Can't keep Euphyllia happy for the life of me!

[GroktheCube]

Everything else in the tank (a 120 setup ~10 months ago) is thriving. Various SPS, favia, favites, acans, mycedium, pec alicornis, galaxae, etc are all doing wonderfully. Eating well, good expansion, fast growth.

About 4 months ago, I added a torch. A few weeks after being added to the tank, it shriveled up. I've moved it to a few different spots with varying levels of flow (and left it for 2-3 weeks in each spot) to no avail. Recently, one of its three polyps has gone away completely.

I keep my water at 78*F. As of today, water chemistry looks like this: 1.026 salinity, 8.1 (night) - 8.4 pH, 7.0 alk, 420 cal, 1300mg. <1ppm nitrate, 0.04 PO4. I run a 4 bulb ATI T5 fixture, along with 2 48" buildmyled.com LED strips.

Anyone have any ideas? I feed the tank pretty heavily (averaging 3-4 cubes frozen per day + reef chilli + freeze dried phyto + zoe and selcon), but he's never shown interest in food.

I'm a bit frustrated. Everything else in the tank is doing great, including LPS that my reading suggests have similar care requirements.

 

[Reefer54]

HOw tall is the tank

I would reccomend just putting it on the bottom for a bit in low to medium flow. have you tried target feeding direct to it, but not in the oral cavity exactly

 

[GroktheCube]

It's a 4'x2'x2' 120. He is currently on the bottom towards the back in one of the lower flow and lower light areas. I always shoot some food at him when I'm feeding my corals, but I've never seen him capture any.

 

[justthewife]

My Euphyllia likes more light and medium flow. I keep him in the middle of my 90 gallon and have LED lights with a glass top on my tank.

 

[GroktheCube]

Hmm, I may try moving him to a spot with a bit more light and flow. Nothing to lose I suppose.

 

[charliet21]

I would try to raise alk to 8 and see if it perks up.

 

[Maxxumless]

Euphyllia is one of my favorite corals, especially ancora. I've followed Borneman's advice and kept my temperatures a little higher (80), but everything else is pretty standard - 1.026, 8dKH, 420Ca... They're fickle about water more than motion or lighting and are good indicators of overall water quality - they make for good early warning corals. If you don't run some type of carbon, I'd pick up ChemiPure Elite. I run it in every tank with euphyllia. Just my 2 cents.

 

[txaggie09]

I'd keep it in a darker spot. You have a lot of light. I have the same 120 with 2 12,000k build my led strips. I have a torch on the bottom of the tank and it is doing pretty good. It is protected a bit from flow by the rock work but still gets a decent amount.

 

[charliet21]

Its not flow or lighting. I have 2x 150 over 55g, torches can handle a fair amount of flow. U need to figure out ur water, do u hav a mixed reef?
All corals are not the same. They all like different alk and ph. U need to find a happy meduim,and i would run som carbon just to see if there is a chemical warfair going on. All else fails,wc always helps

 

[Randy15]

I had issues with torchs while carbon dosing. If carbon dosing cut back slowly and see what happen. I have since stopped and have increased cleaning regiments and WC's with great results in all of my SPS and LPS.

 

[GroktheCube]

I've been a bit lazy about changing GAC often enough, so I'll do that today. There are a lot of different corals, so I can't rule out chemical warfare that's hitting the torch harder than everything else.

I do run biopellets (at about 3/4ths recommended amount), so I may try tuning those back a little if nothing else seems to help. Thanks for all the advice!

 

[Empty Bottles]

Carbon dosing (biopellets in your instance) can have a detrimental effect on corals, but if I had to bet on it I would go with the alk being a little low. I'd also see how he reacts to more light and more flow. If it likes the flow you should know in a couple of days.

 

[GroktheCube]

He looks SLIGHTLY better now that he's in a slightly brighter, slightly higher flow area, with a cup of fresh ROX in the reactor.

I'm a bit hesitant to dial back the biopellets too much. I feed heavily, and it seems like theyve helped to keep dissolved nutrient levels quite low. Their output is plumbed directly into the skimmer (aquamaxx em300), so I don't think too much gunk is getting into the tank.

I may inch the alk up towards 8 to see if that helps, but I tend to like keeping it at near NSW levels.

 

[apikeatemytoe]

move him higher up in tank

 

[charliet21]

Lps likes dirty water

 

[QPWithCheeseQP]

Euphyllia are so strange, I have 2 torches and a hammer and my small torch and hammer are doing very well, good tissue growth and the hammer is splitting like crazy but the big torch colony is receeding... theyre all 3 in the lower part of the tank with gentle flow but the big torch just hasnt ever been happy in my tank and im at a total loss as to why it so unhappy when my other euphyllia and even my other LPS are doing great. Theyre just weird like that I guess.

 

[GroktheCube]

It's looking a bit better in its new spot, but still far from happy. I may roll the dice on moving it to an even higher spot with more to-and-fro type alternating flow.

 

[Tcook]

I kept mine in the upper 1/3 of the tank under 250 w 14K, moderate flow.

 

[GroktheCube]

Just thought I'd update.

After some advice in this thread and in PMs, I moved the torch higher up in the tank. I placed it in a spot that had somewhat heavier, but more intermittent/alternating flow, and got a good bit more light.

It is now doing much better. Tentacles have gotten substantially longer, it is open almost all the time, and its color is steadily improving.

 

[erndog1001]

Euphyllia is one of my favorite corals, especially ancora. I've followed Borneman's advice and kept my temperatures a little higher (80), but everything else is pretty standard - 1.026, 8dKH, 420Ca... They're fickle about water more than motion or lighting and are good indicators of overall water quality - they make for good early warning corals. If you don't run some type of carbon, I'd pick up ChemiPure Elite. I run it in every tank with euphyllia. Just my 2 cents.

Not to get OT But i just read a few of his articles and I do like the way he thinks!