Help!! Hammer Coral retracting

[Danny Martinez]

On Thursday I picked 3 corals; 2 hammers and one frogspawn. Didn't mean to buy 3 corals, but the store was running a $19.99 sale on corals that are typically $60. These are the corals that made me want a reef tank so I ended up walking out with 3 and it took some discipline to stop at 3.


To my eyes the other hammer (although he looks like he has a micro feather duster in him) and froagspawn seem to be adjusting and appear as they did in store. I added him to the substrate on Thursday after long acclimation (but no dip which I will correct going forward; always dip) and he looked grumpy, then on Friday he puffed up and looked better than the other two but today as you can see, next to the frogspawn he's retracted. He actually looks even more deflated at the moment. I took some pics of him on a Friday on my DSLR but haven't transferred them yet.

The other tank inhabitants (PJ cardinal, Duncan, brain, candy cane, finger leather and even my temperamental zoas plus various snails and hermits) look well.

I know my nitrates should be lower and I'm cooking up water now for another WC. I'm also dosing to get my calcium up. There did appear to be a swing in dKH. It was 11 and today it was between I tested between 8-9 so I'm going to re-run that test. But I need to figure out the cause for that swing.

SG: 1.025

Tank: Biocube 32 LED; stock (running for about 3 weeks)

Temp: 78

Ammo: 0 ppm

Nitrites: 0 ppm

Nitrates: less than 10 ppm

pH: 8.0

dKH: 8-9

Cal: 380

Phosphates: 0

Last WC: before adding the 3 corals on Thursday

Filtration: coralife filter cartridge; cheato; purigen

I really would like to save his hammer. Any insight or tips as to where to look are greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

 

[ntayler]

I killed a hammer with 0 po4 once. I would start by upping that

 

[Danny Martinez]

I killed a hammer with 0 po4 once. I would start by upping that

Stupid question. How would I increase phosphates? I did a 20% water change yesterday and my nitrates are no lower than before the WC. I kind of want to get a Red Sea nitrate test to compare.

Looking at it now I don't think it's going to make it; it's super receded. And not sure what caused it. I'm going also read up on phosphates; what I've read seemed so focused on low phosphates.

So now I'm worried about the other euphyllia. They aren't showing signs of distress; none that I can see anyway but the hammer was happy too until he wasn't. And it could be I made some passing thing worse by the steps I took. I'm going to dip it in lugols as a Hail Mary.

Bummer the my first lost is the coral I wanted the most.