My Toxic Branching Hammer looks like it’s dying.

[mr.og.mia]

Hey everyone, My “toxic” branching hammer coral is showing its skeleton and losing color.
Kept in:
8month old waterbox 20g
See pic attached for latest water parameters.
Ive tried feeding it rods food and reef roid to no avail.
Lights are running 8hrs

 

[mr.og.mia]

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

That looks like a brand new hammer that was just added?

Hammers are more finicky than people realize. What PAR is it under or what lighting and intensity.

Your calcium is a bit low. Do you have any other test kits like Red Sea? Hammers also like a bit dirty water. If the machine is correct (I've heard bad things things about those) then your water is pretty clean which normally is good.

Let me know on your lighting and intensity, salinity level and any dosing you're doing.

 

[Frogspon]

Commenting for someone to prove me wrong but 99% of problems on here go undiagnosed and unresolved.

What will happen is a bunch of parameter police show up and argue over X too high, Y is a little low..

Only thing you can do is reef dip and place in low light low flow to recover. Some corals just peace out because they were meant for the ocean.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

No one needs to prove anything to you.

You're contributing to the problem that you stated by offering zero assistance.

 

[Bribo12]

How long have you had it? That looks a lot more like a wall hammer than a branching which are known to be much more difficult. Any other corals acting funny?

 

[Frogspon]

No one needs to prove anything to you.

You're contributing to the problem that you stated by offering zero assistance.

U mad bro?

I offered the only solution so far.
This place is great for hobby talk, pictures and equipment suggestions… but actual livestock issues? not so much,

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

U mad bro?

I offered the only solution so far.
This place is great for hobby talk, pictures and equipment suggestions… but actual livestock issues? not so much,

I agree completely. And it was probably the only real solution to this problem. Any sudden changes to the tanks parameters because they are too high or too low will most likely cause even more stress. Yes parameters are important but in the aggregate and over time (with the assumption that the parameters are reasonably stable to begin with) but a immediate changes will most likely cause more harm than good. The only way of saving that hammer is to baby it in your icu. Low lights, low flow, give it room, etc

 

[mr.og.mia]

Hey everyone, no need to get all mad im sure everyone is trying to help from different perspectives.

As far as lighting, I have a AI Prime 16 HD running 8 hrs at about 50% intensity.
Right now thats the only hammer in the tank. The rest are zoas , GSP on the back wall and nems. And 1 candy cane (which appears to also be losing color)

As far as dosing, I just started today to dose calcium from red sea.

And im running chemipure blue.
Thank you for reaching out !! Hopefully we can save this lil guy of mine!

 

[mr.og.mia]

That looks like a brand new hammer that was just added?

Hammers are more finicky than people realize. What PAR is it under or what lighting and intensity.

Your calcium is a bit low. Do you have any other test kits like Red Sea? Hammers also like a bit dirty water. If the machine is correct (I've heard bad things things about those) then your water is pretty clean which normally is good.

Let me know on your lighting and intensity, salinity level and any dosing you're doing.

It was in the tank for about 2 weeks before it started going down hill

 

[mr.og.mia]

Mind you, Im also having an issue with green hair algae in the tank…

 

[blaxsun]

You could try moving it off the rocks and down into the substrate (all my hammers seem to prefer being right along the bottom of the tank). The only other thing I could think of is that it might be reacting to flow (you could try adjusting down for a day and see if that helps).

 

[mr.og.mia]

 

[mr.og.mia]

This is it now, been all day with almost 0 flow

 

[blaxsun]

This is it now, been all day with almost 0 flow

It seems to look a lot better...? Maybe it was just getting a tad too much flow?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Elevate it higher (just a little). A few things regarding hammer coral- Like most other coral species, Euphyllia requires Stable tank conditions, and is intolerant to major swings in water quality. Additionally, it is sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water. Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right.
This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. Strong water currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps. Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks. Reduce white light intensity and get it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.
The hammer coral is considered to be an aggressive coral species that will attack its neighbors with sweeper tentacles. These are stinging nematocysts (similar to the sting of an anemone) on the end of a specialized polyp that can extend several inches away from the body of the coral. The sweeper tentacles pack a punch and will chemically burn any neighboring corals.
Hammer corals are more subdued eaters who would benefit from the occasional feeding of a meaty marine food like mysis and brine shrimp.

 

[mr.og.mia]

Elevate it higher (just a little). A few things regarding hammer coral- Like most other coral species, Euphyllia requires Stable tank conditions, and is intolerant to major swings in water quality. Additionally, it is sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water. Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right.
This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. Strong water currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps. Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks. Reduce white light intensity and get it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.
The hammer coral is considered to be an aggressive coral species that will attack its neighbors with sweeper tentacles. These are stinging nematocysts (similar to the sting of an anemone) on the end of a specialized polyp that can extend several inches away from the body of the coral. The sweeper tentacles pack a punch and will chemically burn any neighboring corals.
Hammer corals are more subdued eaters who would benefit from the occasional feeding of a meaty marine food like mysis and brine shrimp.

Thanks for all that knowledge, it seems to be getting its color back, this afternoon I dosed the tank with calcium so maybe that helped.

im having a terrible bloom of brown hair algae… im only feeding the fish (2 clowns) and a small fox face once a week to keep nutrients low but still cant shake that brown nastiness. Any pointers?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks for all that knowledge, it seems to be getting its color back, this afternoon I dosed the tank with calcium so maybe that helped.

im having a terrible bloom of brown hair algae… im only feeding the fish (2 clowns) and a small fox face once a week to keep nutrients low but still cant shake that brown nastiness. Any pointers?

Are you sure its algae ? Any pics under white light you can provide?
Also what test kits are you using ?

 

[mr.og.mia]

Are you sure its algae ? Any pics under white light you can provide?
Also what test kits are you using ?

I scrubbed everything down last week and its like this a week later lol I feel defeated.
As far as test kits, I take water to LFS and do the machine water test. API I believe.

 

[blaxsun]

Have you tried something like Vibrant?