Golden (orange) Torch Coral..pics

[Rockster2599]

Damn it!
Mine never got over shipping and was lost to brown Jelly this morning:angryfire:
Im getting a credit but thats not the point for me.

 

[Grandlotus]

My golden torch has some brown color along with the golden looked on the arms with purplish tips.
Any ideas on how to get this guy to color up? I just got the coral a day ago.

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

I found with higher nitrates and lower light there is more purple/brown.

 

[maroonman]

not the best picture

 

[Grandlotus]

I found with higher nitrates and lower light there is more purple/brown.

Thank you. This could be because of the tank that she came from.
Great bit of information!
:dance:

 

[mcfa2403]

My gold torch is my favorite piece, its so hard to capture how amazing these look

still trying to figure out dslr especially with leds

 

[Taipan]

Here are my contributions.....



If you look closely at the following pics; you can see it's spawning. I was fortunate to come home one day and had a camera available and close by to capture it.

 

[toky916]

Here is my Aussie gold

1 1/2 heads <a href="http://s836.photobucket.com/user/toky916/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image-6.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i836.photobucket.com/albums/zz284/toky916/Mobile%20Uploads/image-6.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo image-6.jpg"/></a>

 

[mcfa2403]

Very nice Taipan, it must be very happy to spawn! I'm glad to see that I am not the only one that love these corals

 

[toky916]

There by far my most favorite coral. What do you guys feed yours ?

 

[nystang]

I feed them with mysis shrimps. They always seam to be very hungry.

 

[maroonman]

Came home to A Spawning Gold Torch .

 

[CqSmrtazz]

Hello to all, beautiful pics. My wife has soon to not have a gold torch. It looked fine this morning and when she came home this afternoon, the flesh from 3 heads all but gone. it's like it just melted away or fell off. What would cause this?

220gal MIXED REEF
50gal water change monthly.
Monthly test ran:
Cal. 500-600+ppm (tried everything, cant get it down. LFS has same test results)
Alk. 13-15dKH
SG. 1.023+/-.001
Temp. 75.5
pH 7.96-8.23
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 10.0-60.0
Ammonia 0.0
Phosphate usually at 0.25
I run high capacity GFO when PO4 starts rising.

Cal reactor/co2 been off all year, no dosing of any kind. I always use Reef crystals but been doing 10 gal per day water changes with Instant Ocean for a total of 150 gal.

 

[gatsby174]

Hello to all, beautiful pics. My wife has soon to not have a gold torch. It looked fine this morning and when she came home this afternoon, the flesh from 3 heads all but gone. it's like it just melted away or fell off. What would cause this?

220gal MIXED REEF
50gal water change monthly.
Monthly test ran:
Cal. 500-600+ppm (tried everything, cant get it down. LFS has same test results)
Alk. 13-15dKH
SG. 1.023+/-.001
Temp. 75.5
pH 7.96-8.23
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 10.0-60.0
Ammonia 0.0
Phosphate usually at 0.25
I run high capacity GFO when PO4 starts rising.

Cal reactor/co2 been off all year, no dosing of any kind. I always use Reef crystals but been doing 10 gal per day water changes with Instant Ocean for a total of 150 gal.

I would guess that your sky high alk is what did it in. You need to find a way to let the Alk go down. Good luck!

 

[Reef Frog]

I would guess that your sky high alk is what did it in. You need to find a way to let the Alk go down. Good luck!

Agree. Nutrients are high, salinity is on the low end for LPS, pH is wandering a bit, and Ca is indeed high. Do you trust your tests? Are you jsing good quality tests or entry level kits? And turning a GFO reactor on & off willy nilley could also prove problematic. If PO4 is really .25ppm you need to run GFO 24/7. Are you dosing? GL.

 

[CqSmrtazz]

Thanks for the replies. I always kept my salinity on the lower end, no particular reason. I figured as long as it was within range, I was ok. Didn't know it made a difference on corals.
I use Salifert kits and double check "OFF" readings with API tests and if not satisfied, I take a sample to the LFS that also uses Salifert kits. I replace all kits yearly regardless of the expiration date.
As for my GFO reactor, I do run it 24/7 until I get a 0 test result, then run it an extra week. Media is changed weekly when in use.
PH always drops at night when lights go out.
Stopped dosing 2 part when I got a calc reactor. Turned that off around Feb 2013 when my calc and alk went off the chart.
I can raise the Salinity with a strong salt slurry, but what can I do to lower the ALK and CAL?

 

[mcfa2403]

Looking at your ph range it looks like you are chasing your ph, if so that could be the cause of the sky high alk (buffers raise alk). I would say 20-30 percent water change once a week and let it come down naturally.

 

[mcfa2403]

Also reef crystals has a higher calcium content than the instant ocean salt. How many fish and what are you feeding? The nitrates and phosphates seem pretty high for that size tank and level of equipment/testing and dramatic ph shifts at night I would think indicate some sort of algae/bacteria respiration (maybe I'm just making that up). Also those dramatic shifts can be stressful for your coral. I would say your best bet is to normalize your parameters naturally: avoid overfeeding/overcrowding, don't stress over calc instead normalize alk 7-9 range, if you run reactors do it on a consistent schedule, and do routine water changes preferably the same day once a week. Also make sure that lighting and flow in that area of the tank have not changed. In my experience coral can adapt to many environments as long as it is a consistent one

 

[trinidiver]

Hello to all, beautiful pics. My wife has soon to not have a gold torch. It looked fine this morning and when she came home this afternoon, the flesh from 3 heads all but gone. it's like it just melted away or fell off. What would cause this?

220gal MIXED REEF
50gal water change monthly.
Monthly test ran:
Cal. 500-600+ppm (tried everything, cant get it down. LFS has same test results)
Alk. 13-15dKH
SG. 1.023+/-.001
Temp. 75.5
pH 7.96-8.23
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 10.0-60.0
Ammonia 0.0
Phosphate usually at 0.25
I run high capacity GFO when PO4 starts rising.

Cal reactor/co2 been off all year, no dosing of any kind. I always use Reef crystals but been doing 10 gal per day water changes with Instant Ocean for a total of 150 gal.

Your Alk is really to high, but how come the huge fluctuation on the Nitrates.

 

[CqSmrtazz]

I stopped using reef crystals and switch to instant ocean in hopes of getting the calc levels down. 1st water change was 50 gallons once a month for 2 months, then 10 gallons weekly for 2 months and then 10 gallon a day for a week. still cant get calc and alk back on the chart.
15 fish, the biggest being a fox face. I feed once in the morn and once in the evening. Frozen brine, Mysis and emerald entrée. 1 cube of each for both feedings. The wife feeds the corals a mixture of several different things, 3 times a week.
About 2 1/2 to 3 months ago I replaced metal halides with 3 Radions, (did the preprogramed acclimation) other than color, seen no other changes in coral.
Nothing else has changed.
On a side note, I recently had an adjacent room completely gutted (lath and plaster) I did notice some plaster dust on the water surface. Could that have had any type of effect?

not sure on the nitrates, maybe over feeding? although I didn't know that I was supposed to pull caulerpa out on a regular basis.