Help! What is bothering my hammer?

[Shnolby]

So I’m relatively new to coral and keeping a reef. The tank has been up for a couple months now. The fish and most coral seem to be happy, but my hammer has been extending less and less and the flesh on the skeleton has receded noticeably over the last week. Parameters are:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: undetectable ~0
Phosphate: undetectable ~0

Calcium: 500
pH: 8.1
kH: 6.5

I dose NeoPhos and NeoNitrate in really small amounts over the course of several days, but my nutrients levels stay close to 0. The tank is 150 gallons with a very light bioload. Recently the kH has been decreasing, should I consider dosing for this?

My best guess is that the hammer isn’t happy with the recent drop in carbonate hardness. When I bought it, there was some receded flesh on it but it’s since gotten worse. I also included photos of some of my other corals which look healthy to me

 

[j.falk]

Nitrates and phosphates at 0 = not good for corals.

 

[Shnolby]

Nitrates and phosphates at 0 = not good for corals.

Right that’s my issue of 3 fish and a small CUC in a 150, very low nutrients for coral. I’m a little nervous to dose a lot of my nitrate and phosphate supplements. Do you have experience with these? I’ve been dosing about 20 mL of nitrate a day which equates to a nitrate increase of 1 ppm per day. I can’t really differentiate the results of my API test kit (I know they’re ****, getting Hanna checkers soon). It appears to me that my nitrates stay at 0 despite my tiny incremental doses

 

[glb]

I would guess that the zero nutrients and the low alk are the problems. LPS like some nitrates and phosohates in the tank IMO. My LPS started to shrink when my nutrients zeroed out like yours. I’d feed a little more heavily until your numbers start to rise. I keep my softie/LPS tank at NO3 5-8ppm and PO4 0.03-0.05ppm. Any less than that and they’re unhappy.

You need to raise your alk. The normal range is 8-12dkh. Don‘t try to do it all at once. Where you keep it in that range is up to you. I keep mine at about 8.5. I’d follow dosing directions for whatever you use for alk and not raise levels daily beyond what they recommend.

Take things slowly and over time and with stability, I think your corals will look better. Good luck!

 

[glb]

Right that’s my issue of 3 fish and a small CUC in a 150, very low nutrients for coral. I’m a little nervous to dose a lot of my nitrate and phosphate supplements. Do you have experience with these? I’ve been dosing about 20 mL of nitrate a day which equates to a nitrate increase of 1 ppm per day. I can’t really differentiate the results of my API test kit (I know they’re ****, getting Hanna checkers soon). It appears to me that my nitrates stay at 0 despite my tiny incremental doses

I’ve dosed Brightwell Neonitro and NeoPhos successfully. I’d suggest Nyos for your nitrate test and a Hanna Checker for phosphates.