Torch producing mucus and retracting

[SH4D0W]

Hi All,

I am hoping you will be able to help me out here, I am fairly new to the salty side having taken onboard my sisters established 220ltr tank.
I have had the tank up and running nice and stable for some months now and i introduced my first LPS this month, i bought a Gonipora Frag and a nice looking Torch Frag with one head that was splitting to two.

Up until last night both looked to be thriving and getting noticeably larger, i got home from work last night and took a look in my tank; all ok, went upstairs to get my camera as my Regal has something wrong and wanted to take some photos... when i got back to my tank i noticed my Torch had fully retracted and was producing a brown slime/mucus and just didnt look happy, i kept my eye on things, the Regal was eating the slime/mucus!!!

I turned off all powerheads and both filters whilst i fed the fish, i then fed some Red Sea A+B coral food, 30 minutes later the Torch was slowly opening up again but it had a wide gaping mouth.

When it was splitting it looked like it was two completely different heads but last night it looked like it was all one.

Is this normal? do i need to worry?

My tank:
AquaOne 220Ltr
4x 39w T5's (1x 50:50, 1x 14k Marine White, 1x Royal Blue and 1x Sunlight (will be changing to another 14k)
AquaOne 1050 filter
Eheim 2229 wet & dry
JBL 18W UV Filter

Results from 1 week ago:
PH - 8.2/8.4
CA - 440
MG - 760 (12 droplets = 1200 - CA @ 440 == 760?)
Si02 - 0
NH4 - 0
O2 - 5
KH - 8 (8 drops?)
NO2 - 0.075 (between 0.05 and 1)
NO3 - 50
PO4 - 1.2
CU - 0
Salt - 1.022 or 27
Temp - 26.1C

Results from two nights ago:
Temp - 24.9 (i set my heater to 25 and not 26)
PH - 8.2
KH - 9
NO3 - 30
PO4 - 0.8
Salt - 1.023

This was a few days ago:

 

[chrisfont23]

It could be pooping... i cannot tell from the pic. If not....hmmmmm. Is it possible ur lights are simply too powerful? You should always put a new coral at the sandbed level regardless of type to acclimate it. Try lowering it and see if that helps. Secondly, what about flow? All of my Euphylia like low to medium indirect flow. I would aim for about 15-20x turnover for this type of coral or tank. Lastly is it possible something is messing with it. Maybe a crab or another type of CUC ?

On your params...NO3 is a little high. I would target 15-20 for LPS minimally with the lower of the two preferable. PO4 should also be nearly undetectable. And finally, I prefer all of my tanks at a little higher salinity. 1.025 does it for me.

 

[wildman926]

it could be pooping...

x2

 

[agruetz]

Do a large water change if your nitrates are 30 - 50 ppm. Also your MG looks way low it should be 1300 - 1390 or so typically.

 

[SH4D0W]

thanks for your help and advice guys.

I have been doing regular water changes and keeping on top of things that way, i do not have any clean up crew other than a few turbo snails.

I have recently vac'ed my substrate to try and lower the perams a little more, i have added some Phosphate remover to my filter which i have also cleaned this past week, so... i will do another water change this weekend, is it advisable to do a water test before my change? or just do the tests an hour or so after it?