Too Much Flow for Hammer?

[Trenton Henderson]

I just posted yesterday about one of the heads of my two-headed hammer bailing out. My parameters have been stable and seem good. The polyps fully inflate, but the tissue has receded some, though they just finished splitting a couple weeks ago.

My only other thought is that it’s getting a bit too much flow. It is indirect flow, but occasionally gets a decent rush of current through it for a couple seconds and can get a little more aggressive than what is shown. Here is a video. Let me know what you think. Also, PAR is 150-160 there.

 

[Lavey29]

I think it is to much. The whole skeletal structure was shaking at times.

 

[Trenton Henderson]

I just updated the video to highlight the more aggressive side of the flow.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Taking a look at your video the flow does not look to strong at all. Most Euphyllia can tolerate a pretty good bit of flow. Here in our farm we have multiple wave makers in the systems running pretty aggressively and we've never had an issue with the hammers. From the look of your video the rock looks pretty new. How old is the system? Polyp bail out we have seen is commonly caused by some type of parameter swing. Alkalinity, salinity and temp are likely culprits.

 

[Trenton Henderson]

Taking a look at your video the flow does not look to strong at all. Most Euphyllia can tolerate a pretty good bit of flow. Here in our farm we have multiple wave makers in the systems running pretty aggressively and we've never had an issue with the hammers. From the look of your video the rock looks pretty new. How old is the system? Polyp bail out we have seen is commonly caused by some type of parameter swing. Alkalinity, salinity and temp are likely culprits.

Those rocks were more recently added. The tank will be a year old in October. Alkalinity had stayed between 8.7 and 9 dKH for the last couple of weeks. The only instability I’ve seen is that salinity dropped from 1.025 to 1.024. I’ve been slowly bringing it up.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Those rocks were more recently added. The tank will be a year old in October. Alkalinity had stayed between 8.7 and 9 dKH for the last couple of weeks. The only instability I’ve seen is that salinity dropped from 1.025 to 1.024. I’ve been slowly bringing it up.

That little of a swing should not of caused any issues, but the new rock may have triggered a "mini cycle". Did you test for ammonia or nitrite?

 

[Trenton Henderson]

That little of a swing should not of caused any issues, but the new rock may have triggered a "mini cycle". Did you test for ammonia or nitrite?

Yep! They’ve been zeros! And phosphate and nitrate have remained low, but none zero. I have to dose them.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Yep! They’ve been zeros! And phosphate and nitrate have remained low, but none zero. I have to dose them.

Hammers definitely don't like ultra low nutrients so that may be causing an issue.

 

[Trenton Henderson]

Hammers definitely don't like ultra low nutrients so that may be causing an issue.

What levels do you recommend?

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

What levels do you recommend?

For hammers I would definitely not want my nitrates below 5. We keep ours between 15 and 20 for almost all of our farm systems.

 

[Trenton Henderson]

For hammers I would definitely not want my nitrates below 5. We keep ours between 15 and 20 for almost all of our farm systems.

For phosphates?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I just posted yesterday about one of the heads of my two-headed hammer bailing out. My parameters have been stable and seem good. The polyps fully inflate, but the tissue has receded some, though they just finished splitting a couple weeks ago.

My only other thought is that it’s getting a bit too much flow. It is indirect flow, but occasionally gets a decent rush of current through it for a couple seconds and can get a little more aggressive than what is shown. Here is a video. Let me know what you think. Also, PAR is 150-160 there.

Flow look about right. You dont want it bouncing vigorously but swaying in the current as it appears. You can bring it down if you wish 3-5% but from looks of polyps - its a happy specimen. Feed mysis shrimp 2x a week.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

For phosphates?

We are typically at 0.10

 

[vetteguy53081]

For hammers I would definitely not want my nitrates below 5. We keep ours between 15 and 20 for almost all of our farm systems.

Agree, mine are in the 15 range and grow like weeds

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Agree, mine are in the 15 range and grow like weeds

Yes they definitely enjoy some nutrients! Great looking colony!

 

[Trenton Henderson]

We are typically at 0.10

I would like to get it back to about 10 where I had it for a while, but I’m working on a dinos and diatoms situation at the moment because I’m extending my lighting schedule. I’ll try and bring those up. Are SPS good with those levels of nitrate and phosphate too?

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

I would like to get it back to about 10 where I had it for a while, but I’m working on a dinos and diatoms situation at the moment because I’m extending my lighting schedule. I’ll try and bring those up. Are SPS good with those levels of nitrate and phosphate too?

Yes we are probably one of the largest SPS farms and we maintain those levels in most of our farm systems

 

[AquaBert]

Interesting…I was keeping around 3.0ppm, I’ll gradually increase. I think my skimmer and refugium work too well lol.