimation cycle with your lights if you introduce another torch? Might help to get them used to your lighting.

I suppose I could run the halides on a shorter duration and work up to my 6.5 hours over a week or so with the T5s supplementing. Good idea.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Thanks for the insight. I actually just picked some of those stands up from PrintedReef, so I may try that if I can’t find a good spot in the rocks. While I have your attention - do torches do OK with shipping? I bought the previous one at my LFS, but might look for better deals online…

I’ve had pretty good experiences with having them shipped. Once and only once someone clearly under packed and the poor torch tried to extend and one do the heads was lost in the process. But that has been a big exemption. In general they arrive happy and are open within an hour. Just my two cents.

 

[ClownSchool]

Torches can be tricky.

Some folks have no problems, others like me can keep even the most difficult SPS colonies happy but never have success with Hammers or Torches.

After losing half a dozen I decided that there are plenty of other beautiful coral out there so I spend my money on them instead.

I do have one survivor - no idea why he lives whilst others have all died.

For me, it’s gonis

 

[Formulator]

For me, it’s gonis

FWIW - my gonis finally started to thrive when I started dosing manganese.

 

[VintageReefer]

Thanks for the insight. I actually just picked some of those stands up from PrintedReef, so I may try that if I can’t find a good spot in the rocks. While I have your attention - do torches do OK with shipping? I bought the previous one at my LFS, but might look for better deals online…

All of my torches were shipped to me

Hammers are crappy shippers.
Torches do ok if they package well
Frogspawn seems to me most resilient

My grail the day I got it. The knicks next to it I got about 2 weeks prior

Current torches