Why can I not keep ora Hawkins

[Stickboy15]

so I know it’s a deep water acro but I keep good stable water and I’ve placed it next to my thriving rmf last dragon and red dragon and I’ve lost my Hawkins for the 4th time. Tank is a modded biocube 29 lit by radion xr15 gen 4 ab+ 80% very stable runing full apex. I’ve had 4 of them 2 lived for a month then just died all of sudden and 2 have died in less then a week. I didn’t dip because I trust my plug being pest free. Tank is full of high end sps homewrecker, op, rr Pink Floyd, rr garden of eden, wd no issues there all nice and happy. Any ideas?

 

[jda]

Some people just struggle with Hawkins... for no real reason. Some of the largest colonies are kept pretty low and allowed to spread out with the best water quality and the best lighting. None of the corals that you listed are hard-to-keep corals, just expensive. Can you keep Ice Fire Echinata or some Lorpies, Lokani or Granulosa? It is weird that your dragons are doing OK, but dragons are easier than Echinata, IME.

There is some anecdotes that this coral is more of a daylight coral since it seems to do well under MH, T5 and in Dr. Johsi's tank with his Radions at 100% on all channels. This is not always true, which is why these are just anecdotes.

You should not really be dipping any smooth skin in anything other than Bayer... it is REALLY hard on them.

 

[SinCityRee4r]

Some people just struggle with Hawkins... for no real reason. Some of the largest colonies are kept pretty low and allowed to spread out with the best water quality and the best lighting. None of the corals that you listed are hard-to-keep corals, just expensive. Can you keep Ice Fire Echinata or some Lorpies, Lokani or Granulosa? It is weird that your dragons are doing OK, but dragons are easier than Echinata, IME.

There is some anecdotes that this coral is more of a daylight coral since it seems to do well under MH, T5 and in Dr. Johsi's tank with his Radions at 100% on all channels. This is not always true, which is why these are just anecdotes.

You should not really be dipping any smooth skin in anything other than Bayer... it is REALLY hard on them.

I agree with bayer for dipping. I run LED’s and have great success with hawkins. A little phosphate and a little nitrate in the system seems to help with growth

 

[Stickboy15]

nitrates 5-10, po4 0.4-0.5 alk 9.0 calc 440 mag 1350

 

[SinCityRee4r]

nitrates 5-10, po4 0.4-0.5 alk 9.0 calc 440 mag 1350

Nitrate5ppm Po4 .1 to .2 alk 11 CA 450 Mag 1450

 

[Stickboy15]

also have a few different millis doing well, av99 orange crush, av99 raging bull, rr pink cady, arc fireworks, bc lemon hammer, bc specale, jf barney, lots of montis kung pow, beach bum, mean streak, and tons of lps and zoas. The only corals I have issues are the hawkins and torches and frogspawns always die.

 

[SinCityRee4r]

also have a few different millis doing well, av99 orange crush, av99 raging bull, rr pink cady, arc fireworks, bc lemon hammer, bc specale, jf barney, lots of montis kung pow, beach bum, mean streak, and tons of lps and zoas. The only corals I have issues are the hawkins and torches and frogspawns always die.

Whats flow like?

 

[Stickboy15]

one mp10 at 100% reef crest on the left side middle up top and a hydor nano 425 lower on the other side

 

[SinCityRee4r]

Did you have them low in the tank

 

[Stickboy15]

pretty low id say I don't have a par meter but Is guess maybe 150-175 par and in medium flow ive tried different spots over the course of trying them

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

Ive got several of those in my tank with medium flow at 185 to 200 par under t5 led hybrid and they do great. I do believe they are a lower light coral that once gets growing can be exposed to higher light over time.

 

[SinCityRee4r]

pretty low id say I don't have a par meter but Is guess maybe 150-175 par and in medium flow ive tried different spots over the course of trying them

Minr is like 12” down with reefbreeder photon v2 12” above water

 

[ca1ore]

My Hawkins is about 18” down under Kessil/Radion. Has grown ok, though the back half went STN about six months ago. Appears to be growing better now. Definately a picky coral. My nutrient levels have been creeping up though with too many fish. Nitrates at about 20 and phosphate 0.2. Got to bolster the export mechanisms.

 

[Bpb]

I’ve attempted Hawkins 4 times from different sources. Only has my current attempt done anything. It is by no means anywhere remotely forgiving. For me it is always the first to go if anything is less than perfect. Mine started as 3 little coralite booger frag and is now roughly the size of a kiwi fruit maybe. So it’s definitely growing. It’s in about 250-300 par last i checked. Moderate flow. Daylight heavy t5’s. It’s a shame it’s so challenging. Years ago it was my bucket list acro, before the rainbow tenuis rat race began. It is still an absolute must have for me and I will likely attempt to keep it in ever tank I have in this hobby

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Odd when I had my last tank ORA Hawkins did really well for me and grew pretty fast and was pretty hardy. I had other sps that would respond poorly to alk swings but the Hawkins never missed a beat.

 

[jd371]

One of my first sps frags to take off and start to grow into a nice colony. Unfortunately the tank got dinos and that was the end of it. I've made two attempts since with no luck.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

yellow arrow is my biggest one. It's in about 185 par. It's a year old in my tank. It was the size of the blue arrow one when I got it. The Orange blue and red arrows are pieces that I broke off and glued down. The red one is 3 months old. It's possible to do it, you just have to pick the right spot.

side shot

 

[madweazl]

I have one in 250 PAR (Kessil/T5) that has been trouble free thus far but it's only been in the tank three months. Has kept good color and started growing almost instantly.