Hammer help

[KaitieLady]

Hey all, so our tank is mysteriously going downhill fast. I initially posted about the Duncan’s but now I’m more concerned about the hammer. I don’t know if it’s dead or alive and if it’s dead I wanna take it out before it causes any more problems - if that’s even possible. Let me know what you think! TIA

 

[KaitieLady]

Here’s what it looks like

 

[dsayo]

Thinking it’s still somewhat alive with its flesh still showing. Have you checked your water parameters??

 

[vetteguy53081]

Polyp bailout and not good. Generally caused by too much water flow and even insufficient lights.
Like most other coral species, 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.
This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. 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.
The hammer coral is considered to be an aggressive coral species that will attack its neighbors with sweeper tentacles. These are stinging nematocysts (similar to the sting of an anemone) on the end of a specialized polyp that can extend several inches away from the body of the coral. The sweeper tentacles pack a punch and will chemically burn any neighboring corals.
Hammer corals are more subdued eaters who would benefit from the occasional feeding of a meaty marine food like mysis and brine shrimp.

 

[KaitieLady]

Thinking it’s still somewhat alive with its flesh still showing. Have you checked your water parameters??

Yea it all started about a week ago, everything started looking **** just about overnight tested parameters 3 times in 4 days, couldn’t find anything. Did 2 small water changes in between then on Tuesday did a 50%. Salinity is good, temp is good, we haven’t moved anything or changed flow/light schedule. We pulled apart pumps, power heads, thermometer to see if anything was cracked or bulging and electrocuting the tank, got a voltage meter to double check and no current is running through the water. After the 50% we put purigen and poly filter I believe in the back, cleaned our filter media, replaced our carbon and our biomedia. Legit cannot find what’s wrong. Stony corals dead. Duncan is not extended, zoas, gsp and mushrooms even retracted. Nothing out of ordinary In parameters lfs tested everything they are capable of testing. They’re at a loss. Only thing I can think is some kind of toxin or pollutant for in there but we’re very hands out of the tank. Snails have died immediately removed. Nobody has any idea what’s wrong

 

[KaitieLady]

Polyp bailout and not good. Generally caused by too much water flow and even insufficient lights.
Like most other coral species, 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.
This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. 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.
The hammer coral is considered to be an aggressive coral species that will attack its neighbors with sweeper tentacles. These are stinging nematocysts (similar to the sting of an anemone) on the end of a specialized polyp that can extend several inches away from the body of the coral. The sweeper tentacles pack a punch and will chemically burn any neighboring corals.
Hammer corals are more subdued eaters who would benefit from the occasional feeding of a meaty marine food like mysis and brine shrimp.

Thanks so much for all the wonderful information. We’ve got an AI prime 16hd light on the tank have had the schedule set for 10 months. Before last week it was growing, new heads developing and it was thriving. We fed it mysis and made sure it was on the rocks and off the sandbed and also not too close to any other coral because of the sweeper tentacles. I am new to the hobby but hubby has been doing it for 15yeara, he’s also at a loss. I’ll post a pic of parameters but they were tested once more since then. I just don’t have that sticky note on me. We tested for copper and there was none in there. On the sticky note salinity was a little high it is back to normal now about 1.025, pH is at 8 and magnesium has gone up a little, calcium had come down a little. Ammonia nitrite and nitrate were all 0,0,5 respectively.

 

[Bribo12]

Do you use rodi water? Or do you get water from somewhere. TDS? Nvm about copper. Stray voltage?

 

[tautog83]

When you say bio media, what do you mean ? If you mean like marine pure blocks or something like seachem matrix you shouldn't be replacing that . Sadly that hammer is dead .

 

[KaitieLady]

Do you use rodi water? Or do you get water from somewhere. TDS? Nvm about copper. Stray voltage?

Use rodi from lfs and test params on it too. No stray voltage we tested it with a meter and put a grounding…. Thing in there? Just in case for the future. And TDS I would have to ask the hubby about

 

[KaitieLady]

When you say bio media, what do you mean ? If you mean like marine pure blocks or something like seachem matrix you shouldn't be replacing that . Sadly that hammer is dead .

We have a fluval evo 13.5 and these go in the back chamber. Dead dead like take it out right now? RIP loved that guy he was one of my favs. This is my first tank crash it’s so upsetting

 

[tautog83]

Yea the idea of that is the same idea of live rock . Those things are used to create more surface area for good bacteria to colonize on. So you dont replace it . Yea an AI prime should be good but it doesnt look like much coralline for over 10 months . Sometimes ya just cant pin point it, frustrating part dealing with living things

 

[vetteguy53081]

Use rodi from lfs and test params on it too. No stray voltage we tested it with a meter and put a grounding…. Thing in there? Just in case for the future. And TDS I would have to ask the hubby about

As strange as it may sound- test the water from the LFS. There are many cases of persons buying LFS which has high nitrate/phos/silica and PH. The high salinity can make many coral unhappy.

 

[KaitieLady]

As strange as it may sound- test the water from the LFS. There are many cases of persons buying LFS which has high nitrate/phos/silica and PH. The high salinity can make many coral unhappy.

We do test our water from lfs before adding it to the tank

 

[KaitieLady]

Yea the idea of that is the same idea of live rock . Those things are used to create more surface area for good bacteria to colonize on. So you dont replace it . Yea an AI prime should be good but it doesnt look like much coralline for over 10 months . Sometimes ya just cant pin point it, frustrating part dealing with living things

Super frustrating. The ONLY thing that has changed in the last month is we added 2 emerald crabs because we had hair algae in the tank. They’ve eradicated it and we thought maybe going after corals but couldn’t see any damage when everything was still extended. Also, there has been absolutely NO new algae growth on our glass in the last week. What would cause algae not to grow on the glass? It’s bizarre. We have a 40 gal Brewster tank currently cycling. It’s no where near ready but I would be scared to put anything in it anyways in case it was a parasite. And oh I had no idea about the biomedia. Tank came with multiples so I figured they needed to be replaced

 

[Melanie Fish]

We have a fluval evo 13.5 and these go in the back chamber. Dead dead like take it out right now? RIP loved that guy he was one of my favs. This is my first tank crash it’s so upsetting

Maybe check the side chambers. I was having trouble with my 13.5 and it turned out my pump chamber and the bottom of my middle chambers were super dirty.