SquishyFishy Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Here is a link to my tank thread and pics of this: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/339748-squishyfishys-biocube-planet/page-19 Hammer is having problems...any ideas what may be wrong. He has no brown jelly anywhere, just won't color up and puff up any more, more like he's really ticked than anything. I can't see any parasites on him and I never see any of the crabs or shrimp bothering him...what's the deal! Link to comment
tennis20 Posted July 3, 2015 Share Posted July 3, 2015 i don't have much technical help...but my euphyllia often go through phases where they'll shrink up for a few days then puff back up. Also, at night they tend to inflate and deflate much differently than during the day so it's hard to judge if something's wrong. In daylight, the hammer looks healthy...so just give it a few days would be my advice. Link to comment
ReefWeeds Posted July 3, 2015 Share Posted July 3, 2015 Hmm. Weird that he almost looks bleached. Do you think he's getting enough food where he's at? Maybe it is lack of nutrients/food? Or maybe too much light still? Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 It can't be too much light, I've cut down the white channel to 40%. I have not hand fed him in a while though. I'll try that. Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Changed up my flow, bought another Hydor KoraLia for the other side they are pointing opposite each other so the flow is more even and pretty good to all areas of the bed. Moved the hammer back in under a little ridge in rock so he feels more secure...still has light and flow but medium, but he's still PO'd! and now the frogspawn is acting mad too. All params are so perfect, tank and water pristine except for the great coralline I'm finally getting. WTF is going on? Could they be angry with the ChemiClean I've used in the past few weeks? Didn't seem to bother anybody else and it sure got rid of the cyano and helped with the GHA. Didn't have much of it but I like to stay ahead of it. The Zoas are proliferating exponentially along with the mushrooms and rics. Even the Stylo is doing great now. I've spot fed too. But they are just not polyped out and puffy good like they were. You can hardly see the hammers on it and the heads on the spawn are drawing in a bit. I can see nothing on them, no jelly no critters. Auuuuugggghhhhhh! Link to comment
Waboss Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 I had a wall hammer that did something similar. No matter what I did, it stayed PO'd until it finally bit the big one. I hope you figure out how to turn it around. Link to comment
Neebles Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 My hammer and frogspawn HATE flow, if they aren't in the most dead spots in my tank I can find, they won't come out to play. Sounds like you have upped the flow which definitely won't help matters. I would find some low flow spots for your hammer and frogspawn and leave them alone for a bit. Link to comment
Markburns43 Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 How clean is the water? Too clean? Link to comment
ajmckay Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Now Stop, hammer time! This is somewhat perplexing. At work so I can't see pics but It sounds like the coral is getting the right flow and lighting... Normally they need quite a bit of lighting - maybe bump that up? Also flow is sort of tricky... If the flow is too strong the tentacles can actually be damaged by the sharp skeleton. But not enough flow and crap will settle on them and potentially cause issues. So I like to say low to medium flow. Don't point a powerhead straight at it, but try to "bounce" it off a wall or get a gyre going. Read laminar or turbulent flow. Euphyllia are pretty sensitive to water quality. You don't want your nitrates to get too high and you want stable ALK. If your zoas and coralline algae are doing well that to me signifies that things are good with your water quality. Have you experienced any significant swings in temp, salinity, ALK, or anything else that you can think of lately? Any damage (fell over, urchin crawled across it, etc...)? How long has it been in your tank, and how long has it been exhibiting these symptoms? Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 My theory after hearing the tank is pristine is that you're starving it. Light great, flow great, but ZERO food in the water column. You gotta feed! Reef Roods, Clam Feast, etc- anything to give the coral a snack Link to comment
justinfox Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 On a similar but quite different note; I've got a few hammers in my tank (which is only 1.5 months old). They're all doing amazing but one of the heads on one of them has never fully opened. It sometimes almost opens, but it's never completely opened like the others on the same piece of coral. I see it's mouth gaping open, and I've thought about feeding it, but in the end I just left it alone. It stayed like this for the past 3 weeks and finally gave in 2 days ago. IE: It just disintegrated. The other heads on the same piece of coral are doing amazing. I didn't worry about the rotting head spreading. I just did a water change as I saw it disintegrating and all is fine. I don't put it down to an issue with flow, or lighting. I think it's just one of those things? Bit of a mystery. Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 The corals are fed constantly....that's why the cyano went crazy for a while. I usually feed them Reef Frenzy, mysis and krill for the bigger guys every other day to 3 days. They also get snow and plankton every week and the left over pellets from the daily fish feed. I spot feed them occasionally and they even eat Cyclopeez flake in the afternoons. I feed too much if anything. When I say pristine, I mean I clean everyday...and I mean everyday. And the water is crystal. There are some bits of rubble on the sand bed that are growing GHA so I don't think it's devoid of nutrients. Link to comment
