Hammer growth or signs of trouble?

FugeTown

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I think he meant the LFS said he doesn’t need to dose calcium. And he shouldn’t unless he’s testing for it. But of course, hammers need it. And I’m sure Ca isn’t the reason for this.
Yea I know it's crazy what LFS people will tell you
 
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Ralph Ritoch

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Your hammer coral looks very bleached. That's probably why the polyps are bailing out - too much light and possibly not enough nutrients. You said your light is too close to the waterline. Is it adjustable/dimmable? If not, you could try moving the coral into a corner where it's not getting direct light.

It actually turned green after feeding and I thought this was a sign of overfeeding. It was white in the fish store so I just assumed this was the normal color.
 

Nicholas Dushynsky

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Another notable feature of this coral is that 5 heads are missing, 3 on one side, two on the other. It was this way when I bought it. I don't know why it grew in this way and didn't fill the empty tubes.



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The empty tube as you call them are the dead skeletons of what was a head that has either bailed or died.you need to know what the major levels are ideally as in alkalinity,calcium and mag along with salinity and temp. I have rescued hammers that look bad and have come back given the right setting. Get your lfs to test your water if you don't own the kits, or even if you have a fellow reefer near by. But just using natural sea water that they sell you doesn't mean it's good water. They should be able to tell you the levels of the water your adding if nothing else.
 

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Yea I know it's crazy what LFS people will tell you
I recommend doing your research on anything before you buy it. I’ve bought fish or corals and regretted it because they were not suitable for me. I won’t buy anything without asking someone or researching first. Finding local reefers or making friends with people here on this forum will help way more than a LFS. Fish stores just want business and/or hire inexperienced salespeople.
 
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Ralph Ritoch

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I think he meant the LFS said he doesn’t need to dose calcium. And he shouldn’t unless he’s testing for it. But of course, hammers need it. And I’m sure Ca isn’t the reason for this.

Next week I'm ordering a Ca tester but I'm still not sure where I can get usable Ca. Would 74% be safe to use?


 
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Ralph Ritoch

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The empty tube as you call them are the dead skeletons of what was a head that has either bailed or died.you need to know what the major levels are ideally as in alkalinity,calcium and mag along with salinity and temp. I have rescued hammers that look bad and have come back given the right setting. Get your lfs to test your water if you don't own the kits, or even if you have a fellow reefer near by. But just using natural sea water that they sell you doesn't mean it's good water. They should be able to tell you the levels of the water your adding if nothing else.


I live less than a mile from the ocean. I'm not buying NSW. I think they call this "live water".
 

ScottR

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Don’t start doing calcium!!! That’s not your problem. I can guarantee it. A calcium test first to confirm where your calcium is at. Then go from there. That calcium is something I have no idea how to use. The best way to dose is to get a dosing machine called a doser. It’ll slowly add calcium to your tank. You’d buy liquid calcium that is meant for reef tanks. But trust me, you probably don’t need this with very few corals in your tank. I’m assuming you don’t have much coralline algae (if any) and I know you don’t have many stony corals so not much to eat the calcium that fast between water changes. I see it seems you’re in the PI. I’ve seen other reefers get questionable water from their LFS there. I’d recommend making your own water with salt (it’s not as hard as it sounds). Each water change replenishes lost minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, iodine, and so forth.
 

FugeTown

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I recommend doing your research on anything before you buy it. I’ve bought fish or corals and regretted it because they were not suitable for me. I won’t buy anything without asking someone or researching first. Finding local reefers or making friends with people here on this forum will help way more than a LFS. Fish stores just want business and/or hire inexperienced salespeople.
I'm all about research , when I first got into this hobby 7 years ago I remember clearly how amazed I was watching the nitrogen cycle go from amonia to nitrite to nitrate. 7 years later I feel addicted to parameters testing trace elements and regular alkalinity. Randy Holmes was a really good teacher and I still watch chemistry presentations on YouTube. This hobby gets so much more fun the more knowledge you get.
 
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Ralph Ritoch

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Your hammer coral looks very bleached. That's probably why the polyps are bailing out - too much light and possibly not enough nutrients. You said your light is too close to the waterline. Is it adjustable/dimmable? If not, you could try moving the coral into a corner where it's not getting direct light.

Thank you! I think this is what I really needed to know. As for the lighting, this Hammer was retracting when it didn't have a lot of light and flow. I now think it was actually starving and needed the higher lighting just to survive the lack of food. I just gave it another big feeding of Coralife Delight, and its green again. I'll try increasing the feeding schedule from once every 2-3 days to once a day until it stays green.
 
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Ralph Ritoch

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Don’t start doing calcium!!! That’s not your problem. I can guarantee it. A calcium test first to confirm where your calcium is at. Then go from there. That calcium is something I have no idea how to use. The best way to dose is to get a dosing machine called a doser. It’ll slowly add calcium to your tank. You’d buy liquid calcium that is meant for reef tanks. But trust me, you probably don’t need this with very few corals in your tank. I’m assuming you don’t have much coralline algae (if any) and I know you don’t have many stony corals so not much to eat the calcium that fast between water changes. I see it seems you’re in the PI. I’ve seen other reefers get questionable water from their LFS there. I’d recommend making your own water with salt (it’s not as hard as it sounds). Each water change replenishes lost minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, iodine, and so forth.

