Coral shrinking back inside

[paulmlloyd]

Hi there

A green hammer coral that I have had for a few months has over the past week stopped coming out. It has also lost quite a bit of colour (so is now predominantly white with green tips, whereas previously it was much more green all over). I haven't changed its position or flow, and I have 2 other hammer corals (slightly different types) that are continuing to do very well and grow new heads. I've also been testing parameters and they've been pretty consistent. Please can anyone give any advice as to what could be happening? My research tells me it might be a lack of nitrates but if that is the case, I can't work out why the other 2 corals are flourishing.

Many thanks
Paul

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi there

A green hammer coral that I have had for a few months has over the past week stopped coming out. It has also lost quite a bit of colour (so is now predominantly white with green tips, whereas previously it was much more green all over). I haven't changed its position or flow, and I have 2 other hammer corals (slightly different types) that are continuing to do very well and grow new heads. I've also been testing parameters and they've been pretty consistent. Please can anyone give any advice as to what could be happening? My research tells me it might be a lack of nitrates but if that is the case, I can't work out why the other 2 corals are flourishing.

Many thanks
Paul

Known as recession can be caused by:
Too much light
too much water flow
Elevated phosphate and/or nitrate
elevated water temperature
Low salinity
Low Ph
High alk

A few things to check

 

[mushrommy]

Hi there

A green hammer coral that I have had for a few months has over the past week stopped coming out. It has also lost quite a bit of colour (so is now predominantly white with green tips, whereas previously it was much more green all over). I haven't changed its position or flow, and I have 2 other hammer corals (slightly different types) that are continuing to do very well and grow new heads. I've also been testing parameters and they've been pretty consistent. Please can anyone give any advice as to what could be happening? My research tells me it might be a lack of nitrates but if that is the case, I can't work out why the other 2 corals are flourishing.

Many thanks
Paul

Maybe he was getting too much light? Check for pests/parasites.or just wait.

 

[paulmlloyd]

Known as recession can be caused by:
Too much light
too much water flow
Elevated phosphate and/or nitrate
elevated water temperature
Low salinity
Low Ph
High alk

A few things to check

Thank you very much. That's all really helpful. I doubt it will be too much light or flow, as I've not massively changed those, so worst case and they may have slightly lessened (a very little amount) over the past few months due to natural wear of the lights / wavemaker. Will make sure I test all the others again!

 

[paulmlloyd]

Maybe he was getting too much light? Check for pests/parasites.or just wait.

Thanks! I couldn't see any pests or parasites, save for the cheeky cleaner shrimp every so often going near it but the shrimp didn't seem to be causing too much hassle. Hopefully time will be the cure!

 

[kevgib67]

You haven’t posted your parameters. They are important to determine the cause as @vetteguy53081 listed. Also , mine can look funky during a split, any signs it might be splitting?

 

[paulmlloyd]

You haven’t posted your parameters. They are important to determine the cause as @vetteguy53081 listed. Also , mine can look funky during a split, any signs it might be splitting?

Unfortunately not splitting. The others have split, but not that one. I'll do another test of my parameters but my last readings were:

- temp: 26
- pH: 8.3
- NH3: 0.1
- No2: 0.01
- No3: 40
- PO4: 0.03
- SG: 1.026
- Kh: 7.8
- Ca: 550
- Mg: 1300

They're also relatively stable, save for Magnesium that i've been pulling down from 1550 over a number of months.

Please let me know if there are any you think could be causing an issue.

 

[kevgib67]

How fast did you bring your mag down. I know hammers like slightly higher mag. I try to keep mine close to 1400. You nitrates are high, might want to get them down to 10-25 but I don’t think that is what causing it. Definitely could be from a quick swing in mag. Do you have other hammers, frogspawn or torches? How are they doing?

 

[paulmlloyd]

How fast did you bring your mag down. I know hammers like slightly higher mag. I try to keep mine close to 1400. You nitrates are high, might want to get them down to 10-25 but I don’t think that is what causing it. Definitely could be from a quick swing in mag. Do you have other hammers, frogspawn or torches? How are they doing?

Yeah, I've got 2 other hammers that are doing great. 1 of them is huge (probably 15 heads of so) and the other is much newer but recently split and seems very happy. It's all strange, as this was such a beautiful hammer. Ahhhhh keeping fish and coral is so stressful lol

 

[paulmlloyd]

How fast did you bring your mag down. I know hammers like slightly higher mag. I try to keep mine close to 1400. You nitrates are high, might want to get them down to 10-25 but I don’t think that is what causing it. Definitely could be from a quick swing in mag. Do you have other hammers, frogspawn or torches? How are they doing?

And i meant to say that I brought my mag down very slowly over quite a few months by decreasing the dosing from my Triton pumps. I have also never seemed able to get my nitrates lower than 30 but I've never had other issues from this, and bizarrely seem unable to keep chaeto alive and was told that was because my nitrates are too low.

 

[kevgib67]

Every thing I mentioned should have caused the same reaction to the others. I don’t see anything causing coral warefare, unless you have a bubble coral 5 inches away and not in the picture. Well we have ruled out pests, water parameters and that leaves light, flow or bacterial issue. You could try moving it to more/less flow and light and while you’re at it dip it in Lugol’s iodine.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Light and/or flow are my suspects.

 

[paulmlloyd]

Every thing I mentioned should have caused the same reaction to the others. I don’t see anything causing coral warefare, unless you have a bubble coral 5 inches away and not in the picture. Well we have ruled out pests, water parameters and that leaves light, flow or bacterial issue. You could try moving it to more/less flow and light and while you’re at it dip it in Lugol’s iodine.

Thanks very much. I'll give that a go

 

[paulmlloyd]

Light and/or flow are my suspects.

Yeah it's looking that way based off comments. Can't see its light so I'm guessing my wavemaker has fallen or something to result in more flow. Thanks again!