1 head of 2 headed torch dead in 2 days HELP please

Jstadler · 03-03-2011, 10:04 AM

One head of my 2 headed torch just withered up and died within 2 days, and I can't figure it out. Water tests good. Ammonia and Nitirites at 0, Nitrates at 5, pH 8.2, 78.4 temp, .026 salinity,mag 1320, my alk is skyhigh at 15 (which is lower than it has tested before(extemely hard water)). All my other LPS look good, softies and zoas same. I checked it tuesday early before the lights were on and it was slightly deflated, by the time I got back home at 7pm, it was totally defalated at was showing quite a bit of skeleton, by this morning it was all skeleton, but the other head still looks normal. I don't get it. I've had it in my tank since the Lansing swap. The only change to the tank was I bumped the halides up to 8 hrs from 7 hrs. Let me know what you guys thinks is going on.

jolson10450 · 03-03-2011, 10:25 AM

my first question is what coral is around it? i once had a hydnophora next to my frogspawn and a whole head was dead the next day, come to find out my hydnophora's sweepers came out and stung it and boom it was gone, i moved the hydnophora away from it and within 2-3 weeks the head came back to life.

Jstadler · 03-03-2011, 10:45 AM

Nothing else around it at all. I attached it to the side of my main rock structure, in a very low flow area that still gets a lot of light. You think it may make a comeback?

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Chris · 03-03-2011, 10:47 AM

What kind of fish/ inverts do you have? I once watched what I thought to be a peppermint shrimp (turned out to be a camel... thanks petco LOL) rip apart a hammer on me!!

Jstadler · 03-03-2011, 11:00 AM

I've just got the normal stuff, 3 peps (had two camels for a couple months until I realized they weren't peps(surprisingly my LFS still swapped them out for me)), cleaner shrimp, emerald and maybe 6 or so hermits, turbo, nassarius, and ceriths. The only fish is my mandarin, I'm sure he wouldn't do anything.

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Chris · 03-03-2011, 11:22 AM

I would keep an eye on it and watch the shrimp for sure, I have heard of them doing it unintentionally too trying to get food thats between the tentacles or even just trying to clean the head. The only other thing I can think of would be some type of disease, how long have you had it? Also, what kind flow is it in, might be getting to much and caused it to "pop" against the skeleton.

Jstadler · 03-03-2011, 11:33 AM

I got it at the Lansing swap, so about a month. It was initially in somewhat high flow, but I moved it about 2 weeks ago to a very low flow area. After I moved it expanded alot more and seemed really happy. The other head still looks really good. I'll watch the shrimp.

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bigbill · 03-03-2011, 11:42 AM

my green crab tore mine up not sure if u got one of those i have all seen pistol shrimp kill them bye trying to move them bye there ten

binford4000 · 03-03-2011, 07:32 PM

Is that alk in dkh??? 15 dkh is waaaaaaaay up there.I would bet if thats in dkh thats what killed the trumpet head.Natural sea water is in the upper 7's to low 8's.I would address the alk if it was me.Good luck

Jstadler · 03-04-2011, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by binford4000

Is that alk in dkh??? 15 dkh is waaaaaaaay up there.I would bet if thats in dkh thats what killed the trumpet head.Natural sea water is in the upper 7's to low 8's.I would address the alk if it was me.Good luck

That is DKH, why would it just affect this coral and not all my other LPS, including a hammer coral. I'm open to suggestions on how to lower it.