Help with hammer coral.

[fishski13]

Hey guys recently this hammer has not been doing too good. Its not been puffing out or extending all the way. This tips have also lost some purple color. It almost looks shriveled up throughout the day. Can someone help advise what I should do or change. Below I have included before and after pictures of the hammer coral back in November/December and now. I have also included all my water parameters.

Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: fluctuates between 10 to 18 ppm after weekly water changes
Phosphate: .09
Calcium: around 420
Alkalinity: always between 8 and 9
pH: 8

Light in use: Kessil A80

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey guys recently this hammer has not been doing too good. Its not been puffing out or extending all the way. This tips have also lost some purple color. It almost looks shriveled up throughout the day. Can someone help advise what I should do or change. Below I have included before and after pictures of the hammer coral back in November/December and now. I have also included all my water parameters.

Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: fluctuates between 10 to 18 ppm after weekly water changes
Phosphate: .09
Calcium: around 420
Alkalinity: always between 8 and 9
pH: 8

Light in use: Kessil A80

While it doesn’t look horrible, location is important. Lower third is good but not on sand bed
Light and water flow should be moderate, not low.
flow should not cause stems to bend over but rather sway and calcium below 380 not good
409-450 is good range

 

[terraincognita]

Hey guys recently this hammer has not been doing too good. Its not been puffing out or extending all the way. This tips have also lost some purple color. It almost looks shriveled up throughout the day. Can someone help advise what I should do or change. Below I have included before and after pictures of the hammer coral back in November/December and now. I have also included all my water parameters.

Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: fluctuates between 10 to 18 ppm after weekly water changes
Phosphate: .09
Calcium: around 420
Alkalinity: always between 8 and 9
pH: 8

Light in use: Kessil A80

Did it always have 2 mouths/heads? Often after splitting euph's will look a bit drab for a little IMO.

 

[foxt]

Has anything flow, lighting , water parameters, other corals nearby, fish stocking, inverts changed recently? What about feeding: do you feed it anything? How long has it been next to those other hammers? Anything else nearby? Can you check out the base, any signs of brown jelly disease? If it is in any kind of flow, what does it do if you leave the pumps off for a while?

 

[fishski13]

While it doesn’t look horrible, location is important. Lower third is good but not on sand bed
Light and water flow should be moderate, not low.
flow should not cause stems to bend over but rather sway and calcium below 380 not good
409-450 is good range

flow is moderate as I can see it sway but now swaying only to one side. And it is on the top third of the tank since I am using a lower par light the kessil A80. Estimate it gets about 75 par reading.

 

[fishski13]

Did it always have 2 mouths/heads? Often after splitting euph's will look a bit drab for a little IMO.

Only 1 head

 

[fishski13]

Has anything flow, lighting , water parameters, other corals nearby, fish stocking, inverts changed recently? What about feeding: do you feed it anything? How long has it been next to those other hammers? Anything else nearby? Can you check out the base, any signs of brown jelly disease? If it is in any kind of flow, what does it do if you leave the pumps off for a while?

Nothing has changed when this hammer has been like this. I feed once a week and its minimal since this is a 10 gallon and if I feed more, nitrates and phosphates go up. Only hammers near by. No BJS. Nothing happens when I turn off pumps.

 

[terraincognita]

Only 1 head

I may be wrong but it looks like it's splitting another mouth right now for the photo you posted, which is a good sign. But they tend to "look funky" during this process. It's like giving birth I guess for corals xD.

Observe it for another week and repost if it starts looking worse.

 

[fishski13]

I may be wrong but it looks like it's splitting another mouth right now for the photo you posted, which is a good sign. But they tend to "look funky" during this process. It's like giving birth I guess for corals xD.

Observe it for another week and repost if it starts looking worse.

No, just one mouth no splitting when I look from above.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Hey guys recently this hammer has not been doing too good. Its not been puffing out or extending all the way. This tips have also lost some purple color. It almost looks shriveled up throughout the day. Can someone help advise what I should do or change. Below I have included before and after pictures of the hammer coral back in November/December and now. I have also included all my water parameters.

Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: fluctuates between 10 to 18 ppm after weekly water changes
Phosphate: .09
Calcium: around 420
Alkalinity: always between 8 and 9
pH: 8

Light in use: Kessil A80

Those don't look like the same coral. The bottom pic looks more like a torch to me...

 

[fishski13]

Those don't look like the same coral. The bottom pic looks more like a torch to me...

Well its the exact same coral.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Well its the exact same coral.

Did you remove it from the frag plug? I'm not trying to argue, it just looks very different to me.

 

[fishski13]

Did you remove it from the frag plug? I'm not trying to argue, it just looks very different to me.

Yes, cause when I first got it I kept it on the frag plug for the first 2ish to make sure it was doing well with lighting and flow and than I took it off the frag plug and glued it down

 

[vetteguy53081]

flow is moderate as I can see it sway but now swaying only to one side. And it is on the top third of the tank since I am using a lower par light the kessil A80. Estimate it gets about 75 par reading.

Swaying to one side may be a little too much. Bring flow down slightly. Needs a little more intensity for its building blocks known as zooxanthellae

 

[fishski13]

Swaying to one side may be a little too much. Bring flow down slightly. Needs a little more intensity for its building blocks known as zooxanthellae

Spelling error, not instead of now. Its swaying normally not just to one side.