Help with Hammer and Duncan Corals

AdamNC · Jan 20, 2019

My Hammer and Duncan just seem miserable compared to my 2 Acan frags and a Kenya Tree frag, I'm not sure what to do. Fish are good, snails are good and hermits are also good.
Tank is 4 months old with new dry rock and fresh washed sand from a previous setup. I did keep 1 piece that is about 3Lbs that I did not move to my other build. I seeded it using Brightwell Aquatics MB7 and the previous live rock piece. Temp is very consistent by using an Apex to control a heater and a fan blowing to cool it down when it gets too hot. I do weekly water changes of 5 gallons with Red Sea blue bucket, one was just done today. Flow is not too bad, nothing directly pointed at them. 2 Jebao WP-10s on Else mode, 1 Tunze 6040 on full flow/half flow at 5 sec intervals and an AC70 with only rock rubble in it. Fish consist of a Bangaii Cardinal and a Chalk Basslet. Typical cuc of 1 Mexican Turbo Snail, 6 small Banded Trochus Snails, 2 Blue Leg Hermits and 2 Red Leg Hermits.

Measurements as of today are as follows:
Temp - 77.6 f. Apex
SG - 1.025 Red Sea Refractometer
pH - 8.19 Apex, calibrated 2 weeks ago
Alk - 9.4dKH Hanna dKH checker
Ca - 430ppm Red Sea Pro
Mg - 1380ppm Red Sea Pro
No3 - 3ppm Red Sea Pro
Po4 - 0.18 Hanna UL ppm checker
TDS for RO/DI - 0ppm Hanna inline TDS meter, 34ppm in/0ppm out, yea I got really good water where I live.
Hammer par level - 130 par Apex PMK
Duncan par level - 110 par Apex PMK

Hammer added on 11/16/2018

Hammer today

Duncan added 10/21/2018

Duncan today

Salt1823 · Jan 20, 2019

Your setup sounds amazing. I do not have nearly as nice a setup. Do you target feed them? Mine seem to like higher nitrates and food. I have taken in 2 Duncan's that were not doing well and now they have recovered. I only have lps and softies in my tank. I'm still just learning but it works for me.

Coralreefer1 · Jan 20, 2019

Try experimenting with your water flow!

Gonebad395 · Jan 20, 2019

Coralreefer1 said:
Try experimenting with your water flow!

Agree move them around

AdamNC · Jan 21, 2019

Think more direct flow? As of now all the flow is indirect with the powerheads either pointing up or across the tank but not down except for of course the AC70.

AdamNC · Jan 21, 2019

Salt1823 said:
Your setup sounds amazing. I do not have nearly as nice a setup. Do you target feed them? Mine seem to like higher nitrates and food. I have taken in 2 Duncan's that were not doing well and now they have recovered. I only have lps and softies in my tank. I'm still just learning but it works for me.

I tried to target feed with Reef-Roids and New Spectrum Pellets and nothing. My Acans seem to enjoy the target feeding. This setup is basic compared to my sps tank, it's all the left over equipment after I upgraded to a 40 breeder.

In this pic here is about the biggest the Hammer gets, it was a lot puffier at the LFS.

Gonebad395 · Jan 21, 2019

Not direct flow but in maybe a slightly higher flow area

Salt1823 · Jan 21, 2019

My Duncan's actively catch the smaller meaty bits from my fish food. I feed them Rods and LRF frozen. I get no response to pellets or just liquid. I also agree with gonebad & coral reefer about the flow. I'm sure that they have much more experience than me. I'm still very new. I killed my first hammer with too much light and no food... My frogspawn and hammers also enjoy catching the smaller pieces.

dodgerblew · Jan 21, 2019

My Euphyllia like high flow and they are getting double-triple the par then yours

Hemmdog · Jan 21, 2019

Tong feed them mysis shrimp. And the Duncan’s like a lot of flow. If they ate pellets or tried to that can make them really mad. Give your coral good fresh/frozen food.

And 200ish par

DSC reef · Jan 21, 2019

AdamNC said:
Think more direct flow? As of now all the flow is indirect with the powerheads either pointing up or across the tank but not down except for of course the AC70.

A gentle moving of the polyps would be good for them, as long as it's not blasting them in one direction. Occasional feedings could help too.

Grootzilla · Jan 21, 2019

In my experience hammers aren't crazy about direct flow. There should be just enough so that the tentacles are gently swaying, otherwise they don't extend a lot. You also might be exposing them to too much light. Try placing them lower in the tank.

AdamNC · Jan 21, 2019

Well I went back to an old post about Maxspect R420R settings https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/maxspect-razor-settings.234664/ post #12 and decided to follow what I did in the past. Maybe it'll help maybe it won't but it's a start I guess.