Help with torch!

[spielco]

Need some help here. I’ve started a new tank. 2mo old now and I’m losing my torch’s slowly.

Looks like multiple heads are bailing and I’m not positive why and looking for help.

Noticed about a week ago a couple heads getting closed up and decided to inspect a little more. Found there was a couple flat worms on the base. I removed them and dipped them all that day. Put them back into the tank and placed them down on the bottom.

I haven’t seen much if not worse change. I don’t believe any of ky parameters are way off but also not an expert and just trying to save some corals

I did a water change today and hoping to see some happiness come back.

Any help?

 

[ThisIsTheWay]

0 phosphate (PO4) and 2 nitrate (NO3) are low, your phosphate bottomed out which is not good. I'd suggest feeding a bit more to bring phosphate up to detectible levels. I believe the generally recommended levels are about 0.03 PO4 and about 10 NO3.

I'd start with that and then see how your corals react and go from there.

 

[chip shop]

feed tank more,water might be to sterile also it’s a new tank I’d have waited a while and let it settle before adding torches

 

[crazyfishmom]

As others have noted your nutrients are low… beyond that it looks like you have lots of Cyano on the sand bed and on some of the corals suggesting that the balance in your tank might be off. Torches can be very sensitive to alkalinity and nutrient swings. How closely do you monitor your alkalinity? What’s your daily swing? What does the iodine in your tank look like?

 

[spielco]

As others have noted your nutrients are low… beyond that it looks like you have lots of Cyano on the sand bed and on some of the corals suggesting that the balance in your tank might be off. Torches can be very sensitive to alkalinity and nutrient swings. How closely do you monitor your alkalinity? What’s your daily swing? What does the iodine in your tank look like?

I do have plenty of cyano and have noticed the low phosphates and nitrates for about a week an half. I started to feed more and brought my po4 to .1 and nitrates 5

I didn’t feed any reef roids which was the coral food I used to raise the po4 for the past 3 days and ended up back at 0.00

My dkh has stayed between 8.7-9.2 for the past month.

 

[spielco]

0 phosphate (PO4) and 2 nitrate (NO3) are low, your phosphate bottomed out which is not good. I'd suggest feeding a bit more to bring phosphate up to detectible levels. I believe the generally recommended levels are about 0.03 PO4 and about 10 NO3.

I'd start with that and then see how your corals react and go from there.

It seems like the tank is depleted the phosphates and nitrates at a fast rate. Do I just keep feeding more or dose something?

My other tank has never had any issues of low nutrient level so this is complexly new to me

 

[crazyfishmom]

I might consider dosing phosphate and nitrate either using neophos and Neonitro or some of the DIY recipes. With that amount of Cyano, there’s something maybe going on with low flow in certain areas of the tank as well.

 

[spielco]

I might consider dosing phosphate and nitrate either using neophos and Neonitro or some of the DIY recipes. With that amount of Cyano, there’s something maybe going on with low flow in certain areas of the tank as well.

I have plenty of power to give more flow. I’ve backed off the flow due to aggressive portions hitting the corals. Seemed that they weren’t as happy with the amount. I feel like I’m hitting ll areas when I dose AB+ to see where its movement takes it.

I’ll look into dosing those two parts.

I’d say the cyano has been around for about 2 weeks where I was dosing macrobacter 7 for the recommended dose. That has conepleted and this is where I’m standing.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I have plenty of power to give more flow. I’ve backed off the flow due to aggressive portions hitting the corals. Seemed that they weren’t as happy with the amount. I feel like I’m hitting ll areas when I dose AB+ to see where its movement takes it.

I’ll look into dosing those two parts.

I’d say the cyano has been around for about 2 weeks where I was dosing macrobacter 7 for the recommended dose. That has conepleted and this is where I’m standing.

Consider Cyanoclean bacteria. It takes 3-4 weeks to completely eliminate the Cyano but it’s a natural way of managing it. It did wonders in one of my tanks.

