Hammer heads shrinking and dying off

[Peppz]

I've had my hammer head coral for about 8 months and for some reason it's retracting away and disappearing it started with a quarter disappeared and now 3/4 are gone, I have a little diatom problem which I'm trying to solve with assistance for my local shop but I think when I added the things he told me it retracted more, my salinity was a little high which I've been bringing down slowly and its basicly back to where it should be, also nitrates have been brought down as I have done water changes and re tested nitrate levels but I dont know what yo do with my hammer head it doesn't want to get any better. I have attached before and after of my hammer head

 

[NatReef]

Hello there o/ ,
Magnesium should be way higher , atleasr 1300 to make Euphyllia happy , phosphate extremely low Euphyllia kinda hate that , ph you need to increase to atleasr 8.1 and try to lower nitrates , hope it helps . Best of luck

 

[kevgib67]

I don’t know what is causing it but @NatReef pointed out the things that would make it unhappy. Just in case you have a bacterial infection going on you could try dipping it in Lugol’s iodine. I hope it is not to late.

 

[JGT]

And 0 PO4 is no bueno.

 

[InactionJackson]

I have this tester…..my magnesium is a couple hundred lower on this tester..so yours really might be closer to 1450/1500. I noticed my Alk is lower on this as well, so yours is 109, it really might be 126/127 which is 7.1/7.2 dkh. Calcium will be a little higher than what you see as well. Everything else is about right…. I double check my Alk with Hanna and mag as well….my Ph is double checked with my GHL

 

[InactionJackson]

So bring your Alk up, which will help stabilize your Ph. But you still may need more …like a scrubber etc… raising your ALK is not a final solution to your Ph issue.

 

[Seansea]

Like others have said low phos at 0 not great for them. And mag a little low by that reading but might be off as jackson said but one thing that i found after going thru these troubles for a couple weeks i found vermitid snails hiding underneath my hammer corals. They like to hang out on the hammers stalk gives them cover. But the webs they put out irritate the heck out of euphelia. Cleaned them off with some tools and that day they were back out. I have to go in and get them off every couple months. Seems to be thileir favorite spot.. also hammers will close up for a few days when having a stressful split.