Issues with two Hammers

[MIA_Reef]

I posted this in the LPS section but have not received any replies yet. Any help is appreciated

I bought two hammer corals about a week apart back in early March and they were both looking great for about 3 maybe 4 weeks, then they started to close up and tissue started to recede. Now today they still do not fully open and on my hammer that has 3 heads, the Hammer shaped tips seem to have disappeared and some tentacles seem to be stuck together at the tips. Also have noticed tiny black maybe red bugs on the skeleton as well as what I am assuming are mesenterial filaments coming out today after I fed a little bit of reef roids. When I noticed the hammers looking bad in March I had my Alk tested at a LFS because I didn't have a test for it and was told the Alk was a little low around 6 or 7 so they recommended I try using some Seachem Reef Carbonate. I'm sure I raised my Alk to high too fast so that didn't help the problem with the hammer's. My alk has been pretty stable around 8.3-8.8 for the last 3 week though and not much has changed. For lighting I was using a Hipargero Aqua knight LED light but I just upgraded to an Ai Prime 16HD 3 days ago. I also have a Hydor Koralia Nano 240 gph powerhead in the tank but lately I have not been using it too much since I have pretty good water flow with just the return pump.




Water parameters as of 2 days ago are

Temp - 79 degrees
Salinity - 1.025-1.026 Refractometer
Phosphate 0.25 - API test
Nitrite 0 - API test
High Range pH 7.8 - API test
Nitrate somewhere between 10-20 API test
ALK 8.8 - Hanna checker
Calcium 440-450 API test
Do not have a Mag test yet
I buy my RO water and natural Sea water from my local LFS and do weekly water changes of 2-5 gallons on a 20 gallon waterbox.


This is how the hammers looked in early March

The rest of the pictures are mostly from today but some are from a week ago. The last 2 pictures are of my bright green single head hammer and the rest are from the 3 head hammer.

 

[MIA_Reef]

Also have two short clips taken today of the 3 head hammer if it helps any.

 

[F i s h y]

I'm no expert but you appear to have tissue recession and some type of parasites. Have you taken any corrective measures? Any type of dip or medication? Also has this affected any of your other coral or just this species? Thats a helpful hint as well.

 

[MIA_Reef]

I'm no expert but you appear to have tissue recession and some type of parasites. Have you taken any corrective measures? Any type of dip or medication?

When I first got these two I dipped them in revive. Also in the past month I have dipped them 2 times in Seachem reef dip since it has iodine. I waited about a week and half between each dip of seachem reef dip

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Evening,

I was looking at the vid, the bugs don’t look like red bugs.They usually go after sps, but nothing is a 100%.

Besides the dip, have you tried to move them into a different position for flow or light!?

There may be 2 things going on. @Flippers4pups is good with hammers, maybe he can ID the bugs.

Run thru Melv page to see if anything stands out that may help.

Red Bugs - No More! | Melev's Reef

www.melevsreef.com

 

[MIA_Reef]

I also have a small single head frogspawn that I bought around the same time as the hammers that is having the same issues. The rest of my corals are doing perfectly fine. The first pic is what the frogspawn looked like last month, second pic is earlier today and the other two is the rest of the tank today.

 

[MIA_Reef]

Evening,

I was looking at the vid, the bugs don’t look like red bugs.They usually go after sps, but nothing is a 100%.

Besides the dip, have you tried to move them into a different position for flow or light!?

There may be 2 things going on. @Flippers4pups is good with hammers, maybe he can ID the bugs.

Run thru Melv page to see if anything stands out that may help.

Red Bugs - No More! | Melev's Reef

www.melevsreef.com

The 3 head hammer was doing great on the far right of the tank when I first got it. After about a month it started to open up less and less so I moved it slightly higher on a rock then all the way to the far left and it has stayed the same. Same with the green one. It started on the sand then moved to a rock and back to the sand when it started to stay closed.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Not sure if those bugs are your problem but a few things stuck out at me from your post..

If you quickly raised your Alk from 6 to almost 9, that could be some of your problems.

I would get a good Magnesium Test kit such as salifert, it's important to know that number.

Your phosphates are high but using API who knows what the real number is? I recommend the Hanna ULR phosphate tester.. If that number is correct, get them down to .1 or lower

As much as I like my LFS I would never trust them to make my RO water, who knows what your actually getting?

when you say your using natural sea water what does that mean? IMO the commercial stuff you buy in the bladder lined boxes isn't that great, my brother in law used it for a while and we had all kinds of issues with his tank. If your talking about someone local collecting it, I wouldn't trust that either.

