What might be wrong with this hammer

[Alexandru B]

Hi,
I am not sure why my hammer (the one that has 8 heads) is looking like is like a water bubble.
Do you think the coral is dying? or why is he looking like that.

Also when the water moves the top part is kinda moving with the flow like you are moving a jelly cake.

Before it was sunnked inside the skeleton and sometimes is getting filled like that. Today he's been staying like how shows in the picture.

 

[Robbs]

Hi. I think it could be Brown jelly decease. I never had it but just my guess.

 

[Gareth elliott]

How long has it been in the tank? Parameters?

 

[maroun.c]

What light and flow is it under ?
How long ws tank setup ? Parameters? How long have u had it ?

 

[Coralreefer1]

Unfortunately, neither one of your corals is very healthy. They both are going through some type of water parameter issue causing them to recede. As stated above, what are your water parameter levels? Are you doing water changes frequently? How strong is your lighting and water flow? How long have you had these corals? How long have they looked like this?
From what I see, the odds of these two corals making a full recovery are very slim, unfortunately.

 

[Alexandru B]

Here are my water parameters:
Temperature: 78
Salinity: 1.025
Ph: 8
Amonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 30
Calcium 420
Alkalinity: 11.2
Magnesium: 1520

The coral has flow. It's bee in the tank for about 2 weeks.
I recently changed the lights and I have a Viperspectra Led light. My blue lights are at 40% intensity running for about 8 hours, and the other colors are about 5% intensity and they run for about 4 hours.

I don't understand why the Alkalinity and Magnesium are so high. Because I never dose these. I only dosed CA: because it was at: 380
I use instant Ocan Salt Mix.
I already moved the purple tourch in my frag tank because over there the corals are doing fine.

The tank has been running for about 5 months. Not sure what is off.

I do water change every 2 weeks about 15 to 20 gallons on my 75 gallon tank.

 

[Gareth elliott]

New lights plus high alkalinity sounds like the culprit.

Instant ocean is around that dkh i believe. Could lower the alkalinity of the saltmix with muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate(sea chem acid buffer)

Either way mix in new water and let stabilize for a bit before doing water changes.

 

[MrObscura]

It could very well be the high Alk, especially if they were from a lower Alk environment originally.

Thats why I switched to red sea Blue bucket from coral pro. Many salts have way too high of Alk and its going to shock the majority of new corals you add to your tank since most will likely be used to 8-9dkg. Plus I believe a drop in Alk is a lot easier to handle than a spike, so even the rare one coming from high Alk should be fine.

 

[Alexandru B]

Did not know that high alkalinity can be a problem. I wonder why instant ocean has such high alkalinity...
I guess I have to buy a different salt then.

Any other suggestions would be more then welcome.

 

[MrObscura]

It's not necessarily a problem in and of itself. Some salts market a high dkh as promoting faster growth and some people run their tanks that high. Though I personally dont buy it and don't see a need to. And regular instant ocean isn't even market as running that high, it's just a cheap salt with lower constancy between batches I think.

Anyway corals used to a high dkh will be just fine, the issue is most corals are likely coming from 8-9DKH so plopping them in a tank at 11-12 Could be problematic.

I use red sea blue bucket which at 1.026 tends to run between 8-9dkh which is just fine with me. I also heard good things about fritz rpm but then heard constancy started slipping and now even their regular salt can push near 11dkh.

 

[homer1475]

10 to 11 DKH is exactly what purple box IO mixes up to. Not lower consistency between batches, it's just what it mixes up to. Box after box it's one of the most consistent salts I've used, and why it's one of the most popular salts.

 

[MrObscura]

Plenty of people use it with success but io doesn't even list Alk parameters and I've seen people get anything from 9-11. And reef crystals can mix to something crazy like 14.

Its popular because it's cheap and does the job. If you don't mind the drawbacks.

 

[homer1475]

No it's popular because it's been around a very long time and it's consistent. There are plenty of cheaper options out there.

They don't list parameters because it's not supposed to be a "reef" salt. Thats what IORC is for and why they post parameters on that packaging.

At the end of the day it's all about what makes each reefer happy, be that an expensive "niche" salt like RedSea, or the cheapest out there fritz. They all get the job done, most pick a salt mix on it's specific mixing parameters.

I was just stating that is what IO regularly mixes up to and why the OP's ALK is what it is without dosing anything.

 

[MrObscura]

Being a reef salt doesn't mean high dkh, and io themselves say the formulate io to "match natural sea water." though it's listed cal and mag are low for such a high dkh. And there's no excuse for not listing Alk levels as far as I'm concerned.

Just from what I've gathered it isnt particularly consistent and people live with that because it's cheap and readily available. I get it, you use io. That's great, keep using it if it works for you. You don't need to win me over.

 

[homer1475]

EDIT:
never mind. Some people are stuck in their thinking, and thats just the way it is.

 

[MrObscura]

Lol that's ironic.

Now, if youre done shilling for io, do you actually have some advice for OP? Or can you at least let his thread get back on track?

 

[homer1475]

Yes, yes it is.

But none of this is helping the OP.

And as I stated his parameters are the way they are, because thats what purple box IO mixes up to.

 

[homer1475]

Lol that's ironic.

Now, if youre done shilling for io, do you actually have some advice for OP? Or can you at least let his thread get back on track?

Never shilled for IO, I was simply stating some of your misconceptions on why people choose IO over anything else. Also why the OP's parameters are the way they are with no dosing.

Yes price does have something to do with it, but the consistency is why I chose it over anything else.

Look we can argue all day long on the net, it's pointless and rather boring. IMO And is not helping the OP one bit.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

When my Alk gets too high I stop the cause and let it naturally come down, in your case that is water changes. I don't think that will work for you because your nitrates are at 30ppm with water changes; without they will only go higher. I noticed you didn't list phosphates but when they start getting very high I have noticed coral recession and pathology. You could try another salt called Fritz, I believe it mixes up to around 7dKh. You want to make sure any changes you make are gradual. I don't like changing Alk by more than 1ppm/day, and my sweet spot is 9dKh, sea water is closer to 7dKh. Besides Alk your corals might be reacting to the nitrate level, if they came from a low nitrate situation. I don't believe 30 is crazy high, but 30 is high for a coral that is coming from ULN. Finally magnesium at over 1500ppm can also be an issue if they came from a lower environment. Once acclimated usually not a big deal.

It could very well be a combination of all of this that is leading to stress and causing the coral more prone to disease.

 

[Alexandru B]

I see. Thank you for the replies!