Aussie Gold Hammer not opening up! HELP!

[AquaCultureLife]

Hi reefers,
Currently my Gold wall hammer is not opening up, only at night it slightly opens up. All my other hammers and corals are thriving and doing just fine. It is only my Gold hammer, which is the largest of all my hammers, that is showing signs of distress. In the past month it released zooxanthella from its mouth twice that I noticed. But always went back to its normal healthy looking self.
I have an IM 30 gallon with two Radion xr15’s and have been doing 20% water changes every week and running a protein skimmer. I also run chemipure elite, purigen, and filter floss in my media basket. I run a filter sock in the other side. I have been noticing my nitrates are always testing zero because I do not have any fish and I hardly feed my corals. I target feed reef roids every other week.
I have concluded that the hammer is starving from having no nitrates in the water column for a long period of time and a lack of feeding. I recently turned off my protein skimmer added a yellow tang, diamond goby, and some snails. I am feeding pellets daily, hoping this will raise my nitrates some.
Currently I have been target feeding reef roids daily and noticing the hammer opening up more are night.
Is there anything anyone can suggest to help keep this hammer alive and thriving.
Current water test readings:
Salinity: 1.025
PH: 8.4
Temp:78.8
Calcium: 475
Alk: 10-11

 

[AquaCultureLife]

 

[NewGoby]

Did you acclimate it to your lighting?

 

[AquaCultureLife]

This is a picture of it just a week ago! When it was thriving as a reference.

 

[NewGoby]

I've not had a similair issue with my Euphyllia Ancora's before, I've had a similair issue with my anemone, where they'd lose colour, open mainly at night and dump it's zooxanthellae.
I ended up acclimating her to my lighting. Perhaps you have a similair issue?

 

[AquaCultureLife]

Did you acclimate it to your lighting?

This hammer has been thriving in my tank for a few months now. When I first got it I placed it in the sand bed, then placed on top of rock a few days later. But no i did not place my lights on any sort of acclimation mode.
One other fact I should add is that I raised my lights from 20% to 21% the day before it really started to show distress. I reduced them back to 20% 24 hours later

 

[NewGoby]

This hammer has been thriving in my tank for a few months now. When I first got it I placed it in the sand bed, then placed on top of rock a few days later. But no i did not place my lights on any sort of acclimation mode.
One other fact I should add is that I raised my lights from 20% to 21% the day before it really started to show distress. I reduced them back to 20% 24 hours later

What are the other water parameters, you said you added new fish to increase the nitrates, how is your ammonia level?

 

[JBKReef]

I was going to ask if there was any shift in intensity or flow, or something that I have heard more and more... did you run carbon for the first time in a long time on the tank?

While the small shift in intensity from 20-21% that could be amplified if you stripped the water of a lot of cloudiness/yellowing pigments.

 

[AquaCultureLife]

The only other change was I added acrylic inserts to my over flow boxes to raise the water level in the tank. Maybe this changed the overall flow of the tank. ???

 

[JBKReef]

I don't think it would change flow too much... but how much did the water line go from? 11 inches deep to 13? If this was in a smaller tank then even just raising the waterline an inch could have an effect on light intensity and diffusion. I would be surprised it expelled so much zooxanthellae though from a small shift like that.

 

[AquaCultureLife]

I don't think it would change flow too much... but how much did the water line go from? 11 inches deep to 13? If this was in a smaller tank then even just raising the waterline an inch could have an effect on light intensity and diffusion. I would be surprised it expelled so much zooxanthellae though from a small shift like that.

This is an old picture just so you can see the complete set up. The water level was raised like 2 inches. I also had to do a water change to increase the level of water in the rear over flow chambers since i raised the tank level. When I did the water change I removed less than I put back in and balanced the difference with RO water.

 

[JBKReef]

Is this the Nuvo 30 long? Nice tank. When you mentioned raising the waterlevel with acrlic pieces these tanks came to mind. They run normally around 11 inches deep and then raising two inches that took it to around 13?

Between the shifting in light intensity (both from raising water level and increasing 1%) and the sudden shift in water chemistry (waterchange topped off with RO would effect Salinity and alk quickly) I'm sure it was just too much too soon. I would think it will bounce back as long as its not shooting off the tentacles or 100% closed up for days on end. Just shoot for as stable as possible over the next couple weeks.

Your tank is gorgeous so I'm sure you go this. Amazing collection.

 

[JBKReef]

I had a torch go through something similar...

It bounced back eventually but took over a month of just being in its final location and try to not change anything...

 

[AquaCultureLife]

Came home from work today and she seems to be getting better not worse. I put my skimmer back on. Don’t want to change anything else! Thanks @JBKReef i think it just has to do with the change in water depth. The hammer seems to be opening more in the areas it’s more directly under the light. I don’t think it is receiving the same lighting due to increase in depth. I am just going to keep calm and not change anything else. I plugged my skimmer back in.

 

[AquaCultureLife]

Considering corals get like 80% ofnthere food from light I don’t think it’s my nitrates anymore being too low anymore. I think of it was my nitrates then everything would be showing some sign of stress. I think I underestimated the effects of raising the water level in my tank.

 

[AquaCultureLife]

As the day goes on here we are stressed out again