Hammer coral looking worse, what's growing on it?

[Ocellaris40]

unfortunately, as much as I wish I had a pair of clownfish right now, the other one I had jumped out of my tank and died around 2 weeks ago so, now it's just one clownfish and a total of four corals and correct, in a 40 gallon(long) tank. I also have a protein skimmer, would you recommend turning that off as well or should I atleast have the skimmer running? and what UV skimmer do you run? I've been looking at the aqua ultra violet from BRS but the price tag is too hefty. You also made me subscribe to Reef Therapy! they seem to have alot of good info(although it seems the earlier episodes are better with this Jake guy after reading what you wrote) and it's perfect to leave on while working or relaxing. I'm feeding my fish only once a day now instead of twice to cut down on the feeding and I'll have to up my water change and hope for the best. Thanks for your help man!

Sorry to hear about your clown... I certainly have learned to literally keep a lid on my tank. I would say for the skimmer, judgement call but with such a light bio load I think you're fine without one for a bit.

Honestly I got a cheapo UV sterilizer from Amazon I think it was 40 bucks, it's a submersible one, and probably undersized a bit but works for me, I initially had a 40 breeder but now have a 100 gallon but same UV.

What do you have for flow, on one hand the skimmer is good for gas exchange, but a power head aimed at the surface should give you good agitation which would accomplish the same thing.

Glad you're liking reef therapy, I also just have it on in the background I've re watched a bunch of episodes but I usually pick up some good info even passively. What resonates well is when they talk about reefing in the early 2000s when I started (though I got out of the hobby for college and only got back into it a year ago).