Help! My Hammer is Dying!

[Lavey29]

I listed my current feeding regimen above. How much should I increase it? Should I feed a cube every day? Add more coral food or phyto?

I feed 2 cubes frozen twice a day to 12 fish in a 65g tank and a snack in the middle. You can always dose neophos and neonitro easily to get numbers up but more feeding and more coral food is preferred and more natural approach.

 

[Reef Devils]

Should I feed roids with the AB plus or instead? Should I feed frozen mysis every day?

You could do AB plus with roids. I think lost of people do that. Corals will be happy with that!

 

[Reef Devils]

Should I get more fish? I have 2 clowns Midas blenny and wrasse in a 32g biocube

I would not get more fish for that size tank maybe a small fish. Just feed more food and watch nitrate

 

[maxemorris]

Sounds good this has been super helpful thank you all! I will feed heavier, and if there is no response I will try the iodine dip. I don’t want to stress the coral with a second dip since I saw no pests. I started my tank with dry rock, and dipped every coral before adding it to my tank. I’ve had my run in with pests before!

 

[maxemorris]

I understand that the iodine is for infection not pests lol

 

[Reef Devils]

I understand that the iodine is for infection not pests lol

Yes if you see BJD I would do iodine dip. Or any bacterial infections

 

[Reef Devils]

Sounds good this has been super helpful thank you all! I will feed heavier, and if there is no response I will try the iodine dip. I don’t want to stress the coral with a second dip since I saw no pests. I started my tank with dry rock, and dipped every coral before adding it to my tank. I’ve had my run in with pests before!

Right I would hold off on a second dip and see what happens

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

So, reading through this thread and I agree that having 0 nitrates is a problem. What other coral do you have? Do you have a lot of algae in your tank? It's *possible* that your nutrients are sufficient but the coral and algae are utilizing them all. How often do you test? Did nitrates use to be higher? Could the recent test be wrong?

As for the hammer itself, sometimes when a colony gets too big, some of the heads suffer, due to not getting enough light, etc. It's possible that the head in the middle of the colony died simply because it was too crowded.

I hope you find some answers and that the coral does well :)

One other thing: while dipping is often a good idea, remember that any time you move a coral, it stresses it. With fleshy coral especially, if you don't allow them to deflate before removing them from the water, the weight of the polyps can actually cause damage, which can then turn into an infection... Just something to keep in mind.

 

[UMALUM]

Your hammer is not dying. It's not uncommon in the slightest for a euphyllia of that size to loose a head or two. It could be a combination of reasons as already mentioned but imo nothing that would require what has been suggested thus far. It doesn't take much of a flaw at all in the skeletal growth to have polyps bail or recede. To me your tank looks healthy and I would stay away from doing anything except watch. I've had huge colonies loose heads it's called nature it happens. Check your nutrients again and make sure before you start dumping all that extra waste in there and be careful who you listen to as there is a unnamed participant in this thread who has no business giving anyone advice.