Hammer coral receding

Matt56 · Jan 22, 2020

I have had a wall hammer coral for almost 6 months now. For the past month almost it has slowly been receding, all of my parameter were low and just this week i have changed everything to alk 8.5
calcium 450
mag is currently at 1410 but aiming for 1500+
salinity is at 1.026
nitrates are a little high at 8 ammonia is 0 and nitrites is 0 also
PH 8.2
lighting schedule is AB+ for my two hydra 26's
[;ease let me know if there is anything that could be affecting the hammer to be receded all the time.

Magellan · Jan 22, 2020

You said you just “changed everything” and previously had low params. Sounds like it was unhappy, but is now responding negatively to the sudden change in its environment. Keep those params consistent and give it some time. If it’s still unhappy after a week or so, you could try moving it to lower light and lower flow to give it a chance to recover.

Also, do you dose any trace elements? Hammers really like things like Manganese. You could try feeding it as well.

Mical · Jan 22, 2020

Magellan said:
You said you just “changed everything” and previously had low params. Sounds like it was unhappy, but is now responding negatively to the sudden change in its environment. Keep those params consistent and give it some time. If it’s still unhappy after a week or so, you could try moving it to lower light and lower flow to give it a chance to recover.

Also, do you dose any trace elements? Hammers really like things like Manganese. You could try feeding it as well.

Besides these suggestions - I'ld " up" your nitrates a little (feed heavier) Hammers, Frogspawns & Torches like water a little "dirtier". Mine responded well to Brightwells CoralAminos.

Matt56 · Jan 22, 2020

Magellan said:
You said you just “changed everything” and previously had low params. Sounds like it was unhappy, but is now responding negatively to the sudden change in its environment. Keep those params consistent and give it some time. If it’s still unhappy after a week or so, you could try moving it to lower light and lower flow to give it a chance to recover.

Also, do you dose any trace elements? Hammers really like things like Manganese. You could try feeding it as well.

no i only dosed alk mag and calcium, it is currently on the sand bed .

Magellan · Jan 22, 2020

Matt56 said:
no i only dosed alk mag and calcium, it is currently on the sand bed .

Do you know what your params were at previously?

Mical said:
Besides these suggestions - I'ld " up" your nitrates a little (feed heavier) Hammers, Frogspawns & Torches like water a little "dirtier". Mine responded well to Brightwells CoralAminos.

Agree, I feed heavily and don’t run a skimmer. My hammer has GROWN! Started from a tiny one headed frag about 9-10 months ago

Matt56 · Jan 22, 2020

Magellan said:
Do you know what your params were at previously?

Agree, I feed heavily and don’t run a skimmer. My hammer has GROWN! Started from a tiny one headed frag about 9-10 months ago

those were my parameters about 10 day’s ago

Matt56 · Jan 22, 2020

Magellan said:
Do you know what your params were at previously?

Agree, I feed heavily and don’t run a skimmer. My hammer has GROWN! Started from a tiny one headed frag about 9-10 months ago

My mag was at 1200 also

Magellan · Jan 22, 2020

So after a water change you had a dkh of 6, and low Ca, mag, and higher nitrates, but one week later have upped dkh to 8.5

it’s probably just stressed from the parameter swing! Keep your params steady, 8.5 is a good number. I would be surprised if it didn’t bounce back. You might want to try dosing some amino acids, and either target feed or broadcast feed some reef roids and/or Oyster Feast.

Matt56 · Jan 22, 2020

Magellan said:
So after a water change you had a dkh of 6, and low Ca, mag, and higher nitrates, but one week later have upped dkh to 8.5

it’s probably just stressed from the parameter swing! Keep your params steady, 8.5 is a good number. I would be surprised if it didn’t bounce back. You might want to try dosing some amino acids, and either target feed or broadcast feed some reef roids and/or Oyster Feast.

This is what the hammer looks like.

Matt56 · Jan 22, 2020

Mical said:
Besides these suggestions - I'ld " up" your nitrates a little (feed heavier) Hammers, Frogspawns & Torches like water a little "dirtier". Mine responded well to Brightwells CoralAminos.

This is what my hammer looks like

Magellan · Jan 22, 2020

Matt56 said:
This is what the hammer looks like.

Oh! I assume that’s during the day...have any polyps fallen off? Anything that looks like “brown jelly” on the hammer? (If yes to either, get it out of the tank, it’s toast).

if it’s just receded into its skeleton, it can come back. At least, I had a purple hammer that looked worse than that due to a temperature issue (cheap Chinese thermometer...) but after I fixed the problem, and gave it some time it eventually started to spread out again.

you can try dipping it in Coral Rx as well, that’s what I did with the purple. Took quite a while to recover, but it made it!

Matt56 · Jan 22, 2020

Magellan said:
Oh! I assume that’s during the day...have any polyps fallen off? Anything that looks like “brown jelly” on the hammer? (If yes to either, get it out of the tank, it’s toast).

if it’s just receded into its skeleton, it can come back. At least, I had a purple hammer that looked worse than that due to a temperature issue (cheap Chinese thermometer...) but after I fixed the problem, and gave it some time it eventually started to spread out again.

you can try dipping it in Coral Rx as well, that’s what I did with the purple. Took quite a while to recover, but it made it!

Yup that was just taken and lights were on, haven’t noticed any polys fallen off and no brown spots either.

Matt56 · Jan 23, 2020

Magellan said:
Oh! I assume that’s during the day...have any polyps fallen off? Anything that looks like “brown jelly” on the hammer? (If yes to either, get it out of the tank, it’s toast).

if it’s just receded into its skeleton, it can come back. At least, I had a purple hammer that looked worse than that due to a temperature issue (cheap Chinese thermometer...) but after I fixed the problem, and gave it some time it eventually started to spread out again.

you can try dipping it in Coral Rx as well, that’s what I did with the purple. Took quite a while to recover, but it made it!

This is a pic I have just taken looks like there’s a small hole in the hammer all lights off and used my phone flash light

Magellan · Jan 23, 2020

That may be its mouth. Have you tried dipping it yet?

Matt56 · Jan 23, 2020

Magellan said:
That may be its mouth. Have you tried dipping it yet?

All I have for dips is SR AQUARISTIK Coral Defense

Magellan · Jan 23, 2020

Matt56 said:
All I have for dips is SR AQUARISTIK Coral Defense

I would give it a dip just in case. Then leave it alone, give it some time. It will either recover, or it won’t

Matt56 · Jan 23, 2020

Magellan said:
I would give it a dip just in case. Then leave it alone, give it some time. It will either recover, or it won’t

My lfs said that if it’s been like this for a while it most likely won’t come back

Magellan · Jan 23, 2020

Matt56 said:
My lfs said that if it’s been like this for a while it most likely won’t come back

Yea it’s not looking good. All you can really do is keep your params as stable as possible and hope.

Matt56 · Jan 23, 2020

Magellan said:
Yea it’s not looking good. All you can really do is keep your params as stable as possible and hope.

Okay thank you very much for your help.

Matt56 · Feb 1, 2020

Magellan said:
I would give it a dip just in case. Then leave it alone, give it some time. It will either recover, or it won’t

A little update I have dipped the coral and raised all my parameters to what they should be for a reef tank and it has been coming back lost a few polyps but most has come back