Torch Coral Receding

For those of you that saw my other thread about a leak in my tank, this was an issue before the leak, which is now resolved.

I've noticed that on this head of torch coral, which is in the process of splitting, there is an area of recession that is slowly getting bigger, probably over the course of the last 3 weeks or so.

Its only on this one head. And the other side of this head, and all other heads, actually look pretty well. In fact, if I wasn't keeping an eye on this area of recession, you'd think I have a pretty healthy coral, it inflates pretty well during the day.

Params have always been stable: 1.025, pH 8.1, Alk 4.5 meq, Ca 460, nitrates 0.

I moved it to an area with less light for now and slightly lower flow. Not sure if there's much else to do, but wanted to see if anyone else has some advice.

 

Forgot the pic:

 

I have the same issue with a frogspawn. I raised the salinity because it was too low. Raised the alkalinity and tried balancing that out. Had it in an area with too much flow. Moved it to a med flow are mid tank level for lighting. It's trying to make a comeback now but I did lose one head. It's starting to open up more. I'm new to the coral side though so still learning. reading up on the chemistry side of things. I know stability is the key just trying to get there. Good Luck

 

We'll, I know it's been a while, but how about an update? I mean, aren't there enough threads out there that never get finished?

I thought my torch was doing really well since the beginning of this thread. Ultimately, I think it just needed to adjust to the light.

However, Imhad a polyp bailout yesterday. Not sure why, Params are spot on. There's only three things I can think of:

1. started dosing kalk the day before the bailout (this has to be more than a coincidence)
2. I fragged a large acan colony two days before and maybe the frags released some alien toxin into the water column
3. Maybe it was just the type of specimen where this was bound to happen

Either way, I thought it would be appropriate to keep this thread going.

 

The only other thing I can think of is that there is some fish or invert got some interest in the torch...I had a peppermint shrimp take to my torch after his aiptasia was gone.

 

Nope I've got two clownfish, a starry blenny and an orange spotted goby. I took the inverts out quite a while ago to avoid this

 

Just to make everything square, params on the day of the loss:
Alk 3.2
Ca 440
Mg 1350
pH 8.2
Phosphate 0
No lighting changes and it actually happened before I performed a water change.

 

What is the alk measurement? dkh or meqs?

 

I noticed the alk went from 4.2meq to 3.2meq? That's a bit of a swing. Some euphyllia have a hard time in flow. I have a frogspawn that loves flow and a hammer that hates it.

 

Based on the picture I saw it looks like there may be too much flow on the torch. They like intermitent flow. If they are getting blasted (even a small blast) from one side constantly they do not do very well and can even die from it. Find a place that gets random flow is my opinion. If your phosphates and nitrates are truely zero and your water is perfect then I would almost guarantee the flow is what is hurting the torch.