Hammer coral okay. Dying?

[Joethefish]

Hi so this is my first post on the forum. I have a 15g reef tank that I setup about 7 months ago. I have 2 clown fish a goby, a bunch of zoas, a green mushroom, gsp, and a new hammer coral I got yesterday. I’ve had hammers before (1) but it was bigger and seemed stronger. It died from a calcium deficiency. Anyway, I feel like this one is looking rough. Calcium 415 ppm. Ammonia nitrate nitrite 0. Salinity 1 .027. I drip acclimated for 1.5 hrs. Is it just acclimating? I have a 130 gph power head also and this is the link (https://www.u-buy.com.tw/en/product...light-with-dual-channel-wired-controller-nano) to the light I have. (6.5 hrs a day) the hammer it had some algae on it so I used a turkey baster to get it off but that’s it

 

[Shirak]

Was this a mail order? Looks not so good But after one day it's really hard to say.
Corals shouldn't be drip acclimated. 15min dip in pest remover if you do that sort of thing. Then into the tank after a rinse.

Your calcium is a little on the low side but not terrible. I prefer 450ish range. 0 nitrate is not good. Many corals get much of their nutrients from the water. You should also have a good phosphate test kit if you are keeping corals. Don't want a lot of phosphate but 0 would be bad.

Sorry can't help with the flow and lighting as I don't know anything about your equipment. New corals usually start in their new home in a lower flow lower light area and see how they do then move them to where you want them after they acclimate. Branching hammer would like moderate flow and low/moderate light. Looks like you have it mounted sideways? Probably would prefer to be more upright.

 

[Joethefish]

Was this a mail order? Looks not so good But after one day it's really hard to say.
Corals shouldn't be drip acclimated. 15min dip in pest remover if you do that sort of thing. Then into the tank after a rinse.

Your calcium is a little on the low side but not terrible. I prefer 450ish range. 0 nitrate is not good. Many corals get much of their nutrients from the water. You should also have a good phosphate test kit if you are keeping corals. Don't want a lot of phosphate but 0 would be bad.

Sorry can't help with the flow and lighting as I don't know anything about your equipment. New corals usually start in their new home in a lower flow lower light area and see how they do then move them to where you want them after they acclimate. Branching hammer would like moderate flow and low/moderate light. Looks like you have it mounted sideways? Probably would prefer to be more upright.

The nitrate was as of 3 days ago after a water change. Now it it back up to 15 ppm. I heard if you mount the coral sideways it grows faster but I guess right now I should not worry about growth but just keeping it alive. The light is 30 watts and has Blue/white bulbs. I will mount it up right for the next few days until it acclimated. The flow is 132 gph but I turned it off. Do you think it’s okay to keep the light completely off for the next few days to get it acclimated. I have many other zoas and some other softies In there and I would hate to jeopardize them. For the past few weeks I have also been dosing a calcium supplement so I can raise the dosage if needed. For the phosphates I can get that tested at my lfs. Anything else I can do to get it acclimated?

 

[chadfish]

Don’t shut off the flow or the light. Just get it mounted upright in a place with moderate light and moderate flow. Then do nothing for at least a week

 

[Uncle99]

One day.
Maybe do nothing at all for weeks.

 

[vetteguy53081]

some things important to these guys are Location, calcium (below 380 will upset them) water flow moderate and light (too bright will make them miserable)
Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right.
This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. Fast currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps (and getting an infection). Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks. Reduce white light intensity and get it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.

 

[Joethefish]

some things important to these guys are Location, calcium (below 380 will upset them) water flow moderate and light (too bright will make them miserable)
Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right.
This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. Fast currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps (and getting an infection). Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks. Reduce white light intensity and get it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.

Have not tested alkalinity but calcium is 45-420 range. Will re mount it to a better spot and turn the light off for the next hours. I’ll keep updated.

 

[Mxracer65]

some things important to these guys are Location, calcium (below 380 will upset them) water flow moderate and light (too bright will make them miserable)
Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right.
This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. Fast currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps (and getting an infection). Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks. Reduce white light intensity and get it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.

There's a 3 year difference in these photos. I tried to move it and many branches broke off. This never left the sand?

 

[Mxracer65]

There's a 3 year difference in these photos. I tried to move it and many branches broke off. This never left the sand?

Not sure why didn't post second pic.

 

[Joethefish]

Not sure why didn't post second pic.