Running some quality carbon and changing it out frequently wouldn't be a bad idea just in case there are some kind of contaminates in your water.. things like air fresheners, fumes from fresh paint, scented candles, insect sprays etc.. can have devistating effects on a tank.

 

[MIA_Reef]

Not sure if those bugs are your problem but a few things stuck out at me from your post..

If you quickly raised your Alk from 6 to almost 9, that could be some of your problems.

I would get a good Magnesium Test kit such as salifert, it's important to know that number.

Your phosphates are high but using API who knows what the real number is? I recommend the Hanna ULR phosphate tester.. If that number is correct, get them down to .1 or lower

As much as I like my LFS I would never trust them to make my RO water, who knows what your actually getting?

when you say your using natural sea water what does that mean? IMO the commercial stuff you buy in the bladder lined boxes isn't that great, my brother in law used it for a while and we had all kinds of issues with his tank. If your talking about someone local collecting it, I wouldn't trust that either.

Running some quality carbon and changing it out frequently wouldn't be a bad idea just in case there are some kind of contaminates in your water.. things like air fresheners, fumes from fresh paint, scented candles, insect sprays etc.. can have devistating effects on a tank.

I'm planning on getting the Hanna phosphate test soon as well as the salifert mag test. I asked my local LFS if they make their saltwater or if its ocean water and they told me they do both but the water they make cost a little more. I live in Miami, FL so I am assuming they literally just get water from the ocean. They charge .50 cents per gallon for ocean water and I believe $1 per gallon of water they mix. I did have a room air freshener in the same room as the tank but it was removed a month and a half ago. I also am currently running a small bag of carbon. I will look into getting an RO/DI unit to make my own water. I recently bought a small bucket of RedSea Coral Pro Salt so I can start making my own water but have not used it yet because it says with the salinity at 34ppt the Alk will be at 11.5, Mag at 1350, and Cal at 450. How can I use this salt mix without causing more problems by raising these parameters so high.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

I'm planning on getting the Hanna phosphate test soon as well as the salifert mag test. I asked my local LFS if they make their saltwater or if its ocean water and they told me they do both but the water they make cost a little more. I live in Miami, FL so I am assuming they literally just get water from the ocean. They charge .50 cents per gallon for ocean water and I believe $1 per gallon of water they mix. I did have a room air freshener in the same room as the tank but it was removed a month and a half ago. I also am currently running a small bag of carbon. I will look into getting an RO/DI unit to make my own water. I recently bought a small bucket of RedSea Coral Pro Salt so I can start making my own water but have not used it yet because it says with the salinity at 34ppt the Alk will be at 11.5, Mag at 1350, and Cal at 450. How can I use this salt mix without causing more problems by raising these parameters so high.

With small water changes, it will be a safe transition. As long as you aren't changing 100% of the water at a time you will be fine. You need to decide where you want your tank to be alkalinity wise, and find a salt that matches that. If you want to stay in the 8 range, find a Salt that mixes to it.

 

[Retro Reefer]

I'm planning on getting the Hanna phosphate test soon as well as the salifert mag test. I asked my local LFS if they make their saltwater or if its ocean water and they told me they do both but the water they make cost a little more. I live in Miami, FL so I am assuming they literally just get water from the ocean. They charge .50 cents per gallon for ocean water and I believe $1 per gallon of water they mix. I did have a room air freshener in the same room as the tank but it was removed a month and a half ago. I also am currently running a small bag of carbon. I will look into getting an RO/DI unit to make my own water. I recently bought a small bucket of RedSea Coral Pro Salt so I can start making my own water but have not used it yet because it says with the salinity at 34ppt the Alk will be at 11.5, Mag at 1350, and Cal at 450. How can I use this salt mix without causing more problems by raising these parameters so high.

Unless your LFS is collecting their water several miles offshore I wouldn't trust it. You can skip the RS salt and Just use a lower Alk one like plain old instant ocean and you will also save yourself some money along the way.

 

[MIA_Reef]

Ok, I'll look into buying another salt mix. Would my 240gph power head be enough to mix the salt properly in a 5 gallon bucket or would I need something stronger? By the way I wan't to say thanks to everybody that has helped.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Ok, I'll look into buying another salt mix. Would my 240gph power head be enough to mix the salt properly in a 5 gallon bucket or would I need something stronger? By the way I wan't to say thanks to everybody that has helped.

Any old power head you have laying around will work just fine, doesn't need to be all that powerful.