Can someone please help me with my hammer coral!!!

[45ZoaGarden]

Are weekly water changes good or should I go longer

I don’t see why you need weekly wc’s. You said you want to lower alk. So stop doing wc’s till you get to that number

 

[themcnertney]

Parameters are good. Nitrates are about 3. Good
Ph-8.2 Good
Temp-78.5 Good
Ammonia 0. Good
phos-0 Good
Salinity-1.025 Good
Alk-196.9 A bit high but dont do anything
I don’t test anything else because I only have soft corals and only that one hammer and I do weekly water changes. Go bi-weekly I only have 2 clownfish. 1 is a little baby. My tank is a 20 gallon long. I am running a lot of filtration. Not needed I’m running polyester battling filter floss in a hang on back filter. With poly filter and purigen. Also running seachem matrix for biological filtration and also running a hang on back refugium with chaeto. Good And a protein skimmer. Good Is that too much?

Comments are in red. Remove sechem matrix, filter floss, poly filter and purigen. Just way too much filtration. Just run refugium with cheato and skimmer is all you need.

 

[Natescorals]

I don’t see why you need weekly wc’s. You said you want to lower alk. So stop doing wc’s till you get to that number

This is the hammer today

 

[W1ngz]

It's looking better.
Your coral is saying 'OK! I can do this! Leave me alone!'
Work on your testing game, that's all you need to do right now.

 

[Natescorals]

Comments are in red. Remove sechem matrix, filter floss, poly filter and purigen. Just way too much filtration. Just run refugium with cheato and skimmer is all you need.

Should I put the Matrix in my refugium? Someone at my LFS told me I should/need to put matrix in there?

 

[Natescorals]

It's looking better.
Your coral is saying 'OK! I can do this! Leave me alone!'
Work on your testing game, that's all you need to do right now.

Do I really need to put matrix in my refugium?

 

[Natescorals]

I was told to put seachem matrix in my filter and alp am in refugium for bacteria to populate. Should I keep matrix in?

 

[jlts21]

Do I really need to put matrix in my refugium?

No! Just STOP changing things. It’s looking better, leave it alone

 

[W1ngz]

Remember this post from page 2 of this story?

Matrix is of no benefit to you. Neither is it a hindrance other than being more stuff to collect gunk. Just leave it alone for a week or two. Everyone keeps saying stop changing things, so maybe that would be some good advice to follow.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Leave the filter alone!

 

[Natescorals]

Okay I will just let it ride exactly how it is

 

[Natescorals]

All I will do is feed and top off water. That’s it

 

[W1ngz]

And test. That will give you a good base of data to make your next decisions with in a couple of weeks.

 

[Natescorals]

And test. That will give you a good base of data to make your next decisions with in a couple of weeks.

Part of the reason I was doing the wc’s weekly was because I had a Cyanobacteria outbreak

 

[Natescorals]

Just keeps getting better lights just came on 10 minutes ago!

 

[jlts21]

Just keeps getting better lights just came on 10 minutes ago!

See why we why told you what we told you?! Less is definitely more in this hobby, glad to see that its coming back around!

 

[Natescorals]

My problem could be that I just keep adding and changing things and just overthinking. I realize that stability is the most important thing

 

[jlts21]

My problem could be that I just keep adding and changing things and just overthinking. I realize that stability is the most important thing

IMO I think that was the problem. Change one maybe two things and sit back and wait. Once you start doing too much it affects the tank negatively

 

[Natescorals]

This is the perfect spot for a nice hammer frogspawn euphyllia garden for the future. The flow is perfect not to strong just nice and calm randow pulsing flow

Comments are in red. Remove sechem matrix, filter floss, poly filter and purigen. Just way too much filtration. Just run refugium with cheato and skimmer is all you need.

Do water changes twice a week?
Or every 2 weeks?

 

[Arthacker87]

I'm the good old fashion waitnitnout guy. If I see my stuff looking off I'll do a water change lol. Maybe dose if it's just the acro and sps. I keep it topped off and salt and temp regulated. Run carbon hob filter 24/7 (might cut back) and tank looks good. It's about letting things level out and patients like everyone says the more you change the more everything freaks out.

My bare necessity tank lol