What's happening to my Torch Coral?

Nathan Nguyen · Mar 5, 2023

Hi Eveyone,

What is happening to my Torch in the photho below? Look like the tissue fell off. Is it a bad sign?

Salinity: 1.025
NO3: 8.2
PO4: 0.1
Mg: 1350

HankstankXXXL750 · Mar 5, 2023

I’d like to follow this discussion as I am struggling with torches myself. What’s your Alk and calcium? How old is the tank? How long have you had the torch.

Nathan Nguyen · Mar 5, 2023

HankstankXXXL750 said:
I’d like to follow this discussion as I am struggling with torches myself. What’s your Alk and calcium? How old is the tank? How long have you had the torch.

Alk is 8. i don't test calcium honestly. but i do 10% water change every week with RedSea salt to be sure the chemicals recovered. My tank is 4 months old and I have the torch about 2 weeks

Akreefnewguy · Mar 5, 2023

Nathan Nguyen said:
Alk is 8. i don't test calcium honestly. but i do 10% water change every week with RedSea salt to be sure the chemicals recovered. My tank is 4 months old and I have the torch about 2 weeks

Tank is possible not mature enough yet. Torches finicky up to a year of mature needed

HankstankXXXL750 · Mar 5, 2023

Akreefnewguy said:
Tank is possible not mature enough yet. Torches finicky up to a year of mature needed

I have to agree with this. This is my understanding. My big reef is just now 1 year old, but I set it by moving a 110 that was 9 months old into it last February. But did a reset to it to move out some softies and added a fair amount of coralife liferock. It appears I set my tank back with this remodel. Struggling now and it was really starting to glow and grow.

HankstankXXXL750 · Mar 5, 2023

Nathan Nguyen said:
Alk is 8. i don't test calcium honestly. but i do 10% water change every week with RedSea salt to be sure the chemicals recovered. My tank is 4 months old and I have the torch about 2 weeks

As already said, torches seem to need something that they just don’t get in a new tank. I have tried several in the last few months and they come in, look great and then just die.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 5, 2023

Nathan Nguyen said:
Hi Eveyone,

What is happening to my Torch in the photho below? Look like the tissue fell off. Is it a bad sign?

Salinity: 1.025
NO3: 8.2
PO4: 0.1
Mg: 1350

View attachment 3050993

This is tissue recession and one of the biggest problems I have seen beginner hobbyists have is failing to account for the calcium demand for these corals. If there is insufficient calcium in your aquarium water, these corals will not be able to make their coral skeleton. You should also never lift a torch coral out of the water if you can avoid it. You could tear the polyps, and torn polyps are prone to infection followed by necrosis

Torch require typical parameters including:
Temperature around 78 degrees
Specific gravity of about 1.025
Ph of about 8.2
Calcium level of about 400 ppm
Mag 1300-1350

Like most large polyp stony corals, a torch coral benefits from moderate water flow. The polyps will remain retracted and under-inflated if the water current is too fast because the large flowing polyps are prone to rip and tear in high or ultra-high current environments. Also, torches are a photosynthetic coral and has a relationship with symbiotic zooxanthellae that live inside its tissues which converts the light energy into sugar and feed the coral. be sure to feed them mysis occasionally and lastly, the best placement for torch coral is in a location that gets moderate water flow and moderate-intensity lighting.

Nathan Nguyen · Mar 6, 2023

HankstankXXXL750 said:
As already said, torches seem to need something that they just don’t get in a new tank. I have tried several in the last few months and they come in, look great and then just die.

wow this making me so worried. So what should i do now then?

Nathan Nguyen · Mar 6, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
This is tissue recession and one of the biggest problems I have seen beginner hobbyists have is failing to account for the calcium demand for these corals. If there is insufficient calcium in your aquarium water, these corals will not be able to make their coral skeleton. You should also never lift a torch coral out of the water if you can avoid it. You could tear the polyps, and torn polyps are prone to infection followed by necrosis

Torch require typical parameters including:
Temperature around 78 degrees
Specific gravity of about 1.025
Ph of about 8.2
Calcium level of about 400 ppm
Mag 1300-1350

Like most large polyp stony corals, a torch coral benefits from moderate water flow. The polyps will remain retracted and under-inflated if the water current is too fast because the large flowing polyps are prone to rip and tear in high or ultra-high current environments. Also, torches are a photosynthetic coral and has a relationship with symbiotic zooxanthellae that live inside its tissues which converts the light energy into sugar and feed the coral. be sure to feed them mysis occasionally and lastly, the best placement for torch coral is in a location that gets moderate water flow and moderate-intensity lighting.

Thank you for these helpful information! I never lift them out of the water since i first got them. I also put them in the location to get moderate water flow and moderate-intensity lighting as well. And I'm feeding them ReefRoids and AB+. I loved them to much and also did a lot of research before I bought. I will need to test Calcium now. Please let me know if there are some other important things to keep them.

HankstankXXXL750 · Mar 6, 2023

Nathan Nguyen said:
wow this making me so worried. So what should i do now then?

I think @vetteguy53081 covered it pretty good. Make sure it isn’t in too much flow where it can get torn, check your Calcium levels, maybe target feed it some mysis and maybe some coral food (I use Aquavitro fuel amino acids).

I have dipped corals with damages and some revive some don’t. I use SeaChem Reef Dip for this and follow bottle directions.

Nathan Nguyen · Mar 6, 2023

HankstankXXXL750 said:
I think @vetteguy53081 covered it pretty good. Make sure it isn’t in too much flow where it can get torn, check your Calcium levels, maybe target feed it some mysis and maybe some coral food (I use Aquavitro fuel amino acids).

I have dipped corals with damages and some revive some don’t. I use SeaChem Reef Dip for this and follow bottle directions.

Thank you! I will test Calcium to see if that’s the reason.

Spare time · Mar 6, 2023

Do you have the red sea salt or the red sea coral pro salt?

Hurricane Aquatics · Mar 6, 2023

Pick up some Red Sea Magnesium and get your levels to 1500. Torches love a higher mag level.

That torch is showing some brown in the skeleton. If it were me, I would dip it in some Lugol's Iodine. Get you a little Tupperware container or something and add some tank water and about a dropper full of Iodine. Let it stay for about 10 minutes.

eqbal9947 · Mar 6, 2023

After your parameters are good OBV. after that make sure your PAR isnt high. I cooked a few torches when i was starting out. Move it to you sandbed and see if that helps. Make sure your flow isnt too much either.
Try and elevate your mag to like 1450 ish area is you can. Helped my torches alot.

Spare time · Mar 6, 2023

Hurricane Aquatics said:
Pick up some Red Sea Magnesium and get your levels to 1500. Torches love a higher mag level.

That torch is showing some brown in the skeleton. If it were me, I would dip it in some Lugol's Iodine. Get you a little Tupperware container or something and add some tank water and about a dropper full of Iodine. Let it stay for about 10 minutes.

Saying torches love a higher mag level doesn't seem to make sense to me. I doubt its a limiting factor in any tank at levels of the wild or the default salt mixes. What would higher magnesium possibly do?