My tiny reef Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 Have you tested ALK and Calcium? I had some trouble with a few lps when they got low and if your coraline is doing well then maybe it's eating up the calcium. Just a thought. Good luck, hate losing beautiful corals Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 I dose every other day with 2 part Fusion and do a bi-weekly water change and change out filter floss once a week. I have tested Calc/Alk but not lately. With the dosing, it was perfect a couple months ago. Also run carbon/Phosguard. I consider myself a pretty conscientious reef keeper. Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 Now Stop, hammer time! This is somewhat perplexing. At work so I can't see pics but It sounds like the coral is getting the right flow and lighting... Normally they need quite a bit of lighting - maybe bump that up? Also flow is sort of tricky... If the flow is too strong the tentacles can actually be damaged by the sharp skeleton. But not enough flow and crap will settle on them and potentially cause issues. So I like to say low to medium flow. Don't point a powerhead straight at it, but try to "bounce" it off a wall or get a gyre going. Read laminar or turbulent flow. Bouncing flow on opposite sides of tank on walls Euphyllia are pretty sensitive to water quality. You don't want your nitrates to get too high and you want stable ALK. If your zoas and coralline algae are doing well that to me signifies that things are good with your water quality. Have you experienced any significant swings in temp, salinity, ALK, or anything else that you can think of lately? Any damage (fell over, urchin crawled across it, etc...)? No measurable nitrate/nitrite, ph perfect. Have had some summer temp swings but within limits...76.5 up to 79.5. I use an external fan but with the BC29, this is harder to control. No damage I have noticed. How long has it been in your tank, and how long has it been exhibiting these symptoms? Have had these over a year. This started about a month ago. As I recall, the salinity DID have a problem while we were on vacation for 10 days. But it was quickly resolved by my neighbor. It might have gotten up to 1.30 salinity for about 24 hrs. Its been so long I forgot about this accident. But that was back in May. I guess that accident could've been more a factor than I thought because when we got home everything seemed just fine. The ATO had somehow become unplugged from the fresh water pump and tank got no top off for at least 24 to 48 hrs and they tested the salt and it was high, but came down as they refreshed tank. O.K. I'll just let them be and maybe they will improve on their own. Thx for all the input. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 If you've got any coral revive a dip in that might also be beneficial... Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 Have revive, may do just that. But new developments. Now some tissue is coming out the mouths of 2 of the hammer mouths and one of the spawn heads. Took these but they're not too good, you can barely see it. But its not just poop. This of the spawn is better you can see through it its transparent looks like a parachute coming out right in the middle of the head Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 15 mins later the mouth is open and the veil of tissue has floated off... here is the latest pic this doesn't look so good this is the spawn Sorry its so distorted, had to take it on the side of the tank Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 Well the mouth was open quite large, but is closed now. So for the time being the frogspawn is o.k. I guess. Will try to let you know if they RIP. Link to comment
Hig789 Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 You e been dosing two part but haven't tested your CA and Alk in a couple of months? How do you know you aren't under/over dosing? Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 Don't... I"ve got the Saliphert but frankly, its so much trouble doing the test that I haven't repeated it..Just following directions and everything else is stellar and growing well. Link to comment
Hig789 Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Just never heard of anyone dosing anything really and not checking their levels. The directions on the products don't tell you how much your corals are actually using. Carry on then. Didn't mean to high Jack your thread. Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted July 23, 2015 Author Share Posted July 23, 2015 No worries, I appreciate your input. I am lazy in that regard I guess. Link to comment
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