Please help me with my torch coral!!

[Atom75]

**Warning this post is a tad long but ive tried to cover everything**

I am new to the hobby and have had my first coral, a torch, for about 3 months now. The tank is around 6-7 months old

Three times now i have observed one particular head (it has three) expelling a brown stringy substance. The first time it did this i believed it to just be pooping, as it recovers fully the next day, now though i think that it is expelling zooxanthellae, every time it does this it loses some colour.

I am really worried that i am going to lose the head of this coral to bleaching and eventually the whole thing and im not sure what to do to save it.

I don't yet have kits for calcium, KH or magnesium but will hopefully be getting those kits tomorrow, these are the readings i do have though...

Ammonia: 0 (API)

Nitrites: 0 (but it has a greenish tinge which is weird, API)

Nitrates: 0 (API)

pH: 8.2-8.4 (red sea)

Salinity: 1.024 (red sea refractometer), its a bit low i know, but was previously too high and im struggling to keep it perfect in my tiny tank.

Also running a kessil A160WE and a turbelle nanostream over/in a 10 gallon nano tank.

The only other things in the tank apart from the torch are 2 hermits (moulted twice each, seem to be doing fine), 1 turbo snail (1 died), and way too many amphipods (which came from the lfs frag tank, who told me not to dip the coral before i knew any better)

 

[Reef Bass]

Glad to hear you're picking up test kits for alk, ca and mag. When keeping hard corals, those are the key water quality parameters and if they're not in range, success is unlikely.

On the bright side, other than being possibly a bit pale, your torch doesn't look bad at the moment. I find torches are more sensitive members of Euphyllia.

 

[Pandagobyguy]

+1 ^^^^
Also amphipods are totally fine for the reef tank. I wouldnt treat for them

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[organism]

Looks like the head is getting a little more light than the rest, but it doesn't seem bad. My guess is it's just pooping, have you tried feeding it a tiny amount of pellet food?

 

[Atom75]

Have you tried feeding it a tiny amount of pellet food?

No i haven't ever fed it anything directly, should i try this?

Its colour has come back a little, but today i observed a different head pooping (or expelling zooxanthellae...) as well.

Is it normal for them to poop this frequently??

 

[Atom75]

I wouldnt treat for them

I don't plan on treating for them, but they don't even hide when the lights are on anymore and they seem to be constantly bothering my turbo snail

 

[Atom75]

if they're not in range, success is unlikely.

My LFS didn't have a magnesium test kit but...

Alkalinity is low (around 6 dKH) and calcium is at 400 (which is ok i think?). Could a low alkalinity be causing my torch to become pale?

 

[SouthFla]

I don't think it looks bad either, just a little pale...

I've been really struggling with pale corals as well. I have Nitrate and Phosphate levels that wouldn't register on Salifert, RedSea or Hanna kits. My water was just too clean, even with heavy feeding. So I started dosing KNO3 and KH2PO4 to increase NO3 and PO4. I've gotten them up to 1.0ppm and 0.02ppm respectively, and WOW what a difference in my Coral colors!! My torch has NEVER looked so nice.

Just something to keep in mind :beer:

 

[nereefpat]

I think it looks pretty good too.

You might want to watch that inside branch. If it's rubbing on rockwork, it can be damaged and develop infections.