I'm using a UV sterilizer and that seems to be working to keep the water healthy. Its my understanding that the bacteria in the ocean killed off the only salt water tank that was in this town so I'm running a filter with a UV sterilizer in it which seems to be working. I lost 2 coral due to red algae but that came from the LFS. The one coral was covered in it from day one. I haven't had any problems with this ocean water. I'm pre-cycling it in a reservoir to remove toxins and increase the salinity level. I've been told that this isn't needed but wouldn't actually hurt. I actually believe it is helping. PI has a big problem of wild coral bleaching. I really want to find a way to make this NSW work because if I can solve it for this system than the solutions may work for the big system.

Now I'm starting to think instead of focusing on feeding the coral I should try to start raising their food naturally in this system. Do you think its possible to raise plankton in a sump?
 
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Ralph Ritoch

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After feeding all of the heads color improved, turning more green, except one which was still fully bleached and not accepting food. I basically ended up force feeding it. I gave it a second targeted feeding with no response, but when I switched to night mode (80% blue, 0% white) the head started moving so I did another direct feeding. It took a LOT of food and collapsed on it. I left the pumps off for about 2 minutes and then turned them back on. The color has improved a little bit but not as much as it did with the other heads. The problem is this food, coralific delight, is distateful to one of my flowerpot corals. It retracted after I feed the hammer. I ordered reef roids a few days ago so in 3-4 weeks I can probably switch to that. The flowerpot coral have been doing very well with flake food, and since they're listed as a difficult breed I'm usually doing everything I can to keep them happy but I can't starve another coral to keep them happy. I hope this hammer recovers quickly because I don't like putting the flowerpot coral through this.
 

Nicholas Dushynsky

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I live less than a mile from the ocean. I'm not buying NSW.
Sorry I assumed. I live about 20mins from the sea and use nsw but I drive 45 mins to a cleaner source where there are no sewage outlets or streams that feed it directly. Also you shouldn't have to dose calcium yet, unless you are getting alot of growth. I dont add much to mine at the moment only kalkwasser through my ato that keeps my alk at 7.7 , calcium 420 and mag at 1350 which is what my collected water is near. Even though I use free water I dont do water changes very often only a 10% change every 6-8 weeks. I never target feed any of my euphillias only what floats around the tank.
Screenshot_20190824-235339_Gallery.jpg
 

Nicholas Dushynsky

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Also I dont do anything to the collected sea water I just store it in bottles ready to use, I store it for months in the dark in a shed. Using a uv will kill the free food that is in the saltwater which your corals could use as food. A note on what you said is that you increase your salinity, what is the salinity of it when it as at tank temp, as salinity changes with the water temp. So when collected it will read lower than when at 78-80 degrees, dont adjust it when the water is cold, or the salinity will be too high.
 

Nicholas Dushynsky

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After feeding all of the heads color improved, turning more green, except one which was still fully bleached and not accepting food. I basically ended up force feeding it. I gave it a second targeted feeding with no response, but when I switched to night mode (80% blue, 0% white) the head started moving so I did another direct feeding. It took a LOT of food and collapsed on it. I left the pumps off for about 2 minutes and then turned them back on. The color has improved a little bit but not as much as it did with the other heads. The problem is this food, coralific delight, is distateful to one of my flowerpot corals. It retracted after I feed the hammer. I ordered reef roids a few days ago so in 3-4 weeks I can probably switch to that. The flowerpot coral have been doing very well with flake food, and since they're listed as a difficult breed I'm usually doing everything I can to keep them happy but I can't starve another coral to keep them happy. I hope this hammer recovers quickly because I don't like putting the flowerpot coral through this.
What light do you have?
 
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Ralph Ritoch

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Sorry I assumed. I live about 20mins from the sea and use nsw but I drive 45 mins to a cleaner source where there are no sewage outlets or streams that feed it directly. Also you shouldn't have to dose calcium yet, unless you are getting alot of growth. I dont add much to mine at the moment only kalkwasser through my ato that keeps my alk at 7.7 , calcium 420 and mag at 1350 which is what my collected water is near. Even though I use free water I dont do water changes very often only a 10% change every 6-8 weeks. I never target feed any of my euphillias only what floats around the tank.
Screenshot_20190824-235339_Gallery.jpg

I'm amazed this works, and encouraged by it. I would think with so many coral they would use up all of the elements in NSW very quickly, and you only have one fish (that I can see). I have two clown fish and it seems it isn't enough to provide nutrients, though the starfish are growing quickly so there must be something in the tank. I also have a small population of algae that I'm regularly hunting. Once I have the reef roids I plan to stop with the target feeding but right now the hammer and zoanthids are eating the coralific delight and the flower pots are stressed by it, the flower pots like flake food. All of them will eat reef roids so that will be ideal for non-targeted feeding.
 
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Ralph Ritoch

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Also I dont do anything to the collected sea water I just store it in bottles ready to use, I store it for months in the dark in a shed. Using a uv will kill the free food that is in the saltwater which your corals could use as food. A note on what you said is that you increase your salinity, what is the salinity of it when it as at tank temp, as salinity changes with the water temp. So when collected it will read lower than when at 78-80 degrees, dont adjust it when the water is cold, or the salinity will be too high.

The water we collect is near a river, but non-toxic, comes in at around 1.018 but I'm keeping the tank at 1.024. The hot weather causes enough evaporation that it doesn't take long for the reservoir to get up to 1.024 so I can use it.
 

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