Hammer coral looking terrible

[Tbg299]

A few days ago my, my hammer coral's polyps started retracting. I tried lowering the lighting in my QT but this has not helped. Yesterday, the polyps completely retracted into the skeleton.

Salinity is 1.025
Alk: 8.7 dKh
Ammonia:0
Nitrates: 0
Phosphate: 0.04

No levels gave changed significantly in the past week.

I've had a big cyano bloom in the tank. I'm wondering if this could be affecting it somehow, but there is no cyano on the coral. It looks perfectly healthy. Am I not feeding it enough? Usually I feed mysis or lps pellets 2x a week.

 

[Avengerx77]

Most likely because your Nitrates are 0, you need to raise them about 5-10ppm and hence the reason you had a Cyano bloom. D you have a sump with chaeto?

 

[saltyfins]

A few days ago my, my hammer coral's polyps started retracting. I tried lowering the lighting in my QT but this has not helped. Yesterday, the polyps completely retracted into the skeleton.

Salinity is 1.025
Alk: 8.7 dKh
Ammonia:0
Nitrates: 0
Phosphate: 0.04

No levels gave changed significantly in the past week.

I've had a big cyano bloom in the tank. I'm wondering if this could be affecting it somehow, but there is no cyano on the coral. It looks perfectly healthy. Am I not feeding it enough? Usually I feed mysis or lps pellets 2x a week.

nitrates are low. You probably would do best, with them 5-20ppm. 0 is starving them. how's the flow?

 

[Tbg299]

Most likely because your Nitrates are 0, you need to raise them about 5-10ppm and hence the reason you had a Cyano bloom. D you have a sump with chaeto?

I do in my Display tank. However, I had a massive alk drop in it (dropped all the way to 6.0) and I have been slowly increasing it. It's now 7.5 which is low. I don't want to shock it any further.

 

[Tbg299]

Thanks for advice. Unfortunately, it didn't make it. I was feeding it 2-3x a week with PE Mysis. Still trying to understand what I did wrong.

 

[ChaosAquaculture]

Hammers thrive best in tanks with 5-10ppm nitrates and .08 phosphates roughly, Its not necessarily about feeding the coral directly. Do you have fish in the tank? - kali

 

[shakacuz]

Thanks for advice. Unfortunately, it didn't make it. I was feeding it 2-3x a week with PE Mysis. Still trying to understand what I did wrong.

could have been the low nitrates mixed in with the alk drop. i've lost two hammer previously.. do not believe i will ever get another. seems you were feeding it correctly, just the water chemistry was a bit off.

 

[Tbg299]

Hammers thrive best in tanks with 5-10ppm nitrates and .08 phosphates roughly, Its not necessarily about feeding the coral directly. Do you have fish in the tank? - kali

No. It was in an invert only frag QT. Maybe that was the problem.

 

[Tbg299]

could have been the low nitrates mixed in with the alk drop. i've lost two hammer previously.. do not believe i will ever get another. seems you were feeding it correctly, just the water chemistry was a bit off.

The alk drop was in my DT not the QT. That's why I hesitated putting it in after 45 days.

 

[vetteguy53081]

hammers generally retract when there is too much light or water flow and low calcium. Placement is also very important as i finf the lower third is best especially for lower flow. Euphyllia requires Stable tank conditions, and is intolerant to major swings in water quality, and is sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water. Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right.
Fast currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps (and getting an infection). Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks. Reduce white light intensity and get it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.

 

[Tbg299]

hammers generally retract when there is too much light or water flow and low calcium. Placement is also very important as i finf the lower third is best especially for lower flow. Euphyllia requires Stable tank conditions, and is intolerant to major swings in water quality, and is sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water. Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right.
Fast currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps (and getting an infection). Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks. Reduce white light intensity and get it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.

Unfortunately it died. I tried to do all of these things ... it was thriving for the past 2 months in the frag tank. Now that I think of it, it didn't start to look bad until I did a coral dip with Coral RX about a week ago when I removed a parasitic cyst growing on the stalk. Maybe it was infected? Or the combination of the coral dip and low nutrients just stressed it out to much.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Unfortunately it died. I tried to do all of these things ... it was thriving for the past 2 months in the frag tank. Now that I think of it, it didn't start to look bad until I did a coral dip with Coral RX about a week ago when I removed a parasitic cyst growing on the stalk. Maybe it was infected? Or the combination of the coral dip and low nutrients just stressed it out to much.

Generally stress and sorry to hear. CoralRX is mmy favorite but I find it strong. I always dilute it a little.