Three heads of my Torch Just died, why?

[RobbyG]

I have a nine head colony of brown torch coral that has been doing great for 14 months, it has grown about 50% in that period then all of sudden in a 24 hour period 3 of the heads just start to Jelly up and disintegrate!

The only problem I have had during this period is that the outside Temp has been very hot, about 96 deg for the last 2 weeks and the chiller is having a hard time keeping the tank at the normal 79 deg, so the Tank temp has hit 82 deg for 5 hour periods each day for the 2 weeks. It also triggered an autoshutdown of my T5 lights for a 2 hour interval.

I thought the Torch could deal with 82 deg temp, I did not think the lights going OFF and then coming on again after 2 hours could damage the coral. Am I wrong on these assumptions.

All other parameter

Temp 79 - 82
Sal: 1.024
Alk: 2.6
pH: 8.25
Ca: 420
Orp: 260 (due to dying heads, normally 300 - 320)

All other corals including Acro, hammer, zenia, frog, sponges, mushrooms, zoas etc. all seem fine.

Any idea what might have happened

BTW I did add 3 drops of Ludens Iodine twice in 7 days and some Magnesium, but that was about 4 days before this happened. I also upped my flow by about 20% two weeks ago.

[csb]

Did it perhaps get stung by another coral? That sortof fits with your description.

The temp swing is not big enough to cause concern and the params look alright (as long as they're stable).

Lights going off for a little while would probably be equivalent to a passing dark thunderstorm over a natural reef, so the corals should be able to handle that... they do in nature.

[RobbyG]

I don't see any coral that are close enough to sting it, and could one sting just kill it overnight?

I was thinking the same thing about the water parameters, they look within acceptable levels but I am not sure what else it could be, this coral was flourishing and then boom it starts dying. Kind of makes me lose hope more than anything else that has ever happened before. You figure you have everything going good and for no apparent reason this happens.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Brown jelly disease? Same thing happened with mine this past week. Siphon that stuff off right away, or just break the heads off. If it is brown jelly, you don't want it spreading.

[cap1956]

I killed a few heads on my torch once when pouring in newly mixed Instant Ocean saltwater. I didn't see a small amount of unmixed salt in the bottom of the bucket. It fell onto the torch as I poured in the water. the heads died later that week. The surviving single head went on to become a large colony.

[RobbyG]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10170604#post10170604 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Der_Iron_Chef
Brown jelly disease? Same thing happened with mine this past week. Siphon that stuff off right away, or just break the heads off. If it is brown jelly, you don't want it spreading.

I siphoned the bits off last night, but the pieces had been touching other heads for the last 2 days so I have no idea if I waited too long.

[Wrench]

Mine died when my temp spiked to 86. It was what made me look for a problem with the tank. Ended up being a faulty thermometer.

[fijiblue]

5 - 10 minute Melafix dips seem to work great in killing this bacteria as well as many others.

[RobbyG]

Can Melafix save a half dead head or will it only help stop it from spreading to the remaining heads?

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Well, you never know if it's fully dead, I suppose. Something could grow back, you never know.

[RobbyG]

Theres a chance the head could regenerate?? I was ready to cut them off this weekend. Should I leave them? I figured Algae would soon start to grow on them.

[edwinn]

if u have brown jelly dip it to fresh water 4 couple of min.

[RobbyG]

Huh you serious?