My current tank iteration

[dallast]

Current tank parameters are as follows:
Salinity = 35 ppt
Alk. = 8.8 dKh
Ca. = 420
Temp. = 77-78 F
Mag. = 1400

I really like Tropic Marin’s All-For-Reef Powder. I bought a cheap chemistry lab magnetic stirrer/heater off EBay. Mix in a large 2000 ml beaker (also off EBay). Works great. I do dose a separate BRS liquid soda ash to keep the alkalinity stable ( 20 ml/day).
I use Red Sea tests for Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium. BRS titanium heater/controller for temperature.

 

[dallast]

Still getting lots of growth using the powder Tropic Marin All-For-Reef. The additional 20ml of Soda Ash per day keeps my alkalinity steady at near 9.0 dKh. Still haven’t gone after the aiptasia yet — going to do a F-Aiptasia dose followed by some two-part epoxy to cover. Maybe that will work?

 

[dallast]

Over the past month or so, I have sadly watched my huge 100+ head hammer coral start to die off! Withering away and even some polyp bailout. Could not figure out what was going on and did not have the time to thoroughly investigate. So today I found some time to do a 40% water change. I tested my salinity, and wouldn’t you know it, it was significantly low — 32 ppt! So I added some extra high salinity water (40 ppt). Back to 35 ppt so hopefully things will stabilize. Fingers crossed!

 

[dallast]

No big changes yet, but hopefully not getting worse!

 

[dallast]

Today I’m doing 40% water change number 2 in less than one week! Hoping to get my nitrates and phosphates down. Also believe I might have flatworms so finally purchased some dip and going to take out all my remaining hammers and discard dead stalks and dip the rest. Hopefully I can get back on top of my tank issues. Very sad I lost so much of this colony I have had for so many years!

 

[dallast]

With this removal, I might have to add or at least, rescape my tank. Also have some large monti cap colonies to rehome.

 

[dallast]

Well, the tank looks kind of empty after this super large pruning. I thought I might have flatworms, so I dipped everything that still had some life left on it — no flatworms found! So that means my parameters were way off. My phosphate is quite high at .68, so maybe that was part of it. Not sure. But I would say I lost about 80%-90% of my hammer colony. Here is a pic of the what ended up in the trash. At least my monti cap and scroll coral are still going strong!

 

[dallast]

So far, the dip seems to have had a positive outcome for the remainder of my hammer coral. Had a little trouble resetting its position as it was so much shorter than it previously was. May have to rescape at some point. Hopefully, it will keep thriving.