 

[ThisIsTheWay]

I do have plenty of cyano and have noticed the low phosphates and nitrates for about a week an half. I started to feed more and brought my po4 to .1 and nitrates 5

I didn’t feed any reef roids which was the coral food I used to raise the po4 for the past 3 days and ended up back at 0.00

My dkh has stayed between 8.7-9.2 for the past month.

Phosphate will bind to rock to equalize with tank water. If you've had consistently low PO4 and you raise PO4 in the water your rock will absorb a lot of it to try and maintain an equilibrium. I suspect this is why your phosphate levels drop rapidly.

To remedy this you'll need to consistently feed extra for a while until PO4 stabilizes at detectible levels.
You could dose phosphate but since your nitrates are low as well I think food would be the preferable method.
I had this issue with my tank and I think it took about a week of extra feeding before my PO4 levels stayed elevated.

 

[spielco]

Consider Cyanoclean bacteria. It takes 3-4 weeks to completely eliminate the Cyano but it’s a natural way of managing it. It did wonders in one of my tanks.

Thank you. I think I went the wrong way and did microbacter 7 and caused lower nutrients making this problem?

I’ll check it. Thank you!

 

[Fishn28]

What app is that with the tank parameters?

 

[spielco]

Phosphate will bind to rock to equalize with tank water. If you've had consistently low PO4 and you raise PO4 in the water your rock will absorb a lot of it to try and maintain an equilibrium. I suspect this is why your phosphate levels drop rapidly.

To remedy this you'll need to consistently feed extra for a while until PO4 stabilizes at detectible levels.
You could dose phosphate but since your nitrates are low as well I think food would be the preferable method.
I had this issue with my tank and I think it took about a week of extra feeding before my PO4 levels stayed elevated.

So I fed extra reef roids and it jumped up to .3 then the following day .13 then I stopped feeding it and bottomed out.

Do I stop the roids and just pick up the fish food amounts to try to raise it with out such a drastic jump

 

[crazyfishmom]

So I fed extra reef roids and it jumped up to .3 then the following day .13 then I stopped feeding it and bottomed out.

Do I stop the roids and just pick up the fish food amounts to try to raise it with out such a drastic jump

Phosphates always spike the day after feeding reef roids. The key is to understand how your tank handles it. You can certainly use reef roids as an avenue to keep phosphates up but you have to be willing to test daily after feeding to understand how quickly it is going down. Eventually your rocks will equilibrate and you’ll be able to dial back the testing but this is what happens initially.

 

[spielco]

What app is that with the tank parameters?

It’s the AquaticLog app.

 

[Bruttall]

Torches, especially wild torches, as in NON AQUA-CULTURED torches do not last for me. I have never been able to keep one more than a few weeks, or a month at best. They just retract, and then turn into a brown sludge as they melt.

If you paid less than $100 you got a wild caught most likely. There are a lot of stores that sell those and I know a lot of people that have bad luck keeping them. Not just me.

 

[chip shop]

Just need to get flow and lighting right if everything else is staple,I’ve found that Aussie torches like more light had them up with acros and thrived

 

[spielco]

Torches, especially wild torches, as in NON AQUA-CULTURED torches do not last for me. I have never been able to keep one more than a few weeks, or a month at best. They just retract, and then turn into a brown sludge as they melt.

If you paid less than $100 you got a wild caught most likely. There are a lot of stores that sell those and I know a lot of people that have bad luck keeping them. Not just m

Just need to get flow and lighting right if everything else is staple,I’ve found that Aussie torches like more light had them up with acros and thrive

Thts where I think I’m struggling also. My other tank doesn’t run ai primes and I think I have the spectrum wrong for the tank.

I’ve had them for about a year now and have lost a head or two but haven’t had an issue like this before.

 

[spielco]

Just need to get flow and lighting right if everything else is staple,I’ve found that Aussie torches like more light had them up with acros and thrived

I’ve tried two different files provided by the ai website and the Acros are growing but don’t eeem to have full color and now the torches are receding so assume lighting and low nutrient is the issues…?

 

[chip shop]

Try feeding them and see if there’s a difference in a few weeks if you’re nutrients are low