Need hammer help ASAP

[tritonpower]

I am now almost 6 months into this thing called reefing. Loving it.
I have learned a lot. Mostly things have been going well until this week.

I have 3 hammers. One green, one toxic green and one purple. Suddenly, the purple starting shrinking rapidly, the toxic green slowly shrinking this week. I have had the toxic green for over 3 months and it has been doing great. The purple I have had 1 month, also doing great.
The green hammer, meanwhile, continues to look amazing while the other 2 do not. You can see in the 1st picture they were all together initially and looked great a couple weeks ago. 2nd picture shows the toxic green shrinking from today. 3rd pic shows what is left of the purple today. Almost gone!

The flow in that area is low. Bottom of a 24 inch tank with ReefLED50s with blues at 70% above the tank, so low light.

I added a melanurus wrasse last week but he only harasses my snails. I haven't seen him touch any corals. I have had a peppermint shrimp but he's been there for a couple months. Only other fish are 2 clowns, 2 chalk bass, mandarin goby, lawnmower blenny, watchman goby, COC.

I dose seachem reef advantage calcium 2 tsp in RO 3x/week and seachem reef builder 3tsp in my ATO weekly. My alk has been stable at 8.0-8.3. My calcium has been harder to keep stable ranging from 420-450. Today was 465 (it's never been above 450 before).

Full levels: temp 79.4 salinity 1.0255 pH 8.3 Alk 8.0 Calcium 465 Mag 1300 Nitrate 2.5 Phos 0.02. calc/phos on hanna. rest with salifert.

Crazy part is how well all the other corals are doing (see pic 4). Including the green hammer only 4 inch away. Every one but the 2 hammers.
Top level is 5 montis (1 orange branching, 4 plating), 1 pink goniopora, 1 birdsnest
Middle level is candy cane LPS, duncan, leather
Lower level is multiple palys, zoas, GSP, xenia, and the hammers.

Any thoughts? Could a mild calcium elevation cause this? Why only the 2 hammers and nothing else? Any help is appreciated. I love my hammers.


Tank: 60 gallon, no sump, ReefLED50 x2, Tunze 9004 skimmer, santa monica drop 1.4x, fluval 407, aqua 2000 UV, XPAqua ATO, Jebao wavemaker

 

[vetteguy53081]

Keep it going. Sounds like progress from a happy reef owner

 

[tritonpower]

Keep it going. Sounds like progress from a happy reef owner

any thoughts what may be wrong?

 

[jordan9095]

I would try to up the nitrates. LPS like higher nutrients. Maybe between 5-10 ppm. Probably has nothing to do with minor CA changes. Your CA shouldn't change much in a tank without much coral. If you are adding CA, I would stop that as well since it is not needed and a complicating factor. They may just be going through the motions of adjusting to your tank or splitting. Do a good visual inspection in the day & night to ensure there are no pests or bacteria on the skeleton. This is common for euphyliia when not all polyps are extended.

 

[tritonpower]

I would try to up the nitrates. LPS like higher nutrients. Maybe between 5-10 ppm. Probably has nothing to do with minor CA changes. Your CA shouldn't change much in a tank without much coral. If you are adding CA, I would stop that as well since it is not needed and a complicating factor. They may just be going through the motions of adjusting to your tank or splitting. Do a good visual inspection in the day & night to ensure there are no pests or bacteria on the skeleton. This is common for euphyliia when not all polyps are extended.

I will give it a try. Thanks for the input

 

[Moxtrain]

I've had to banish peppermint shrimp to the refugium before because they decided to start doing damage to my euphyllia (torch and frogspawn.) Worth looking at, at least.

 

[tritonpower]

I've had to banish peppermint shrimp to the refugium before because they decided to start doing damage to my euphyllia (torch and frogspawn.) Worth looking at, at least.

I thought about that. Weird he would start after a couple months but he likes to hang out on the same side as the hammers. Wish I could catch him in the act to be sure. Maybe a night-vision camera!