Hello everyone! I will start but giving the backstory about this coral:
My tank has been set up and running since Nov. 2021. Between November and May things were pretty stable in terms of water parameters but I was running nutrients WAY too low and this triggered a dino outbreak at the end of May. The dino outbreak lasted from end of May-end of July and ended with a cyano and hair algae outbreak which I’ve gotten controlled with water changes and a army of snails. I had this hammer on the sandbed and it was growing fast and looking fantastic january - may. I decided to move it to a lower rock right before the dino outbreak and it stayed here from May-July during which it did not grow and its tentacles changed shape a bit to look more like a torch. I attributed this to the fluctuations in nutrients and figured it would begin growing again once things got stable.
The last few weeks I’ve finally gotten my parameters (mostly nutrients) stable after about 2 months of dosing phosphate. During that time, the phosphate concentrations were all over the place which over time so could see started causing some stress most notable with SPS which is to be expected. I noticed about 2 weeks ago this hammer wasn’t as puffy and just looked “sad.” it wasn’t retracted but it just wasn’t it’s same puffy self. It then showed a tiny bit of recession on the skeleton and that’s when I figured it probably wasn’t in a good spot that it was completely happy in since it also hadn’t been growing.
About a week ago I moved it to the sandbed back in it’s happy spot and did two iodine dips spaced 3 days apart. No flatworms came off or are visible and the hammer still puffs up during the day and appears mostly normal. The only thing is on one of its heads, the mouth is gaping and at night it’s filaments will come out like it’s trying to attack something. During the day, the mouth just appears “loose” and the filaments poke out a tiny bit but it’s much less noticeable than at night.
I am not sure if it just needs a second to relax without me fussing with it, or if it’s on its way out. I don’t see any new tissue recession beyond what I was a couple weeks ago. This is my only upset coral at the moment - all of the others have really perked up and have resumed growth after I got the dinos/algae taken care of and stable parameters which is why I think I just need to let it be. But, it has been over a week of it with a gaping mouth on 1 head so I am worried it’s not happy about something.
parameters:
salinity - 1.025
temp- 78-79
mg- 1350
calcium - 420
kh - 9.0
phos- .1
nítrate - 10ppm
pH - 7.8-8.0
I’ve attached a few pics. The first couple are the coral when the lights are off and you can clearly see it’s loose/gaping mouth and filaments. The last 2 pics are during the day when it looks okay.
Has anyone every experienced this? Im not sure what’s ticking this guy off.
Thanks for any input you guys have!
My tank has been set up and running since Nov. 2021. Between November and May things were pretty stable in terms of water parameters but I was running nutrients WAY too low and this triggered a dino outbreak at the end of May. The dino outbreak lasted from end of May-end of July and ended with a cyano and hair algae outbreak which I’ve gotten controlled with water changes and a army of snails. I had this hammer on the sandbed and it was growing fast and looking fantastic january - may. I decided to move it to a lower rock right before the dino outbreak and it stayed here from May-July during which it did not grow and its tentacles changed shape a bit to look more like a torch. I attributed this to the fluctuations in nutrients and figured it would begin growing again once things got stable.
The last few weeks I’ve finally gotten my parameters (mostly nutrients) stable after about 2 months of dosing phosphate. During that time, the phosphate concentrations were all over the place which over time so could see started causing some stress most notable with SPS which is to be expected. I noticed about 2 weeks ago this hammer wasn’t as puffy and just looked “sad.” it wasn’t retracted but it just wasn’t it’s same puffy self. It then showed a tiny bit of recession on the skeleton and that’s when I figured it probably wasn’t in a good spot that it was completely happy in since it also hadn’t been growing.
About a week ago I moved it to the sandbed back in it’s happy spot and did two iodine dips spaced 3 days apart. No flatworms came off or are visible and the hammer still puffs up during the day and appears mostly normal. The only thing is on one of its heads, the mouth is gaping and at night it’s filaments will come out like it’s trying to attack something. During the day, the mouth just appears “loose” and the filaments poke out a tiny bit but it’s much less noticeable than at night.
I am not sure if it just needs a second to relax without me fussing with it, or if it’s on its way out. I don’t see any new tissue recession beyond what I was a couple weeks ago. This is my only upset coral at the moment - all of the others have really perked up and have resumed growth after I got the dinos/algae taken care of and stable parameters which is why I think I just need to let it be. But, it has been over a week of it with a gaping mouth on 1 head so I am worried it’s not happy about something.
parameters:
salinity - 1.025
temp- 78-79
mg- 1350
calcium - 420
kh - 9.0
phos- .1
nítrate - 10ppm
pH - 7.8-8.0
I’ve attached a few pics. The first couple are the coral when the lights are off and you can clearly see it’s loose/gaping mouth and filaments. The last 2 pics are during the day when it looks okay.
Has anyone every experienced this? Im not sure what’s ticking this guy off.
Thanks for any input you guys have!