Hammer Coral not Happy

Newbie:) · May 23, 2022

Hello,

I am just starting on coral hobby and probably started on the wrong foot. I recently bought a hammer coral on the local pet store and after a day or so it started to srink and looks not happy. I have a Biocube 16 running with just couple of clownfish and a cleanup crew for about an year now. follow a picture of the coral and my water parameters. The coral is half way on the tank, with a moderate flow and light. Please any help will be much appreciate I really enjoy it and would like to do better on this

Feed AB+ 2-3x week and assure parameters are in range
Salinity- 1.024-1.026
Temp- 77-79
Ph- 8.1-8.3
Alk- 9

Impala67 · May 23, 2022

Newbie:) said:
Hello,

I am just starting on coral hobby and probably started on the wrong foot. I recently bought a hammer coral on the local pet store and after a day or so it started to srink and looks not happy. I have a Biocube 16 running with just couple of clownfish and a cleanup crew for about an year now. follow a picture of the coral and my water parameters. The coral is half way on the tank, with a moderate flow and light. Please any help will be much appreciate I really enjoy it and would like to do better on this

Feed AB+ 2-3x week and assure parameters are in range
Salinity- 1.024-1.026
Temp- 77-79
Ph- 8.1-8.3
Alk- 9

What’s your calcium, magnesium, phosphate, and nitrate levels? What kind of lights are you running? Your temp shouldn’t vary it should be consistent and that could be your problem. How often does it change? Try bumping it up to a higher flow area, not being blasted but a very steady swaying motion!

Newbie:) · May 23, 2022

Nitrate was kind of high and I did a 40% water change past Saturday, but still around 15ppm, planning to do another 40% water change today, calcium around 400, and I just bought a magnesium test that should be here by Thursday, I am running the standard LED light that come on the Biocube, but I had the power head turned off to see if could be too much flow (which did not change nothing unfortunately),I also bought a Seachem Reef Complete supplement to help. The tank still kind of empty just have this small guy for now and I am using Red Sea Coral pro salt

The Farmer · May 23, 2022

Phosphate can play a big part. Your temp should be a little warmer
Magnesium should help also

T-J · May 23, 2022

What EXACTLY are your Nitrate, Phosphate, Calcium and Magnesium. Don't say "around...". Give exact test numbers.
I'm guessing that light is not enough.
No need to dose AB+ when you have a single coral in your tank.
Probably no need to dose anything with such a small load and just doing waterchanges.

Tyler Bullock · May 23, 2022

Phosphates were my issue when my LPS looked bad. Nitrates at 15 isn't high at all.

The lights in a biocube are 100% fine for hammers.

Dburr1014 · May 23, 2022

Newbie:) said:
Hello,

I am just starting on coral hobby and probably started on the wrong foot. I recently bought a hammer coral on the local pet store and after a day or so it started to srink and looks not happy. I have a Biocube 16 running with just couple of clownfish and a cleanup crew for about an year now. follow a picture of the coral and my water parameters. The coral is half way on the tank, with a moderate flow and light. Please any help will be much appreciate I really enjoy it and would like to do better on this

Feed AB+ 2-3x week and assure parameters are in range
Salinity- 1.024-1.026

Edit: setting on lights?
Temp- 77-79
Ph- 8.1-8.3
Alk- 9

Your temp
PH
Alk
SG
Are all about the same as my tank.
What salt brand you using?
Do you mix and let sit for a few hours with a power head?

My edit mixed in with yours, lol.
What are your light settings?

Newbie:) · May 23, 2022

Just bought a phosphate test as well. Sorry for the “about” but I am using an API test for nitrates what makes not easy to say exactly the number. I have added Seachem Phosguard to help with phosphate, but still waiting on the tester to ensure that is working as suppose to

Newbie:) · May 23, 2022

Dburr1014 said:
Your temp
PH
Alk
SG
Are all about the same as my tank.
What salt brand you using?
Do you mix and let sit for a few hours with a power head?

My edit mixed in with yours, lol.
What are your light settings?

I am using Red Sea Coral pro and I always let to stay mixing overnight with a power head full blast on the bucket (always used RODI water) and I copied the light schedule from another user that mentioned good results with it
Lighting Schedule:

LC1 (Daylights): 11:00 am to 7:30 pm

LC2 (Sunrise / Sunset): 10:30 am to 7:30 pm

LC3 (Moon Lights): 10:00 am to Midnight

Dburr1014 · May 23, 2022

Newbie:) said:
Just bought a phosphate test as well. Sorry for the “about” but I am using an API test for nitrates what makes not easy to say exactly the number. I have added Seachem Phosguard to help with phosphate, but still waiting on the tester to ensure that is working as suppose to

Consider getting better test kits sooner than later. API are his for trends and not a hard number.
I would not treat anything without knowing a number.

Dburr1014 · May 23, 2022

Newbie:) said:
I am using Red Sea Coral pro and I always let to stay mixing overnight with a power head full blast on the bucket (always used RODI water) and I copied the light schedule from another user that mentioned good results with it
Lighting Schedule:

LC1 (Daylights): 11:00 am to 7:30 pm

LC2 (Sunrise / Sunset): 10:30 am to 7:30 pm

LC3 (Moon Lights): 10:00 am to Midnight

Okay, seems good and I'm assuming you bring it to temp.
Do you have a before pic, when you brought the coral home?
Sometimes damage could have been done weeks before before showing up on a Coral.

Newbie:) · May 23, 2022

Dburr1014 said:
Consider getting better test kits sooner than later. API are his for trends and not a hard number.
I would not treat anything without knowing a number.

Working on it, that is the reason that I am waiting on new kits. Lexington is not a big city and it is not easy to find this stuff around, so I had to appeal to Amazon as usual lol. Also makes the hobby much harder without a local supplier with experience

Newbie:) · May 23, 2022

Dburr1014 said:
Okay, seems good and I'm assuming you bring it to temp.
Do you have a before pic, when you brought the coral home?
Sometimes damage could have been done weeks before before showing up on a Coral.

I do not

really regret that, but was much more open and exposed. As I mentioned before the local pet store is struggling to keep people and I could not get much information from them about the coral, so this still a possibility