Hammer Coral closed up

[MangoSentinels]

Hi reefers,

My 50G has been doing great with just a walling hammer coral and a small mushroom frag. Hammer was doing well & I was able to replenish whatever trace elements it needed with weekly water changes. I decided to add some more coral and recently purchased a Torch and a Duncan. Since adding the new coral to the tank, my hammer has started to do progressively worse every day until it fully closed up 2 days ago. I did a water change yesterday and it is still fully closed. My initial thought was that the new coral were sucking up all of the alkalinity in the tank, but my ALK is currently sitting at 9.9dKH. It turns out that my calcium has dropped to 200 (it never dropped this low when it was just the hammer)


Here is what the Hammer looked like before and how it looks now

Also throwing in some pictures of the new Duncan and Torch

I haven't really gotten into dosing because it wasn't necessary before, but I do have Red Sea Alk/Cal/Mag on hand as well as All For Reef.

Can anyone please help me with recommendations on how to get my Hammer back to health?

Thank you in advance!



Params:
Salinity: 1.027
Phosphate 0.07 ppm
Magnesium 1600 ppm
Calcium 200 ppm
PH 8.2
Alkalinity 9.9 dKH
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm

Light: Kessil A160WE Tuna Blue
Wavemaker: Jebao Gyre (Low to Med Flow)
ATO: Tunze 3152 Osmolator

Filtration: SCA-301 Protein Skimmer
Filter Floss
Reactor with Rox 0.8 Carbon
Refugium with Chaetomorpha

 

[Goaway]

hammer looks dead. I am sorry.

 

[Bribo12]

That hammer looks dead. I don’t see any flesh or polyps just skeleton. Wall hammers are much tougher to keep than their branching counterparts. I don’t think a drop in calcium would nuke the hammer like that. Any change in phosphate or nitrate suddenly. Those new corals aren’t gonna eat alk that fast.

 

[MangoSentinels]

No sudden changes in the Params. It was open on Sunday 8/9. Should I try doing another water change? Buffer Cal? Try doing a dip? Is it safe to say it’s dead for sure?

 

[Goaway]

No sudden changes in the Params. It was open on Sunday 8/9. Should I try doing another water change? Buffer Cal? Try doing a dip? Is it safe to say it’s dead for sure?

Hammer is 100% dead with maybe some left over tissue. There's no saving it really. You can try.

It's odd your calcium is 200 though.

 

[thatone08]

Was there brown jelly or anything on it?

any pictures of it not doing well, before no polyps?

 

[terraincognita]

2 Days to RTN like that screams infection.

That new torch you brought might've killed it. Did you dip the new torch? QT it? (I don't either, but just rules out possibilities.)

It's definitely dead 100%. or if not 100% 90% and the 10% will happen very shortly.

Wonder what happened.

Did you notice it shedding skin or tentacles rapidly?

I've killed hammers, and quick, but never that quick, it's a shock to me. Whether known or unknown guaranteed there was some change that happened.

 

[MangoSentinels]

I kept the Torch away from the Hammer but maybe it was still able to reach it. Who knows. I didn’t quarantine the torch or Duncan. Had the hammer for about 8 months and it was doing fine. It only retracted 2 days ago. No signs of brown jelly. Didn’t discharge zooxanthelle either. It just kind of shriveled up on Sunday with the polyps still visible and then fully closed yesterday night.

 

[attiland]

Hi reefers,

My 50G has been doing great with just a walling hammer coral and a small mushroom frag. Hammer was doing well & I was able to replenish whatever trace elements it needed with weekly water changes. I decided to add some more coral and recently purchased a Torch and a Duncan. Since adding the new coral to the tank, my hammer has started to do progressively worse every day until it fully closed up 2 days ago. I did a water change yesterday and it is still fully closed. My initial thought was that the new coral were sucking up all of the alkalinity in the tank, but my ALK is currently sitting at 9.9dKH. It turns out that my calcium has dropped to 200 (it never dropped this low when it was just the hammer)


Here is what the Hammer looked like before and how it looks now

Also throwing in some pictures of the new Duncan and Torch

I haven't really gotten into dosing because it wasn't necessary before, but I do have Red Sea Alk/Cal/Mag on hand as well as All For Reef.

Can anyone please help me with recommendations on how to get my Hammer back to health?

Thank you in advance!



Params:
Salinity: 1.027
Phosphate 0.07 ppm
Magnesium 1600 ppm
Calcium 200 ppm
PH 8.2
Alkalinity 9.9 dKH
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm

Light: Kessil A160WE Tuna Blue
Wavemaker: Jebao Gyre (Low to Med Flow)
ATO: Tunze 3152 Osmolator

Filtration: SCA-301 Protein Skimmer
Filter Floss
Reactor with Rox 0.8 Carbon
Refugium with Chaetomorpha

That looks like a bale out.
that magnesium seems to be high and the calcium is really low and hammer is known to not liking that.

