My torch is jelly

[sooju]

I bought my first LPS coral (a torch) two weeks ago and overnight it turned to brown jelly. What am I doing wrong?

Here are my water parameters:
temp 78, SG 1.023, pH 7.8
ammon/nitrites 0, nitrates 10
KH 7, CA 450, Mg 1170

My LFS confirmed that the bucket of Seachem Reef Salt I had was low for magnesium and they credited me for the bucket. I've been dosing daily to get it up to 1,300 and doing water changes with a new bucket of salt (which, incidentally, reads too high for alkalinity and calcium, the LFS is going to look into it).

The tank is an Oceanic 55G tall with a 4 x 65w Coralife light fixture (2 10,000K and 2 actinic bulbs. Is this enough light?

Over the last two weeks the coral didn't look too happy, sometimes not fully extending or looking shriveled. I tried moving it around the tank to find a spot that looked like medium flow.

Is it likely an issue of light or flow or low magnesium, or could it have come with a disease? I called the LFS and they said to check phosphate levels. I don't have a phosphate test kit, do I really need one?

I'm very frustrated. Please help.

 

[roka64]

Can you get a pic? It sounds like brown jelly disease. I'll have to let the more experienced give better advice.

 

[melosu58]

It does not have to be water quality problems. Some things that I have seen cause it are too much flow on it damaging the heads or fish being too aggressive with it mostly clowns trying to host with it. Is either one of these happening in your tank? You`ll need to break off the infected heads and discard or it will spread in the tank.

 

[sooju]

I already pulled it out of the tank. The only other corals in there are two zoanthids. Can they get brown jelly disease, if that's what this is?

Granted it's only been two weeks, but I have not seen the clowns show any interest in the torch. Nor have I seen any snails or shrimp touching it. I acclimated it for two hours, adding 2 oz. of tank water to the bag every 15 minutes.

The first spot I put it looked like medium flow to me but was too low in the tank and I was worried it wasn't enough light. The second spot was higher in the tank so the light was better but there didn't seem to be enough flow. The final spot was high in the tank and looked like good flow. Nothing directly aimed at the coral but enough movement to get the fronds or whatever they're called moving.

If there's not enough light, what are the signs? Color fading?

And if there's too much flow, what are the signs? Not opening up fully?

 

[melosu58]

You dont want the coral getting blasted. They need moderate flow.

 

[sooju]

They weren't getting blasted, the flow was indirect and it looked like "medium flow" to me.

Please help me figure out what I did wrong! I'm afraid to replace the coral until I know what happened.

 

[melosu58]

What fish are in your tank? You dont have any that would nip at the coral. I had some dwarf angels that killed a hammer coral a long while back.

 

[sooju]

My current tank occupants are as follows:

fish: 3 false perc clowns, 2 bangaii cardinals, 1 condei wrasse, 1 blue spotted jawfish
shrimp: 1 blood, 2 peppermints
crabs: 1 sally lightfoot, 2 emeralds, a handful of blue and scarlet hermits
snails: 15 trochus, 7 nassarius
other: 1 brittle star

 

[Ziggy953]

It very well may not have been anything you did. The coral could have been diseased when you bought it and it just took time for it to show up.

Have you noticed your clowns messing with the coral at all? They could be the reason too. Also 3 clowns is probably not a good idea in the same tank.

 

[sooju]

Also 3 clowns is probably not a good idea in the same tank.

I know - I bought the tank in September and the three clowns came with it. They all seem to get along fine so I hate to break them up at this point. They've been together for 6 or 7 years now.

 

[melosu58]

I`m running out of guesses. Let us know if you see anything with your other corals.

 

[Ziggy953]

Same here.

Has the coral been knocked over and onto the sand at any point?