LPSs : how to fatten up Hammer and Torch

[Luis Spinola]

What I have seen in my experience is that they need to be in the correct spot, our tank has parameters similar to yours but have only used more live rock to lower nitrates and feeding less, they are almost at the bottom of the tank and have a moderate flow, I spot feed them with mysis, some coral frenzy and marine snow every ten days, sometimes they are fatter and happier, I realy don't know why, but they have had these parameters for at least five months. Hope to improve with my photography

 

[ou12004]

I feed mine mysis, cylopeeze, coral frenzy and use amino acids. I find the color is much better with acro power. As soon as the coral frenzy hits the water I see them and the other LPS start opening up and looking for food, this makes it easier to target feed before a fish or shrimp poaches the food.

 

[cnseekatz]

My torches do better in areas where they get strong enough flow to always be moving (a lot), but not so strong that the tentacles look like they might rip off. Hammers are much less sensitive to lower flow. My hammers prefer gentler water. They both get full light, but don't need to be blasted. I'd say "medium light." As far as feeding goes, I run a fairly high nutrient system, so I don't feel the need to target feed them. If I've got leftover meaty bits after feeding nems and acans, I'll give it to my torches. They'll pretty much eat anything.

The only other piece of advise I can give (and forgive me if this is super obvious), is that they do MUCH better if they are securely attached somewhere. Torches have that hard skeleton, and a lot of times, we just wedge it in somewhere, and don't really get it firmly affixed to something. If the skeleton, or the plug or rock that it's on wiggles at all, the torch will never be fully comfortable. Glue that bad boy down, and it should puff right up for you.

Also... make sure you don't have any clown fish bothering them. The two ******s in this photo have killed their fair share of hammers trying to find a comfy spot to chill.

 

[kingrl2]

I've been having issues getting my torch to extend also. I have moved it all over the tank, I've tried low flow, high flow, low light, high light...nothing seems to help. I've never heard that it needs to be attached. I think I will give that a shot this evening.

 

[WetWhistle]

You already have the perfect food in your tank to feed them. Detritus. Smaller food items are more efficient as a food source because it requires less overhead for energy expenditure for the coral to ingest and process the food. Large foods take a lot of energy to move tentacles and open mouth and to digest and process. Small particulate matter like detritus are easily up taken by dissolving through the tissue so they can constantly feed increasing the amount of time feeding. Large items as the mouth open are out of order till the food is taken in so you have less feeding up time. Detritus is nutrient packed and is a form of bacterial plankton that will be eaten by almost everything in your tank. The plus side if you take a turkey baster a few times a week and blow off your rocks and a little of the top layer of substrate you will feed your corals and put it into the water column for removal by the skimmer. I never feed mine directly and mine grow so fast I need to trim at least 10 heads a month. Place them in good flow buy not so strong the tentacles bend over. I place mine on the bottom substrate under the lights and they grow like crazy.

 

[itwired]

the kessels are very under powered, try moving one higher up when they have 2 much light the head will shrivel up. when to little light or just right they will fatten up and reach for more light

 

[Purple Platapus]

I find feeding them makes them look better. I feed mine a blend of clams, krill, shrimp, and fish food.

At night, turn off your pumps before you feed them. Start out with a small "dusting" of smelly food, that would get them to start feeding. Use small pieces of food and make sure your cuc doesn't steal it. It can take about 10 or more minutes before you can turn your pumps back on just to make sure the coral ate the food.

Hope this helps!