Help needed with Hammer Coral

[GilroyC]

Evening All,

A week ago, I added a Bicolor Hammer to my tank...for the 1st couple of days, everything seemed fine...However, for the last 3 consecutive days, the coral seems inflated and it's mouth wide open...Even, after dark, it doesn't retract into it's skeleton...This inflated lookakes the tentacles seem elongated and doesn't seem natural...I have it in the corner of the tank with AI Pre lighting running at around 15K.

Any help would be appreciated as am not sure whether it's normal or sick.

[GilroyC]

All params are normal...have Frogspawn, Elegance, chalice, Favia, Acans, Blasto, Bubble and Rice which seem to be doing fine....The Bubble too is new, however, doesn't show any thing which seems out of normal.

[Knighthawk]

I've noticed with hammer it doesn't care for a lot of flow. That could be some of your issue.


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[jstack]

Originally Posted by Knighthawk

I've noticed with hammer it doesn't care for a lot of flow. That could be some of your issue.


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hammers love flow just need to know how to give it to them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqcI3nc4HOw&t=5s
please post some pics of the hammer x

[GilroyC]

Morning,

Attached snap shots of my Hammer Coral....The mouths are clearly open and the coral is inflated....All it's tentacles seems elongated and it doesn't bunch like it's supposed to.

http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/...psu8yqrobv.jpg
http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/...psvemi1hz8.jpg
http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/...ps95oxuldc.jpg

Have Nano Voyagers as wavemaker in the tank...Removed 1 last night, yet there seems to still be enough flow around...Should I remove another, and go with 1 voyager.

[GilroyC]

Anybody looking at my Hammer coral, please could you let know whether there is a problem with it or is it doing fine...Not sure, as the mouth of the coral has remained open for 3 consecutive days.

[Kardjunkie]

Just my opinion, if it has been that way for three days I would just check parameters and wait if tests are good. My opinion, good things take awhile in a tank, bad happens quick.


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[jstack]

Originally Posted by GilroyC

Morning,

Attached snap shots of my Hammer Coral....The mouths are clearly open and the coral is inflated....All it's tentacles seems elongated and it doesn't bunch like it's supposed to.

http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/...psu8yqrobv.jpg
http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/...psvemi1hz8.jpg
http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/...ps95oxuldc.jpg

Have Nano Voyagers as wavemaker in the tank...Removed 1 last night, yet there seems to still be enough flow around...Should I remove another, and go with 1 voyager.

what else do you have any softies? you running carbon last question did you dip it prior to adding. seems like it's water quality something is stressing it out?

[GilroyC]

Hello Jstack...Only LPS corals in my tank...Nothing else(barring ricordea...I have not dipped any of my Corals. ...Have Frogspawn, Elegance, Favia, Chalice, Acans, Blasto and Bubble...The Bubble and Hammer are the newest additions to the tank.

Update: Last night, for the 1st time the Hme retracted into its skeleton after lights out...This morning, it's out bunched together(mouths not visible) but only 50%...Not extended lile when it was inflated with the mouths open.

[GilroyC]

Params as follows:

Temperature: between 23 C and 27 C
Salanity: 1.026
Alkalanity: 9 DKH
Calcium: 420
Magnesium: 1300
Nitrate: 5 PPM

[GilroyC]

Also, I don't dose carbon nor do I have or use any reactor...I try and keep it as simple as possible....20% water change every 2 weeks...I have a HOB filter and the Carbon and Phosphate sponges are replaced every month.

[GilroyC]

Only dosing is Alkalanity, Calcium and Magnesium twice or thrice a week..

[GilroyC]

This is what my Hammer looks as of today....Is it healthy and normal....Not as extended as before

http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/...psguc07lik.jpg
http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/...psff7bwffk.jpg

[taby15]

Does your salinity tend to fluctuate? Had a similar situation when I would top of water manually

[GilroyC]

Hi Taby....Salanity stays between 1.025-1.026..I do manual top off as well(everyday, as have a marked location at which I need to keep water levels)....I have never observed any major swings, except for the .001 - .002 range, which occurs rarely(mainly during water change), which I then bring back to par over a weeks time.

[jstack]

Reason I'm asking about carbon not dosing. Activated that looks like chemical warfare


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[GilroyC]

Hi Jstack...I was trying to get some insight into carbon dosing and it's benefits etc and did quite a bit of reading on the same...Vodka seems to be the preferred stuff many dose in their tanks...I'm considering doising the same considering the many benefits which arise from dosing....On a 20 Gallon, would it be fine to start with 0.5 ml for the 1st few days...How long should this regime continue and would dosing vodka have any sort of implications on LPS Corals

Also, does this need to be done daily or weekly...My objective here is to reduce nitrate: 5 ppm, Phosphate which reads 0, however, is in the tank and complete removal of every little unwanted algae...But don't want any damage done to the fish or corals.

[jstack]

no no no I'm referring to activated carbon that you run in bags in say your Hob filter not dosing anything. another great product to remove mushroom spit is poly-filter not the regular poly-fiber we use to polish the water. I would say is watch those shrooms they pack a punch and can kill LPS was just at the LFS and saw a perfectly sweet head of hammer that was just barely grazing some ricordea hammer was just about done for.I'm a bad sleeper an even worse typer hope this made some sense

[GilroyC]

w.r.t Hammer...it's still not extending completely....It does come out say 1/3 of what it should...Flow has been reduced with every other parameter stable, I guess, it's still acclimating itself to the tank...Strange, as the Bubble, Elegance & Frogspawn came from the same LFS and they haven't shown any signs of stress.

w.r.t the carbon...guess, I got your question wrong...I use the IM Triple Combo on my HOB...Sometimes, I use the Seachem Bagged Phosguard, Carbon & Purigen...Add filter floss, which is changed every 3 days...

When using the bagged product, it's Carbon & Phosgaurd which I run together and add filter floss..

[Mark9]

You know, if you would use the direct links with the fricking picture icon, we wouldn't have to jump to photobucket to see the pictures.

[Stolireef]

Originally Posted by SeyozTanks

Could be irritation from clown hosting, does sound chemical warfare from sweeper tentacles, bubble coral at night, sweepers get pretty long sometimes, but the strongest stingers come from Elegance coral, definetly carbon in intervals, simply put in few days a week, pull...Out again

My money is on this.


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[mav3rick478]

Your bicolor hammer looks like mine, seems normal to me. Got mine as a frag from a fellow local club member that kept his under MH but I keep mine under LED. It is now a good 6-8 heads.


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[Pond Boy]

I say stop with all the man made filters let the corals have all the goodies you are manually removing. They may help for a bit but the problem will persist until you find the real issue witch is hard to nail down if you are trying everything at once... Good things happy slowly...

Balance is the key not the latest and greatest snake oil...