Hammer Coral Slightly Closed

[Cannons Fish]

Over the past few days I have noticed that my hammer coral has been slightly closed up and i have no idea why. I bought it about a month ago from corals.com along with some zoas. It has looked great since I bought except for the last few days. All of my other corals in my tank are doing great: GSP, 3 Zoa Frags, 1 Palythoa, and a BTA. Has this happened to anyone else? Could it be splitting? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[1guydude]

How close is the bta? Check ur salinity and alk. Post your numbers.
D

 

[Cannons Fish]

The BTA is on the other side of the tank. The salinity is 1.023 and I'm not sure what my alk levels are.

 

[1guydude]

I would raise the salt lvl to 24 or 25.
Get yourself an alk test done at the lfs or get a red sea syringe test kit for alk.
Im gonna say your alkalinity is low and thus so is your ph and other parameters. If your salt is low so is everything else. Hths
D

 

[1guydude]

With frequent wcs your alk will be stable with some stony skeleton corals until they start to outgrown the need and thus dosing.

 

[Cannons Fish]

ok

 

[JAMreef]

Over the past few days I have noticed that my hammer coral has been slightly closed up and i have no idea why. I bought it about a month ago from corals.com along with some zoas. It has looked great since I bought except for the last few days. All of my other corals in my tank are doing great: GSP, 3 Zoa Frags, 1 Palythoa, and a BTA. Has this happened to anyone else? Could it be splitting? Thanks in advance for the help.

Also make sure it’s not getting too much flow. Should be just enough flow for it to move its tentacles. If it gets too much flow it will “close up”. Maybe try moving it to another location?

 

[HB AL]

Sounds like you don't test very often. I would at minimum test for nitrates, calcium, and especially alkalinity and get those at optimal levels for coral vitality. Chances are the hammer coral is the 1st coral in your system to not be happy due to some parameter/parameters not being optimal for the health of the coral and if that's the case other corals will slowly follow not being in ideal water conditions. I would also bring your salinity up to around 1.025-1.026.

 

[Cannons Fish]

Also make sure it’s not getting too much flow. Should be just enough flow for it to move its tentacles. If it gets too much flow it will “close up”. Maybe try moving it to another location?

Ok, I'll try and see what happens