Torch Coral not fully extending? help please

[Jason31]

I have a torch coral (4 heads) that i recently bought (3-4 weeks ago) and at first it was doing great. It was fully extended. however now the tentacles are shorter and fatter. Not sure exactly what this means and whether it needs more light, more flow or what? please help.

Tank parameters are all good:

Cal 440
Alk 9.5
Mg 1350
SG 1.024
Phos: 0
Nitrate: 0

The tank is a 30g JBJ and the torch is in the middle in height and placement.
Lighting is a Hydra 26 HD running at 35% (mostly blues)

Water flow is using the JBJ 30's stock pumps with the spin nozzles from IM. I also have a supplementental Koralia 240gph pump thats now pointed towards the torch for more flow (i'm testing if its a flow issue)

any help would be greatly appreciated...

[Jason31]

To add some more information to this... i have my lights on from 10AM to 9PM. the torch seems to come out more from 11-1PM and then starts retracting in the afternoon to nighttime...

[Lsufan]

Torches are one of the harder euphylia to keep at first. I'm not sure why it is but I suspect it is that they don't handle the changes to a new environment like other euphylia. Some just don't thrive & end up eighther dieing or looking like yours forever, in the system they are in for whatever reason. I have a torch, 3 hammers & 2 frogspawn that all thrive & grow like crazy but I went through two torches before the one I have now that lasted a month or two & died. Even with the others thriving.

I would check flow first to make sure u have enough but not to much. They need flow but u want them to gently sway back & forth & not sway violently. They definitely don't like getting beat up by flow. With only that powerhead I would think maybe not enough flow.

I'm not familiar with led, I run t5 & mh but 11 hrs seems like a lot of light time. I guess it would depend on how u are ramping up & down schedule if it is to much or not. Did u acclimate it properly? I find most euphylia can handle a wide range of lighting as long as they are acclimated to the higher light properly. If he comes out after the lights are on but shrivels the more light he relieves then it may be to much light for to long of a time.

Your params seem to be ok but if it's not flow, light or just a coral that doesn't like your system for whatever reason. Then it must be something in the water quality. How are u testing po4 & no3? If u have reliable test kits for them & u truly have low enough nutrients to read 0, then the tank may be to clean. How is your fish stocking list & how much are u feeding? Any algae in the tank?

[Ebone]

may be too much flow

[jstack]

placement torch's picky about flow other than that easy to keep. most likely the heads don't like being near rocks

[Jason31]

The tank is two months old and it's going through diatoms and green algae here and there. None however that's affecting the torches. Just bought a jebao pp4 so hopefully that will help with flow. We will see. Thanks for all the feedback. I also agree that it could be the rock. I'll try to adjust it so it's away from the rocks more too.

Thanks everyone. Will post again soon with the outcome of the changes.

[Mark9]

Originally Posted by Ebone

may be too much flow

Corals generally like flow.
My torch is in alot of flow, no issues.

[Ebone]

Does your torch enjoy direct flow... mine does not... all my euphyllia enjoy a good bit of flow but not a powerhead pointed at them... hence, could it be flow?

[CrayolaViolence]

My torch also likes a good amount of flow. But I don't have a branching torch, more of a wall torch. It's tentacles are thick with gold/yellow tips and a bright green base. I lay it on a rock simply because it's such an odd shape and really won't fit anywhere else.

[Jason31]

So my plan to figure out whats wrong is to make adjustments one at a time. The first adjustment is going to be moving the branch a tad so the heads are not so close to the rock. i'm going to give that a day or two to see if it has any benefit in the corals reaction.

second i'm going to add the Jebao PP4 to increase the flow and see if that helps.

Lastly i'm going to slowly increase my light schedule by 5% a week (nothing this week as i want to see if the other two help first).

i'll post my results in a day or two. Thanks again guys these have all been great suggestions for a beginner!

[Jason31]

So far so good



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[Lsufan]

Looks much better. I would definitely add the pp4 so u can have a little more random flow & don't have to point the small powerhead u do have straight at the coral. It's easier with two powerheads to get a more random flow. Once u get it installed u can play with the placement & settings on the pp4 to get it where u want.

I would try putting one on both ends with the 240 pouted more towards the surface & have the pp4 on else mode. If else mode is to powerful then try it in wave 1.

[Jason31]

Well the torch still isn't fully extending, although slightly better than before now that i moved him away from the rock. Once i get the PP4 in this week i'll give it a try and do what you said by putting the 240 for surface agitation and the PP4 somewhere pointed towards the front glass. Will give you guys another update later in the week

[Agostinone]

Is that Thomas the train I see? Awesome choice for non traditional aquascaping.

[Jason31]

Yea the tank was made for my 2 year old