Beautiful piece. Any tips?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Mine did poorly on sand as sand irritated them. Moved them up 3 ' and this:

 

[Joethefish]

Wow that’s really amazing. I will keep my lights and flow off for the next 18 hrs and see how it’s doing after that

 

[Joethefish]

I thought I should take a picture before I left my tanks for the night (I just turned the light on for the picture) and the flow was off. If I am not mistaken, is this an exposed piece of skeleton

 

[Shirak]

Leave the flow on. 130gph powerhead in a 15g tank is not even 10x turnover. I run two red sea wave pumps (in reverse_ and a powerhead in a 20g frag tank. Plus the return pump on a random flow nozzle which is around 200gph. You are not pushing to much water unless you are blasting it directly. Don't mess with the lights. Stability is best. I doubt you are stressing it out with a 30w blue/white led fixture. I run 4 - 2' T5 bulbs and a double reefbrite actinic blue led fixture at 1/3 power on the same tank, which is about 120watts of power.. if you are counting watts. BTW 6.5hrs of light is probably not long enough. I would be looking at more like 8-10hrs

The coral is shriveled and gaping so it's stressed pretty badly. Could be water parameter change from what it was used to. Hard to say. Was this a coral you got locally or through the mail?

Also be patient.. leave everything alone. Let the coral adjust. It will take weeks. Meanwhile you can get your nutrients above 0.

 

[Joethefish]

Leave the flow on. 130gph powerhead in a 15g tank is not even 10x turnover. I run two red sea wave pumps (in reverse_ and a powerhead in a 15g frag tank. You are not pushing to much water unless you are blasting it directly. Don't mess with the lights. Stability is best. I doubt you are stressing it out with a 30w blue/white led fixture. BTW 6.5hrs of light is probably not long enough. I would be looking at more like 8-10hrs

The coral is shriveled and gaping so it's stressed pretty badly. Could be water parameter change from what it was used to. Hard to say. Was this a coral you got locally or through the mail?

Also be patient.. leave everything alone. Let the coral adjust. It will take weeks. Meanwhile you can get your nutrients above 0.

Yes I did order it online. The lighting was low because I couldn’t keep up with algae and I was going to get it under control and then turn it back up. I will turn the flow back on tomorrow along with the lights. I just thought the flow might be too much because it was really swaying and it was not directly by the Powerhead. I know you aren’t supposed to on the 1st day but I did target feed it today

 

[Shirak]

Yes I did order it online. The lighting was low because I couldn’t keep up with algae and I was going to get it under control and then turn it back up. I will turn the flow back on tomorrow along with the lights. I just thought the flow might be too much because it was really swaying and it was not directly by the Powerhead. I know you aren’t supposed to on the 1st day but I did target feed it today

Maybe something stressed it out big time shipping?

What do you have for cleanup crew? Turning the lights down isn't the best approach. Reef Flux can help get things back in order and knock hair and unwanted algae down and then add to the CUC to keep it under control going forward.

I looked at your video earlier. Flow looked fine to me although it was kind of short on looking at the hammer.

 

[chadfish]

Run your lights and flow normally. Do not adjust your schedule for the Hammer. It will acclimate you your normal schedule. Try to keep from adjusting anything for a week and see how it is.

 

[Joethefish]

Ok

Maybe something stressed it out big time shipping?

What do you have for cleanup crew? Turning the lights down isn't the best approach. Reef Flux can help get things back in order and knock hair and unwanted algae down and then add to the CUC to keep it under control going forward.

I looked at your video earlier. Flow looked fine to me although it was kind of short on looking at the hammer.

Ok I’ll will definitely turn the flow back on. It was overnight shipping and it could not have been in transit for more than at most 20 hours. I will look into those supplements. I currently don’t have a clean up crew but pre ordered some nasarius snails last week at my lfs and plan to pick them up on Friday.

 

[Joethefish]

Run your lights and flow normally. Do not adjust your schedule for the Hammer. It will acclimate you your normal schedule. Try to keep from adjusting anything for a week and see how it is.

That seems to be what a lot of people are saying so I will do that. In the end it is what it is. Will see how it is after a few days

 

[Shirak]

Ok

Ok I’ll will definitely turn the flow back on. It was overnight shipping and it could not have been in transit for more than at most 20 hours. I will look into those supplements. I currently don’t have a clean up crew but pre ordered some nasarius snails last week at my lfs and plan to pick them up on Friday.

oh yes for sure need some snails for the algae at least. The Nassarius snails are fun and help the sand and eat left over food but won't touch the algae. Get a couple mexican turbo and some astrea or trochus

At least try a couple mexican turbo snails first before going with something like reef flux.