Zoa and Hammer coral help!

[fishkeeper26]

Hello all, new here!

Wondering if anyone could give me some advice in what to do here?

Zoas have been like this for almost 2 weeks now and not sure what could be causing the problem? I have LPS and softies in the tank that are doing absolutely fine but not sure if these are dying? My hammer also seems to have closed and doesn’t seem to open up, I did make the mistake in dropping it the other day as I was trying to glue it to the rock and think I had damaged some of the tissue annoyingly but was still closed up before that?

Any help would be great!

 

[BryanM]

I don't have much experience here, but the hammers I've had that look like yours sadly did not make it.

People will want water parameters to try and help. Salinity, Alk, PH, Phos, Nitrates, Calcium and magnesium. oh, and temp.

Anything happen recently that would stress them out? If so they might just need time to relax.

 

[fishkeeper26]

Hello

Thanks so much for your response,
So I’ve tested everything this morning and these are the results:

Salinity: 1.026
Alk: 9.6 Dkh
Calc: 470
Mag: 1410
Ph: 7.8 (Little on the downside, how can I increase this? Heard varying things about PH)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm
I don’t have a phos test kit but am currently looking to get one of these.

I’ll also be doing a water change today aswel.

The only thing I can think that may have led to them both being like this is maybe adding them too early? I was a bit silly and added my zoas whilst the tank was still cycling but after some research it looked as if some people did and some people didn’t.
However I added my hammer after the cycle and was fine but I did move it a bit lower as wanted to add it with my other hammers that I bought, I did notice when I purchased it that some of the heads were a sort of brown shade on the outside almost looking as if they were dead, I dip all my corals before introducing and couldn’t see anything of concern. The other factor that I think could have caused this is whilst trying to place glue on the frag, I dropped the coral on my unit outside of the tank and those seemingly looking brown heads all fell off and some healthy heads also fell off and ever since has been looking like this.
It’s a bit of a strange one as all other LPS and softies in my tank are looking really healthy so maybe it was a bad coral I’m not too sure? I’m quite new to reef keeping too so it’s difficult to know the signs of deterioration!

Thank you for your help!

 

[purpfish]

I would watch for brown jelly on the hammer that’s sounds like what you described

 

[fishkeeper26]

Yeah quite possibly, some heads are open and some aren’t, shall I just leave it?

 

[purpfish]

assuming it’s not bjd I would leave it and keep everything as stable as possible, have you rented a par meter? Corals also just take a while to settle in

 

[fishkeeper26]

Call me silly but what actually is this? I’ve heard about it but don’t actually know what it is or does/ measures?
I think you’re right, I’ll leave it for now and see what happens, as with the zoas, no idea what’s going on with those, I tried brushing any algae off of them a few days ago and still no luck, reckon I should put them on racks in the tank or will it not make a difference?
Thanks again

 

[purpfish]

Call me silly but what actually is this? I’ve heard about it but don’t actually know what it is or does/ measures?
I think you’re right, I’ll leave it for now and see what happens, as with the zoas, no idea what’s going on with those, I tried brushing any algae off of them a few days ago and still no luck, reckon I should put them on racks in the tank or will it not make a difference?
Thanks again

Par stands for photosynthetically active radiation I believe and it’s the amount of light the corals are receiving, our eyes are not capable of judging par so that’s where the par meter comes in. I can not say whether to move them or not without knowing the par either

 

[fishkeeper26]

Par stands for photosynthetically active radiation I believe and it’s the amount of light the corals are receiving, our eyes are not capable of judging par so that’s where the par meter comes in. I can not say whether to move them or not without knowing the par either

Ahh I see interesting! I’m guessing par is different with every light? I got my light with the tank I purchased (fluval evo)

 

[purpfish]

Ahh I see interesting! I’m guessing par is different with every light? I got my light with the tank I purchased (fluval evo)

Yes the stronger a light is(watts) the more par it will give generally, I am not familiar with the evo light unfortunately

 

[purpfish]

What brand of test kit are you using?

 

[fishkeeper26]

What brand of test kit are you using?

From what I’ve read about it, it’s a pretty decent light, lots of forums on here about it, and I use Salifert

 

[purpfish]

From what I’ve read about it, it’s a pretty decent light, lots of forums on here about it, and I use Salifert

Okay good just making sure your not using api lol can you add a pic of the tank?

 

[purpfish]

I just realized you don’t have a phos kit, it pretty important and if you nitrate is only 5 I could see your phosphate being pretty low. I use the Hannah ULR, it is a little spendy at first but the accuracy is worth it IMO.

 

[fishkeeper26]

I just realized you don’t have a phos kit, it pretty important and if you nitrate is only 5 I could see your phosphate being pretty low. I use the Hannah ULR, it is a little spendy at first but the accuracy is worth it IMO.

I actually ordered a phos kit today along with some rowaphos just in case! Here’s a recent photo of my tank too that I took a few weeks ago