Hammer slowly melting

[agamblinalot]

My hammer was once super huge. A month ago I had a malfunction with my ato and salinity shot up to almost 40ppt. It’s been corrected and has been stable at 35ppt for the last month. My no3, po4 and Alk have been .01 or .02 from the numbers below (super stable). I’ve added carbon today but am afraid to dip in coralRX because it looks like it’s falling apart. Any ideas? I don’t see any flatworms.

 

[agamblinalot]

 

[EnterName]

The zoa next to it doesn't look too happy either. Too much or too little light? Insufficient or too heavy flow at times?

Doesn't look like a nutrient issue in my opinion (assuming the measurements are correct). pH might be a bit low. 7.8 is usually the lowest it "should" go during night. How are you measuring salinity and is it back to around 35ppt?

How are your other corals doing?

 

[kevgib67]

Your nitrates are to low, you’ll need to get them up, 10-15 even higher is better than lower. LPS need more nutrients in the water, softies even more so. What I can’t tell from the picture is light and flow. Light with a par of 100-150 and moderate random flow.

 

[agamblinalot]

The zoa next to it doesn't look too happy either. Too much or too little light? Insufficient or too heavy flow at times?

Doesn't look like a nutrient issue in my opinion (assuming the measurements are correct). pH might be a bit low. 7.8 is usually the lowest it "should" go during night. How are you measuring salinity and is it back to around 35ppt?

How are your other corals doing?

Lights been the same since day one and so has the flow. They were loving life for 6 months or so. My sinularia is growing like a weed next to them, maybe leather toxin? Chronic allelopathy maybe? My Duncan is closed up slightly too. Acans don’t care and are doing great at the bottom.

Salinity is with a calibrated ATC refractometer. All others are Hannah.

 

[agamblinalot]

Your nitrates are to low, you’ll need to get them up, 10-15 even higher is better than lower. LPS need more nutrients in the water, softies even more so. What I can’t tell from the picture is light and flow. Light with a par of 100-150 and moderate random flow.

It’s an old picture, I’ve since recapped but it’s sitting about where the Hollywood stunner was so it’s around 100. Flow is ricocheting off the opposite wall back to it so it’s moderate and random. I have a nero3 set to pulse and usually get a nice back and forth flow.

 

[EnterName]

Lights been the same since day one and so has the flow. They were loving life for 6 months or so. My sinularia is growing like a weed next to them, maybe leather toxin? Chronic allelopathy maybe?

Repositioning a coral is quite a stressor, but if you have no other idea, you could relocate it and also add some granular activated charcoal to get rid of potentially unwanted substances. Alternatively a few larger water changes could help as well. I personally don't think it has anything to do with your nutrient levels in nature nitrate below 0.03ppm and corals use other nitrogen sources, but if you want to stick to Randy's target nutrient ranges you could provide some ammonia and/or phosphate.

Do you feed your corals from time to time? I wouldn't recommend it right now because digestion takes a lot of energy which that coral probably won't have right now, but for long-term health, it certainly is important to corals to have at least some digestible food.

 

[agamblinalot]

Lights been the same since day one and so has the flow. They were loving life for 6 months or so. My sinularia is growing like a weed next to them, maybe leather toxin? Chronic allelopathy maybe?

Repositioning a coral is quite a stressor, but if you have no other idea, you could relocate it and also add some granular activated charcoal to get rid of potentially unwanted substances. Alternatively a few larger water changes could help as well. I personally don't think it has anything to do with your nutrient levels, but if you want to stick to Randy's target nutrient ranges you could provide some ammonia and/or phosphate.

Do you feed your corals from time to time? I wouldn't recommend it right now because digestion takes a lot of energy which that coral probably won't have right now, but for long-term health, it certainly is important to corals to have at least some digestible food.

I may just relocate or frag the sinularia. It’s so huge right now it’s shading out a lot of the left side and I’m pretty sure it’s coral warfaring everything with its toxins. I’ve added rox carbon today so we’ll see if it’s toxins.