 

[mermaid_life]

That looks like a bale out.
that magnesium seems to be high and the calcium is really low and hammer is known to not liking that.

agree with this. Look around the tank under rocks and see if you see the polyps elsewhere.

 

[MangoSentinels]

That looks like a bale out.
that magnesium seems to be high and the calcium is really low and hammer is known to not liking that.

What should I do to restore the proper balance between Cal & Mag? Sorry, I am still a novice at keeping corals and the delicate balance between Alk/Cal/Mag -- everything up to now has been able to be mitigated by a solid water change schedule. The Torch and the Duncan seem to be doing well but I do not want to lose any more coral. Any suggestions?

 

[olonmv]

What should I do to restore the proper balance between Cal & Mag? Sorry, I am still a novice at keeping corals and the delicate balance between Alk/Cal/Mag -- everything up to now has been able to be mitigated by a solid water change schedule. The Torch and the Duncan seem to be doing well but I do not want to lose any more coral. Any suggestions?

Your gonna have to start testing….like daily. Alk and calcium are the 2 main I started to do daily until I fully understand my demands (Hanna testers help a ton). All others I do weekly with 20% wc. Track track track. Those are a ton of Duncan’s to add all at once without dosing it seems. Good luck, your heads about to spin. I’m a noob also but I’ll help where I can.

 

[terraincognita]

I didn't read the part about your params xD that's my bad!

You won't have to test daily forever just until you get a good hang of things.

Alk can be anywhere from 7.5-11.0 Up to you, most important is chose a number and keep it stably there. You'll have to research elevated alk levels and benefits vs normal sea water levels around 8-8.5.

Cal should be between 390 and 420

Mag should be 1380-1440

 

[olonmv]

I just recently got Aquarimate app. It helps with tracking parameters tremendously. Test alk n cal and dose accordingly daily. When you learn how much you need daily you can cut back on testing. I personally have not gotten there but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. You definitely need to start testing and dosing.

 

[attiland]

What should I do to restore the proper balance between Cal & Mag? Sorry, I am still a novice at keeping corals and the delicate balance between Alk/Cal/Mag -- everything up to now has been able to be mitigated by a solid water change schedule. The Torch and the Duncan seem to be doing well but I do not want to lose any more coral. Any suggestions?

First get everything you may need for manual dosing.
do a water change. Your salt should mix close to what you need so that is one step closer to where you want to get to.
Test and calculate dose required.
With calcium it is a top of but be slow with magnesium and alk dosing as some LPS hates changes won’t open for days.
Wait for a week and test again. Calculate difference. Do it at least twice do you have N idea of usage.
I would get. 4 heads doser as this will illuminate the human error and you will need is soon anyway.

 

[MangoSentinels]

I have a 4 head Jebao Doser that I just received yesterday and I have Red Sea Foundation A B & C. Just not sure how much the daily consumption for all three of the elements is. I will do some more testing today to see how much they have dropped since yesterday and should have a better idea more or less of how things are going. I am not a big fan of the Red Sea Magnesium test kit because I feel like it gives me inaccurate readings; I should be getting a Salifert test sometime today and hopefully I will have a more accurate reading. Going to start calibrating the dosing pumps. Thank you all so much!

 

[attiland]

I have a 4 head Jebao Doser that I just received yesterday and I have Red Sea Foundation A B & C. Just not sure how much the daily consumption for all three of the elements is. I will do some more testing today to see how much they have dropped since yesterday and should have a better idea more or less of how things are going. I am not a big fan of the Red Sea Magnesium test kit because I feel like it gives me inaccurate readings; I should be getting a Salifert test sometime today and hopefully I will have a more accurate reading. Going to start calibrating the dosing pumps. Thank you all so much!

In new aquarium things can go out of balance. I had similar high magnesium at one point without dosing. Killed my snails.

Calcium can drop quickly if your coralline starts to kick of. Based on your current parameters you will need to dose slowly the calcium up. Just doing that the others may just fall in line. Once you have reached the calcium level you want to get to (around 400ppm) start to keep an eye on the other parameters.

Use the Red Sea calculator to find your desired parameters

MyRecipe App Test

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

www.redseafish.com

 

[jackthetang]

i am afraid that the hammer is dead. he may have had a euphilia eatting worm, they are quite big you should look and see if there are any, it will try to go after your torch so watch out!

 

[Reef-_-Noob]

Did you buy the Duncans on a rock?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The OP hasn't been on in more than a year, so he is unlikely to reply.