Hammer bailing - Help me try to avoid losing my mind

shakeandbake

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425XL tank set up roughly 2 1/2 years ago. Running chaeto in the refugium, a red sea RSK 600 skimmer, 2 Reefi Duo Extreme LEDs, an MP 40 and 2 MP 10s, DOS currently set to add 9ml/day of Fritz Alk & Calc, a DOS set up to auto water change 1/2 gal a day.

Had 2 clowns, 2 firefish, a dwarf angel, a royal gramma and a tomini. Back in late 2020 about 6 mos in I added some lps, mushrooms and zoas. The LPS all bailed out one at a time and the zoas struggled. Nutrients were low and lighting was set at the LPS preset, but still likely too high. I lowered the light settings and dosed to bring up PO4. Algae bomb. Lost all of the remaining corals, aside of a few mushrooms. Got frustrated and pretty much just let the tank run for 6 mos. Things started looking better but still low nutrients. Kept heavy feeding. Hair algae outbreak. Let it run another 6-mos. Ordered more cleanup crew. That destroyed algae but suffered some fish losses from something that came in with that. Just walked away for a few more months.

So fast forward. Two clowns and the tomini looked good and the tank looked clear. Did a couple water changes of 15-20 gallons. Turned off the skimmer and stopped the auto water change for a bit. Parameters looked good. I started regular testing. Things looked pretty stable, NO3 slowly coming up, and PO4 fluctuating but detectable and under 0.10. I picked up some low priced corals to test her out in Oct. Set the Reefi's to the preset LPS setting at 70% to acclimate over 80 days. Peak for 2 hours at maybe 75-80 watts? Things were looking good. If anything I felt the lights were too low, a branching monti was losing some color. 11/29/22: Sal 1.025, Temp 78.4, PH 8.4, NO3 10, PO4 0.02, Mg 1320, Alk 9.1, Ca 460. I dipped everything and saw a red worm or two but nothing crazy. I moved a hammer and FS off the rack and onto the rocks. I noticed some flow, but definitely not a hurricane. Anyway, I turned off the MP 40 and just ran the MP 10s on a timer during the day to be extra gentle.

Then, I noticed some tissue recession on the hammer. Nothing crazy but saw a touch of skeleton. I figured it didn't like the flow or being moved off the rack. Its spot on the rocks was lower in the tank that where it was on the rack so I felt it was getting less light. Anyway I resisted the temptation to move it since I had already turned the flow down and it was still extending nice and looking full. I kept an eye on it for a few days and I did't notice the recession getting any worse. Then today, boom. Hammer is flapping a head looking to bail out.

I imagine I need an ICP test and a par meter. But dude, what am I missing here? I had a small tank years back with t5's and you'd lose some corals to an algae bloom or parameter swing or Aiptasia outbreak. But polyps bailing out when things are all looking good and stable is absolutely killing me. Please give me some advice and tell me not to break this headache down.
 
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shakeandbake

shakeandbake

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Pics under white maintenance light setting...

tank 1.jpg tank 3.jpg
 

Jekyl

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Long post but everything is fine except for the euphyllia bail out? Lighting or flow would be my guess.
@vetteguy53081 is the euphyllia whisperer and can probably help.
 

vetteguy53081

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Pics under white maintenance light setting...

tank 1.jpg tank 3.jpg
While they dont look terrible , bailout is generally caused by a few things (to check):
Extremes. . . Extreme water flow and extreme lighting. While euphllia in general require good light for production of zooxanthellae, too much can hurt them and cause them to expel zooxanthellae and weaken. Too much flow can stress them to the point that they weaken and flesh begins to tear off skeleton called polyp bailout. Speaking of skeleton, They have calcium needs and should not be below 380-400. Polyps should move but not wave like a hulu dancer or bend over the skeleton.
Other stressors are :
High temperature
High salinity
High Phosphates

if youre using Any tap water, that will affect them
- Hunger- like most coral they need to eat and mysis shrimp is a good meal for them.
 
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shakeandbake

shakeandbake

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Long post but everything is fine except for the euphyllia bail out? Lighting or flow would be my guess.
@vetteguy53081 is the euphyllia whisperer and can probably help.
Ha yeah sorry, I wanted to cram a lot of info into there. Everything seems ok. The branching monti looks pale but other than that the duncan and frog spawns look like they should. Just the one head of that hammer. For now anyway.

Re: lighting and flow. I'm with you. Running a Cor 20 return with a flow meter that reads 530-550 gph. A few weeks back I lowered the Cor to 65% from 80% where it was running 630 gph. It is aimed at the surface but it bounces off the sides and creates some flow. When I run the MP10s it balances it out a bit. Still, nothing is bent over and generally has some gentle sway.

For the lighting, I believe these lights run powerful. But at 70% of the preset LPS settings I figured I was safe to ramp. It only jumps like 0.4% a day.
 
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shakeandbake

shakeandbake

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While they dont look terrible , bailout is generally caused by a few things (to check):
Extremes. . . Extreme water flow and extreme lighting. While euphllia in general require good light for production of zooxanthellae, too much can hurt them and cause them to expel zooxanthellae and weaken. Too much flow can stress them to the point that they weaken and flesh begins to tear off skeleton called polyp bailout. Speaking of skeleton, They have calcium needs and should not be below 380-400. Polyps should move but not wave like a hulu dancer or bend over the skeleton.
Other stressors are :
High temperature
High salinity
High Phosphates

if youre using Any tap water, that will affect them
- Hunger- like most coral they need to eat and mysis shrimp is a good meal for them.
Thx. I recently calibrated my refractometer with juice, so I feel like I have a good reading there. Temp has been stable and checked with a thermometer. No fluctuations with the Apex on temp or sal. Phosphates have been low on the Hanna LR tester at 0.02-0.06 over the past few weeks.

I am gonna say flow I guess. Maybe I will move it to another spot and lower the Cor return more. I am noticing the sandbed is dirtying up a bit so it is not exactly blowing hard.
 

vetteguy53081

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Ha yeah sorry, I wanted to cram a lot of info into there. Everything seems ok. The branching monti looks pale but other than that the duncan and frog spawns look like they should. Just the one head of that hammer. For now anyway.

Re: lighting and flow. I'm with you. Running a Cor 20 return with a flow meter that reads 530-550 gph. A few weeks back I lowered the Cor to 65% from 80% where it was running 630 gph. It is aimed at the surface but it bounces off the sides and creates some flow. When I run the MP10s it balances it out a bit. Still, nothing is bent over and generally has some gentle sway.

For the lighting, I believe these lights run powerful. But at 70% of the preset LPS settings I figured I was safe to ramp. It only jumps like 0.4% a day.
If pale, lower the white light intensity a little
 

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