torch dying

jwd007

New member
In only 4 days my beautiful torch coral polyps are dying one at a time. What could be causing this? Waters good, feeding reg. Other corals fine. I do have some alge growing on the base of my frogspawn should I be concerned about that? :( :(
 
Do you see why they are dying? Anything look funny about the coral? I lost one of my torch corals to Brown Jelly disease. It took out 5-6 branches one at a time within the course of four days. I didn't know at the time, but a Lugols dip should help with that.

In your case, check your water parameters. Might also want to try a Lugols dip too.
 
I'm not educated on brown jelly disease. I do see some yucky looking stuff stringing from the polyp. Where do I get lugols dip? My son who is away at college (marine biology) has entrusted me with his tank! I'm freeking out over this event. The torch was large and he will be crushed. As of this morning the torch is toast. I checked the water this morning. Nitrates are a little higher than usual. Could that be contributing? I will do a water change and check again. Thanks for your reply!!!
 
I believe Brown Jelly is a form of bacteria. When looking at an infected coral, there will be a mass of clear/brown jelly, sometimes with black specs in it, that starts to encompass the tissue. Lugols is a Kent Marine product and MIGHT be found in some LFS. It's essentially a very potent form of Iodine. The water condition could have something to do with it. What is the actual level of nitrates present? In your situation, the nitrates could be the cause or the effect of the coral dying. When keeping corals, the nitrate level should be under 10ppm. Optimally at 0 of course.

Check out this link.

http://www.ericborneman.com/Brown Jelly /Brown Jelly.html
 
Thank you so very much. I believe you are right, after careful examination the discription matches. I will get the Kent product and keep it on hand. We had a nitrate spike when my son decided to change the substrait. HE CAN'T STOP MESSING WITH THE TANK. he makes me crazy. He took out almost all of the old substraight and replaced with argonite sand. I swear it caused some real problems! Needless to say that is now over by 4 weeks but the nitrates are slow to come down. I have been doing water changes every 2-4 days. Its come down alot but is not to 0. I will keep working on it and thanks again for the information. I really appreciate it.
 
I checked your link. You are the greatest! That is EXACTLY what was all over the torch. You most likely saved my beautiful hammerhead not to mention many others. Thank you!!!!!!!
 
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