Half bleached torch coral
 

Hey everyone! I was wondering if I could get some advice from some reef experts here. I bought a Australian torch coral frag about 4 months ago which I ended up half bleaching when I capped my tank with acrylic while on vacation to help with evaporation. It’s stayed half bleached for several months but is still alive and the tentacles expand nicely when the lights are on. I’m just starting to notice that some of the tentacles are showing some pigmentation returning. My question is what can I do to help expedite the recovery. I have tried feeding with mysis and brine shrimp but my cleaner shrimps just steal the food from the coral which I think must create stress since it’s getting poked at in the process. I was reading online that maybe zooplankton might also be an option and my shrimps won’t be able to feed on it. Will the torch benefit from feeding zooplankton?

Tank parameters are dialed in. 35 ppt, 0 ammonia, about 5 ppm nitrate, no trace of phosphate (although using salifert test kit so low end not clear), mg at 1300, kh at 8, calcium at 400ish, temp at 77.5 (next step up on therm raises temp to 79.5).

Coral is now in a par 50-75ish area. Don’t want to blast it with more light, but I might be wrong on that.

Any help on best recovery method would be great. I can put in a quarantine and feed it silly if that is the best option, though the lighting will be different and less strong.

Thanks!!!


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I would just leave it be. I never feed my torch or hammer and they grown wait too big over the years to the point I have to break them to move to different part of the reef because they were up again the front glass