Hammer coral issues

[jtoein]

I got this hammer coral at a frag swap and it has been going downhill ever since. I thought it had an infection so i did an iodine dip. Then after testing I realized my perameters were off so I have been trying to correct them. Im not sure if I should do another dip or just let it be. It seems to be dropping polyps and flesh line is receding. All my other corals look happy so I dont want to change anything to quickly.

 

[DSC reef]

Id let it be and not dip again, Id focus on getting the parameters stable. Those are high nitrates and low alk. With my reef tank I could tell my alkalinity was dropping by how my LPS would react. I preffered my alkalinity to stay 9.5 but just focus on stability without large changes/swings.

 

[BryanM]

I am on team leave it alone as well. Its been dipped, its not happy, best you can do is leave it be.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Doing the same thing but expecting a different result is not the way to go. Have you tried doing any water changes, sometimes that helps, and your nitrates are pretty high and a water change would help with that at least

 

[jtoein]

Doing the same thing but expecting a different result is not the way to go. Have you tried doing any water changes, sometimes that helps, and your nitrates are pretty high and a water change would help with that at least

Yeah I did a 20% water change and set up a refugium to help lower the nitrates. Dosing phosphate to help bring a balance. My alk was down at 6.4 so i have been working on that. The dip was over a month ago and I'm not familiar enough with these corals to know if it is failing because of parameters, infection, or one of my tank inhabitants picking at it, I havent noticed any of them touching it but I am keeping an eye on my coral beauty and emerald crab. It seems like the polyps pinch themselves off and die or fall off. I also noticed one of the astrea stars on it for the first time today, could they affect it?

 

[ReefRob82]

I always found seachem matrix to have an amazing ability to help keep nitrates low by providing plenty of area for anaerobic bacteria to process them. Might be worth looking into if you can’t keep the no3 down with general husbandry.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Yeah I did a 20% water change and set up a refugium to help lower the nitrates. Dosing phosphate to help bring a balance. My alk was down at 6.4 so i have been working on that. The dip was over a month ago and I'm not familiar enough with these corals to know if it is failing because of parameters, infection, or one of my tank inhabitants picking at it, I havent noticed any of them touching it but I am keeping an eye on my coral beauty and emerald crab. It seems like the polyps pinch themselves off and die or fall off. I also noticed one of the astrea stars on it for the first time today, could they affect it?

Personally the phosphates are higher than I would like and I would not dose phosphates. Astrea stars will not bother it. To me it sounds like the coral is just acclimating to your tank and seems your tank has been a bit unstable (changing alk, dosing nutrients when nutrients are high already). Hammer is a bit more advanced type of coral its not a beginner level coral, and it can take a few weeks to acclimate if everything is stable. I would leave it alone and try to keep the tank stable, thats all it needs. Do keep an eye on the emerald crab, I have banned emeralds since I caught them eating my corals a few times. Good luck

 

[Nick Steele]

You still have a great fleshband on both heads so for now it looks okay just ticked off a little. Work on your nitrates and phosphates and it should be fine imo.

I also have a hammer that does this when it spilts new heads. As long as fleshband is there it should be fine.

 

[jtoein]

Yeah I did a 20% water change and set up a refugium to help lower the nitrates. Dosing phosphate to help bring a balance. My alk was down at 6.4 so i have been working on that. The dip was over a month ago and I'm not familiar enough with these corals to know if it is failing because of parameters, infection, or one of my tank inhabitants picking at it, I havent noticed any of them touching it but I am keeping an eye on my coral beauty and emerald crab. It seems like the polyps pinch themselves off and die or fall off. I also noticed one of the astrea stars on it for the first time today, could they affect it?

Personally the phosphates are higher than I would like and I would not dose phosphates. Astrea stars will not bother it. To me it sounds like the coral is just acclimating to your tank and seems your tank has been a bit unstable (changing alk, dosing nutrients when nutrients are high already). Hammer is a bit more advanced type of coral its not a beginner level coral, and it can take a few weeks to acclimate if everything is stable. I would leave it alone and try to keep the tank stable, thats all it needs. Do keep an eye on the emerald crab, I have banned emeralds since I caught them eating my corals a few times. Good luck

Ive been dosing phosphates because i have been testing at 0 for a long time. But it just now finaly showed up(not a fan of salifert phosphate kit the colors are very faint) so i have stopped that for now unless it goes undetectable again. I had a year long fight with dinos due to bottomed out phos so dont want to go down that road again. For now the plan is dose alk and mag to being those numbers up and see what happens. Im wondering if its not getting enough light but idk how to get it more withought negatively affecting the other corals which are looking happy

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Ive been dosing phosphates because i have been testing at 0 for a long time. But it just now finaly showed up(not a fan of salifert phosphate kit the colors are very faint) so i have stopped that for now unless it goes undetectable again. I had a year long fight with dinos due to bottomed out phos so dont want to go down that road again. For now the plan is dose alk and mag to being those numbers up and see what happens. Im wondering if its not getting enough light but idk how to get it more withought negatively affecting the other corals which are looking happy

Oh, got it, didn't know you were at zero at one point, that makes sense then. What is your light like for you to suspect lighting?

 

[jtoein]

Ive been dosing phosphates because i have been testing at 0 for a long time. But it just now finaly showed up(not a fan of salifert phosphate kit the colors are very faint) so i have stopped that for now unless it goes undetectable again. I had a year long fight with dinos due to bottomed out phos so dont want to go down that road again. For now the plan is dose alk and mag to being those numbers up and see what happens. Im wondering if its not getting enough light but idk how to get it more withought negatively affecting the other corals which are looking happy

Oh, got it, didn't know you were at zero at one point, that makes sense then. What is your light like for you to suspect lighting?

2x amazon philzone black box lights set at 20%, my duncan is higher in the tank and it looks great amd i just read that they like lower light than hammers (duncan about half way up in tank hammer probly bottom 1/3)

 

[jtoein]

Ive been dosing phosphates because i have been testing at 0 for a long time. But it just now finaly showed up(not a fan of salifert phosphate kit the colors are very faint) so i have stopped that for now unless it goes undetectable again. I had a year long fight with dinos due to bottomed out phos so dont want to go down that road again. For now the plan is dose alk and mag to being those numbers up and see what happens. Im wondering if its not getting enough light but idk how to get it more withought negatively affecting the other corals which are looking happy

Oh, got it, didn't know you were at zero at one point, that makes sense then. What is your light like for you to suspect lighting?

2x amazon philzone black box lights set at 20%, my duncan is higher in the tank and it looks great amd i just read that they like lower light than hammers (duncan about half way up in tank hammer probly bottom 1/3)

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I'm not familiar with the light, but the duncan looks great and the hammer looks good too, I still think its still acclimating to your tank.

I wouldn't get hung up on the 'low lighting' thing, I find that many corals like and can adjust to high light just fine. I have strong lighting on all my tanks, many would call it overkill, but my corals grow very well.

 

[Michael Hughes]

I haven't kept a hammer before so take this with a grain of salt, but I've heard from several sources that hammers tend to do better with higher magnesium. See this video for example:



They prefer keeping their Mg at 1500+. Again I haven't personally tried this but thought I'd bring this up since your Mg was 1270.