no luck with odd colored LPS's

[mvallee]

might be an odd question but is there a difference in hardiness between the non green LPS's and the green LPS's?

I bought most of my corals from folks breaking down their tanks and the green coral's' hammer, frog spawn and torch are doing amazing.
The Purple torch and gold hammer which were going to be show pieces that I got from the same tank as the frogspawn and green hammer just did not do good. The gold hammer disintegrated and the purple torch is on it's way out.

I may have over handled them as they were some of the first corals but no more than the rest.

Everything else in my tank is thriving, Zoas, Paly's, monitpora, Rics, toadstools, GSP a birdsnest 3 brains even the BTA looks real good to me.

Before I invest anymore in different colors of hammers and torches just wondering others experience, was it just bad luck or normal.

I did do an iodine dip on the corals once they started showing signs of illness following the directions on the bottle the gold hammer never came back out and the purple torch is still receding with one head completely dead with the skeleton exposed and the rest seem to be on there way out.

- Tank is 180 gallon
- 7 months old and stable
- 15-20% water changes weekly with reef crystals
- 55 sump with a 1250 return and a smimmer rated for a 300 gallon tank
- plenty of flow with 2 jebao (25 and 60) pumps hooked up to wave makers and an 800gph koralia
- dosing with B-Ionic and Kent M to keep the numbers up
- temp 76-78 does seem to fluctuate that much in the heat, chiller is on my list to purchase
- PH 8.3
- salinity 1.026
- ca 450
- alk 10.9
- mag 1300
- ammonia and nitrites 0
- Nitrates around 5

here is the torch that is dying


the other hammer, BTA and frogspawn all thriving


and the most amazing green torch that is expanding everyday that is in the same area of the purple torch just to see if it was lighting


Thanks and any thoughts suggestions observations or questions appreciated

 

[dz6t]

Purple torch is a little bit more flaky than usual IMO.
What kind of light do you have?

 

[mvallee]

currently mix of a Quad t5 and LED but switching over to full LED, the same ones that were on the tank they came from, Ocean revive (Chinese LED) and I and just bought a reefbreeders Photon 32" to cover the half the T5 is covering

 

[mvallee]

the quad t5 was a 48" with two actinics and 2 coral sun 10000K bulbs just bought 3 months ago, the LED was a Current USA Orbit that I really liked but I think it was struggling to reach the 24" depth of my tank to maintain corals. The ocean revive and reefbreeders should have no problems. might still keep the T5 but taking them off for a while to see how things do.

 

[mvallee]

I pulled the purple torch out tonight to cut off the dead and dying heads and what a stink!!!!

I should not have waited so long. I only have one small head left after cutting the bad ones off. I do not hold much hope for this one but it did not stink and seemed intact so willing to try..

Cutting was a lot harder than I thought, I am going to have get setup with a dremel for next time.

Always learning.

 

[ro_nicu]

in my experience, most of the corals that are not "expressly requiring" to be on top of fine substrate, like sand, will suffer from being on it. every candycane head touching sand died not too long after being set in contact with it. They do recover if you "find" them in time though.

 

[Bobbofin]

the quad t5 was a 48" with two actinics and 2 coral sun 10000K bulbs just bought 3 months ago, the LED was a Current USA Orbit that I really liked but I think it was struggling to reach the 24" depth of my tank to maintain corals. The ocean revive and reefbreeders should have no problems. might still keep the T5 but taking them off for a while to see how things do.

You're using Zoo Med T5 bulbs from Petco and Current Orbit LEDs that are barely able to keep zoas alive. I too have had problems with purple or gold frogspawn or torch. They just don't seem to make it. One little event and they're gone.

 

[saltwaterB]

My answer was going to be lighting, and after reading this....I have to say ...lighting....for that deep of a tank....not good enough....


Also, I don't think you have enough flow for that size tank....but would have to see the flow patterns for a better opinion on that...