Tips and tricks for Hammer Coral care

[snyderusaf]

Anyone got any tips or advice on Hammer coral (wall or branching) especially for the best conditions to promote fast growth? Target feeding? Compatability with other corals in the tank? I lost one a few weeks ago and I am going to try again as Hammers are my favorite coral by far. Finally made a year with my tank and he was my first and only loss( well minus the aiptasia but they had it coming)... so want to do this right this time and would love some help.

 

[Kbra]

They like low flow

 

[Paul_N]

They like low flow

+1

If you like hammers you try a frogspawn and put them together. I nested my hammer inside my frogspawn. Also they can stretch out pretty far to attack neighboring coral. Mine would attack the sps I had in my tank. The hammer and frogspawn always won the battles vs the sps.
Target feeding will help it grow quicker but not really necessary.

 

[snyderusaf]

hmm I do have few extra $$ this month... and a frogpawn would be nice. I'll have to see what the good ol' LFS has as I just got notice they have new stock. Thanks for some of the advice Paul and Kbra.

 

[snyderusaf]

and Kbra nice aquarium! I took a look at your 80 gallon. It helped me look at your hammer's placement

 

[CJO]

Once you get it in the right spot, they seem pretty hardy. Mine likes low flow and medium light.

This was mine when I first got it:

This was a couple of months later with proper conditions:

CJ

 

[snyderusaf]

CJ that is awesome, man. I just got back from the LFS and just got to different hammers 1 wall purple with green tips and one branching green with purple tips I think the contrast will look nice. I hope I can get that result as well. What are your parameters, lighting, and setup like?

 

[CJO]

I have it in the bottom corner under LEDs. The PAR is around 150. I haven't found it to be affected too much by parameters as long as they are in the decent range.

CJ

 

[ficklefins]

Agree with the above comments, but I would elaborate on the flow by saying indirect flow. If you put them in a place that is gets indirect med/low flow they will expand pretty far. You can make target feeding them easier by using some smaller sinking pellets.
Frogspawn:

Hammer:

 

[snyderusaf]

awesome thanks guys. I guess it was just bad luck with the last hammer. The wall hammer opened fully today and seems quite happy. The branching hammer hasn't come out completely yet.

 

[ilyad]

I just picked one up a week ago, as a holiday present from my parents. I keep mine on the bottom of the tank in the corner... it gets some flow but its not direct... I spot feed it whenever I feed my tank and it seems to be doing great.

Here it is the day I brought it home

And after a few hours

A Close Up

And it looks great under the blue lights at night

 

[jkef2010]

I just picked up my first Hammer coral and was reading everything, what do you guys spot feed your hammers?

 

[Rookie J]

I sometimes spot feed coral frenzy or reef chili. Here is a pic of my hammers.

April 7th

August 16th

 

[Ryan Rosales]

As long as your water parameters are stable, temperature, Calcium, Alk, and Magnesium.
Good lighting and flow, both moderate that is.
No need to target feed since they are more photosynthetic, additional nutrients are absorbed from the water column.
While addition of trace elements are beneficial with occasional amino acids and B vitamin complex, try and keep Phosphate and Nitrate in check.

 

[New-b]

Other than frogspon what other corals can be kept close to hammers

 

[MrObscura]

My tank's high flow, but very random and indirect, and my hammer is full and happy. As long as they are open and it isn't visually being blasted in one direction by the flow you're good.

My lighting is probably about 125 or so.

I turkey baste a reef roids/rods mix over him twice a week.

And they definitely like nutrients in the water. Mine wasnt happy at all when my nutrients were low.