Feeding hammers and torch’s

[vetteguy53081]

I currently don’t feed my hammer and torch’s directly, I typically broadcast feed a powder like reef roids or similar and hope the hammers and corals get some food.
‘I’ve tried to feed them mysis shrimp with little luck, the hammers don’t grab the food fully and the fish grab the food.
I think the new hammers and torch’s which are a couple months old are not happy - maybe because they aren’t feed ?
Par is about 150-190 at they’re locations
Nitrates are 12
Phos is .16 or .12
Calc - 450
Alk 8.50
Mag 1290
Salt 1.027

Mine gets mysis shrimp and small plankton opposed to powdered foods

 

[Johnic]

This looks better, tank is looking great by the way. Good luck to you, give things a few days to adjust.

Thanks a lot for help. Will do, will repost an update in a few days

 

[Johnic]

You definitely want the hammer and goni lower with the sand torch higher. For me flow just slightly high. Sounds like you are around 33% intensity and mine is 25% intensity but each tank is unique and do what works best for you.

How’s your sand, does detris build up easy and do you mix the sand around to get the detris up ?
I find with lower power head settings the sand gets dirty quicker.

 

[VintageReefer]

For me…
Left glass - mp10 on 4 dots lit
Right glass - mp40 on 10 dots lit

NTM mode switching back and forth from full blast to short pulses

I don’t have detritus anywhere I can see. I haven’t manually cleaned my sand in years. Sand bed is 8+ years old and filled with micro life and worms

Get a fighting conch or two. they will clean your sand all day and night. Interesting creature, very active, always working on stirring and cleaning sand

 

[Alexraptor]

Years ago, when I had my wall hammer, I used to target feed with lobster eggs. Never seen such a vivid feeding response from an euphyllia before or since.

 

[Lavey29]

How’s your sand, does detris build up easy and do you mix the sand around to get the detris up ?
I find with lower power head settings the sand gets dirty quicker.

I have wall to wall corals so can't really siphon my sand. I do turkey baste it. I use PNS probio which is a natural heterotrophic bacteria that eliminates organic waste. My sand is ok but not pristine white. There is sufficient bottom flow but with a lot of corals there are some dead spots.

I also believe that high flow is a primary cause for seam failures too as described to me by my LFS. You are trying to keep a total clean glass look because of the pinninsula tank design and relying on bouncing flow off the far side of the tank so you may not have full and complete coverage on sand either.

 

[Johnic]

For me…
Left glass - mp10 on 4 dots lit
Right glass - mp40 on 10 dots lit

NTM mode switching back and forth from full blast to short pulses

I don’t have detritus anywhere I can see. I haven’t manually cleaned my sand in years. Sand bed is 8+ years old and filled with micro life and worms

Get a fighting conch or two. they will clean your sand all day and night. Interesting creature, very active, always working on stirring and cleaning sand

Nice pics.
What’s NTM Mode again? And do you use the wxm Neptune module to control the power heads ?

 

[Johnic]

I have wall to wall corals so can't really siphon my sand. I do turkey baste it. I use PNS probio which is a natural heterotrophic bacteria that eliminates organic waste. My sand is ok but not pristine white. There is sufficient bottom flow but with a lot of corals there are some dead spots.

I also believe that high flow is a primary cause for seam failures too as described to me by my LFS. You are trying to keep a total clean glass look because of the pinninsula tank design and relying on bouncing flow off the far side of the tank so you may not have full and complete coverage on sand either.

Funny, I dose the same bacteria about every other day. How often do you add it to your tank ?
Exactly, it’s hard to keep the sand clean with a peninsula tank without driving up the pumps a lot.

 

[Lavey29]

Funny, I dose the same bacteria about every other day. How often do you add it to your tank ?
Exactly, it’s hard to keep the sand clean with a peninsula tank without driving up the pumps a lot.

I dose 50ml once a week. You have a nice open sand bed to work with so a conch would work well there. I use Tongan nacarius snails.

 

[Kzang]

I have 2 XR15 lights on my tank and if you are running 60% intensity there is no way you have sufficient par for your tank. I was running 70% and was shocked how low the par actually was with par meter. I now run 100% intensity on AB plus and corals thrive.

it depends on tank depth. My tank is 13 inch high. His maybe 24 or more.

 

[Lavey29]

it depends on tank depth. My tank is 13 inch high. His maybe 24 or more.

Of course, that is true but overall XR15 lights are very weak par lights. That is pretty well documented.

 

[Kzang]

Of course, that is true but overall XR15 lights are very weak par lights. That is pretty well documented.

I don't think they are

 

[Johnic]

Of course, that is true but overall XR15 lights are very weak par lights. That is pretty well documented.

Did u see my post yesterday. I took readings and posted the results. Pretty interesting, I have decent par with the xr15 two of them spaced 8 inches from one another and 13 inches off the water. Depth of tank is a 18 or 19 inches and 24 inches wide ish.

 

[Johnic]

Mine gets mysis shrimp and small plankton opposed to powdered foods

I do try to feed mysis with little luck. They tend to release it

 

[vetteguy53081]

I do try to feed mysis with little luck. They tend to release it

Assure flow is suspended temporarily for feeding

 

[Lavey29]

Did u see my post yesterday. I took readings and posted the results. Pretty interesting, I have decent par with the xr15 two of them spaced 8 inches from one another and 13 inches off the water. Depth of tank is a 18 or 19 inches and 24 inches wide ish.

I can't find where you posted numbers but if you are 18 inch depth that is somewhat shallow compared to others. I personally like long shallower tanks the best for reefs. So with that depth you will get slightly better numbers at lower intensity then I would at 22 inches deep. Standard 8 inch RMS mount and I run diffusers too which drop about 10 to 15 par over lights without them but better spread and less hotspotting. Each tank is unique and as long as you are satisfied with your numbers and corals are looking good that's what counts. I was running 70% most of the first year with no real coral growth. Now that I'm 100% intensity the corals have significant growth and color.

 

[VintageReefer]

Nice pics.
What’s NTM Mode again? And do you use the wxm Neptune module to control the power heads ?

NTM is nutrient transport mode. It is when the ring is illuminated pink (manual calls or purple. It looks pink to me) and then you switch to the secondary mode

I don’t use any controller. I have the two units synched wirelessly with each other

 

[wculver]

Sorry for confusion. I have hammers and torches.
Ok. I just increased my par to 70% which will get there over 30days. Is this too slow or should I decrease the time frame ?

Hopefully you have already made the change. Certainly a 30 day timeframe will work well. Slow and steady.