Hammer Coral Issue

[Karling]

Hello All,

i need a hand with knowing what is going on with my Hammer - Yesterday it was doing really well (see picture with blue light on) and this morning it looks like its half dead. I picked up 4 corals last weekend 2 zoa's (finally opening) 1 hammer, and i don't remember the name of the last one (see the other reference picture).

its a new tank and if you have seen my other post - This is my first saltwater tank. my LFS said i would be good introducing the coral i was looking at as i put in two clowns and they were doing fantastic as well.

I don't have tank numbers - sorry.
i picked up this tank online and it was a FOWLR tank previously for years. The tank was drained for transport but the sump i left full. and ran for over a week and put in turbostart 900. I did a water change 10% on Sunday.

Tank is 125G
40g sump - bio balls
turning over at least 2400GPH
Bullet 2 skimmer

See attached photos.

 

[SteveEreef]

Without knowing the parameters it’s hard to help. When my hammer was upset it was due to low ALK, NO3 and PO4.

 

[Karling]

i just double checked my salinity its at 1.026 (its been stable at 1.025) I had the LFS run the stats for me they said everything was normal, thats why i dont have them. but now i see my salinity is up.. would that cause it?

 

[Perthegallon]

I think it’s just to new of a tank I’m sure the primaters are fine just hammers get so weird in tanks that haven’t been up for long

 

[Karling]

I think it’s just to new of a tank I’m sure the primaters are fine just hammers get so weird in tanks that haven’t been up for long

Thanks! I figured the other coral was doing so well... if they were all doing poorly I would understand. I did put in some eggcrate yesterday evening cause my small clown kept wanting to hang out in the secondary overflow, little rascal.. could be something was on my hands or the pliers were not clean enough when i pulled the zip ties down...

 

[Perthegallon]

Thanks! I figured the other coral was doing so well... if they were all doing poorly I would understand. I did put in some eggcrate yesterday evening cause my small clown kept wanting to hang out in the secondary overflow, little rascal.. could be something was on my hands or the pliers were not clean enough when i pulled the zip ties down...

I had my clownfish basically kill some of my soft corals thank god they stopped

 

[Rjukan]

Hmm, did the previous owner mention any meds they used in the tank? Were those rocks included from the FOWLR setup or you added after?

 

[proxy001]

Hammer: low flow, very low flow, at least at first.

 

[PTXReef]

Most likely the system hasn't matured and parameters may be fluctuating.

I highly recommend getting test kits to test your water regularly (it will help solve a ton of problems with corals and fish).

Some basic parameters that would be good to test are alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrate, nitrite, pH, phosphate, salinity, and temperature. I'm sure you probably already know but it definitely saves a lot of headache!

Last coral are green star polyps.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Receding. Something it does like
Verify salinity and water temperature. Moderate light and water flow and occasional feeding is general requirements.
I suspect Low salinity or Ph

 

[Perthegallon]

Any chance it could be low nutrition in the water I would say since it’s a new system (I’ve done this myself) is to feed heavily but maintain phosphates since mature tanks already have a nutrition in it like pods and ext. this is just my theory I could be totally wrong

 

[Regular_Reefer]

I’d say if your water parameters seem right to you play around with the lighting and flow for the tank or coral placement. every coral I’ve placed was put in specific spots in the tank to try and best meet their needs and had opened up/extended within hours of placement. (Fingers crossed its not something to do with whatever the previous owner had in there)