recessed torch coral

[BAJABOWLER]

I recently(nov 05) combined 2 tank (60 & 90 Gal) into one (270 Gal). I have a giant colony of torch coral that I brought over from both tanks. Ever since the 2nd month the torch coral has receeded back into its skeleton.

I split the colony all over the tank to see if it like more light, current, etc with out any improvement. The water parameters are perfect 1.025 salt, 420 cal, 9.6DKH, 0 phospahtes, 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 0 amonia, 1280 magnesium, 4ppm boron, 0.06 ppm iodine.

The strange part is the torch has grown about 1/2" in this state.

This recession has hit other corals as well. I some zoathids and another LPS coral( unknown name) similar to a flowpot. Both with recesses polys.

I think it must be a fungal or bacterial infection. Every once in a while the polys start to expand, but return to there previous state.

I have SPS corals, star polys and a candy cane corals that are doing great.

Please let me know what I should try next?

 

[David Grigor]

When you say recedding, do you mean the tissue has seperated from the skeleton or just not fluffy. When the tissue itself has receeded from the skeleton while it can recover many times will keep getting worse.

While everything is just a guess being just a thread and never seen your tank, probably lots of things have changed moving to a 270g. Lighting probably isn't the same, flow probably different. Tons of water quality things have changed, I'm sure skimmer and DOM in the water column aren't the same as before.

Any observations to when it does try to expand. As in does this happen early when just actinics are one then when the daylights are on it pulls back or maybe towards the end of the lighting cycle. If so perhaps, reducing the photoperiod of the daylights might encourage to expand.

have you tried to move it into lower flow and lower light area perhaps even shaded ? Could be that wasn't acclimiated to the new lighting very well and need to move it down.

 

[BAJABOWLER]

Lack of Fluffiness is the best desciption for it.
I'll try moving them around in the tank to see if there is any change. Part of the colony is located in a darker area (in between the metal halides), while some is closer to directly under the lamp. Both colonies look the same. I have 4 250W Double ened halides for lighting as well as a 2 96W power compacts for sun up and down. I'm running a dolphin 3700 pump with 4 3/4" seaswirls and 2 quite one 3000 for chiller and sump returns.

What about dipping in tea tree oil or iodine? This might rule out fungal and bacteria questions.

 

[DesertBandits]

Kind of a simple answer: when a coral like torch grows for a long period of time it will grow in such a way that it becomes very tied to the lighting and current of its position. When a large coral is moved into a totaly different lighting/current situation it will likely not adapt well; however small pieces are much more flexible to adapt to their new lighting/ current scheme.

 

[kahunakatz]

While the shape of the colony does grow to the environment that the coral is in, I think that this is more true for SPS. Here I suspect that the problem is too much light. If the light is higher that would explain better growth for some coral while others like the torch can not adapt as well to the higher light. Light is beneficial for the zoox while the corals strugle to adapt to the light and heat of the tropics. Torch corals typically do not appreciate anything more than medium light.

Best Wishes,
Barry