Having issues with my hammer coral

[wiktor]

8 months started with a big piece of old live rock cycled and cycled for months now

had any spikes with alk or ph recently?

 

[Wrothgar]

had any spikes with alk or ph recently?

No other than a +.1 change two weeks ago

 

[wiktor]

No other than a +.1 change two weeks ago

it could’ve just been a poor frag idk

 

[Wrothgar]

Well if it was doing fine and it was just a temp spike, I'm sure it is just ticked off and adjusting. It can pull in and be ticked for a couple of days no worries, tissue recession is a different story. Still curious to know what the base color is supposed to be.

Corals are more adapative than most think, so if it was fine at 71 degrees for a month, good for it. Still think that is low and you'll have to acclimate things more since you run your tank at a temperature that is lower than probably 90% of the tanks out there. Also, I'd try to lower your Calcium a little, it is rather high.

Base color was an ethereal purple beautiful little guy here's an update this morning I checked on him and he's got his feeders out and flowing well

 

[Wrothgar]

it could’ve just been a poor frag idk

So today after doing a proper dunk it's feeders are back out significantly smaller but they're back, I'm still wondering what the viscera was that it put out lots of stringy slime whatever it was it healed itself after a coral rx dunk

 

[Wrothgar]

How old is the tank?

8 months going on 9

 

[vetteguy53081]

Aaaaaalrighty.. first time posting.
Bought a hammer coral around a month ago
Parameters
Alk 8.2
Sal 34.8-35 ppb
Cal 560 ppm
Mag 1580ppm
NO3 0-2 ppm
NO2 > 5ppm
Temp 71°f

Just recently cycled a week ago. Thought my numbers looked good as of today. Lps was having a good time until my power tripped in my house and my thermostat was oem set to 77°f and cranked my water temp to 78°f two days ago. I was worried it would affect the hammer coral and I think it has. I did coral rx dip about an hour ago and tried feeding,

bone is clearly showing and I've got a slime building up around the receded feeders. I expect the worse but I'm hoping for the best any advice will help

Mag and Calcium very high and temp Low. Placement on the bottom also not a favorable location as they are easily irritated by sand. If tank is newer, not a good first coral as they dont adapt well with chemistry changes but rather stable numbers
How old is tank?
If newer, is it cycled and how long did you cycle tank ?
What test kits are you using ?
Calcium needs to be in 400-440 range
Mag 13-- range
Moderate light and water flow
temp 77-79

 

[Kasrift]

Mag and Calcium very high and temp Low. Placement on the bottom also not a favorable location as they are easily irritated by sand. If tank is newer, not a good first coral as they dont adapt well with chemistry changes but rather stable numbers
How old is tank?
If newer, is it cycled and how long did you cycle tank ?
What test kits are you using ?
Calcium needs to be in 400-440 range
Mag 13-- range
Moderate light and water flow
temp 77-79

Agree with everything you said. He answered the age a couple of times, 8 months old.

 

[Wrothgar]

Mag and Calcium very high and temp Low. Placement on the bottom also not a favorable location as they are easily irritated by sand. If tank is newer, not a good first coral as they dont adapt well with chemistry changes but rather stable numbers
How old is tank?
If newer, is it cycled and how long did you cycle tank ?
What test kits are you using ?
Calcium needs to be in 400-440 range
Mag 13-- range
Moderate light and water flow
temp 77-79

Noted I can start to amend my tank to those levels what would you recommend I start with

 

[vetteguy53081]

Noted I can start to amend my tank to those levels what would you recommend I start with

CA most important for them as well as Temperature range

 

[Wrothgar]

CA most important for them as well as Temperature range

Okay so from what I have accumulated from you guys is that my temperature is quite low even though it flourished for a month under the conditions.. that my calcium and magnesium are too high.. I'm still not quite sure what the implications of a slightly higher CA MG ratio could possibly be other than a slightly notable difference in gravity if at all.. I'm assuming that they will go down naturally as they are utilized.. so what my goal is at this point is to raise the temp of the tank 1° per week; because I really don't want to take this guy off again, until it is to the recommended temperature that I've been prescribed around 78°..

 

[Kasrift]

It just makes things unstable. As I mentioned earlier, stability is the key. Higher calcium can cause more alk swings, or precipitate out of the water column. Here is a BRS article on what happens when Alk goes over 500 https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/cont...#:~:text=If the calcium levels get,(7-10 dKH). Magnesium can get higher and some people do run that closer to 1500 with claims that it lowers algae and LPS love it. I don't know how substantiated those claims are though versus just annecdotal.

 

[Wrothgar]

It just makes things unstable. As I mentioned earlier, stability is the key. Higher calcium can cause more alk swings, or precipitate out of the water column. Here is a BRS article on what happens when Alk goes over 500 https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/content/post/md-2011-03-salt-water-reef-aquarium-calcium-levels-test-500-mgl-high#:~:text=If the calcium levels get,(7-10 dKH). Magnesium can get higher and some people do run that closer to 1500 with claims that it lowers algae and LPS love it. I don't know how substantiated those claims are though versus just annecdotal.

This is great information my pH levels have only changed +.1 in the last 2 weeks I didn't see any sort of calcium precipitate so it indicates stability of the 3. I can now watch for parameter changes and perceive when it fluctuates better with the info.

 

[Wrothgar]

Update.. Little guy didn't make it, the 10 gal tank I had cracked so I'm starting over, I can confirm he died because of the temperature swing ... Here we go .. upgrading to a 20 gal going to add a heater and get it to 78° seems to be the happy medium.