Hammer coral shrivelling up for no reason.

[ThePhilosopher]

I've got this nice and small green hammer coral which has been doing splendidly in the last month or so.

Unfortunately it hasn't been looking too good in the last couple of days. The hammer coral heads are starting to look shrivelled up even when the lights are on and I cannot for the love of me figure out why it would be doing this. I've got mushroom corals, zoas, favites, snails and a hermit crab and they're acting fine. I'm starting to worry now because a few of the heads have died out and I'm starting to make out its skeleton where a few heads should be.

 

I got some water tests done and the only thing that resulted is that the calcium is a tad low (300, compared to the ideal 400 or so). Still, I wouldn't expect a hammer coral to go all hormonal on me for low calcium.

Temperature has been at a steady 83-84 ever since I got it (a bit too high for comfort, I know) with no fluctuations. Also, no fluctuations in salinity.

 

I've even stayed up at night with a flashlight to try and catch a glimpse of what goes on in the hopes of catching a pest snacking on it. No pests found.

 

Closest thing to a change I can think of is adding a little aquarium epoxy (for saltwater, too), but I highly doubt a trusted brand of epoxy could do this.

 

I went ahead and added a bag of activated carbon yesterday just to try and clear up the water of any bad chemicals that could have possibly got in. Funnily enough, the hammer coral's heads are looking more inflated today than they have been in the last few days, but nothing close to their full splendour.

 

 

TL;DR: My hammer coral is acting #####y for no apparent reason. It looks too stressed to be splitting heads. Is it normal for hammer corals to go ballistic for no apparent reason, and if so, what can I do to ensure it survives?

[skimlessinseattle]

There is always a reason, and it's likely your temperature. 84F is 6 degrees higher than the thermal maximum recommended for LPS corals. You need to find a way to decrease it, whether it be a fan, or chiller, unless you get that temp down, you are likely going to have issues keeping many corals.

[ThePhilosopher]

There is always a reason, and it's likely your temperature. 84F is 6 degrees higher than the thermal maximum recommended for LPS corals. You need to find a way to decrease it, whether it be a fan, or chiller, unless you get that temp down, you are likely going to have issues keeping many corals.

The thing is that I'd expect the other corals and CUC to start showing signs of stress before the hammer coral.

Also, it's been doing great in this temperature for about a month, but then again the stress might have got to it now of all times.

 

Either way, I'm cooling the tank with a fan as we speak. I'll aim for a slow one or two degree decrease in temperature a day so as not to cause further stress.

 

Thanks for your reply.

[Lawnman]

I would start with the temp. I can tell you calcium and alk swings always result in death to LPS corals in nanos. I always had this problem with LPS and SPS in my nanos. I lost so many corals. Now that I have switched to a 75 gallon I never gave problems.

[xerophyte_nyc]

There is always a reason, and it's likely your temperature. 84F is 6 degrees higher than the thermal maximum recommended for LPS corals. You need to find a way to decrease it, whether it be a fan, or chiller, unless you get that temp down, you are likely going to have issues keeping many corals.

 

What is the source for the statement about 78F being the recommended maximum for LPS? I keep my tank at 82-83F and everything is growing like gangbusters. I only have LPS. The average of the world's reefs is about 82F.

[ThePhilosopher]

I would start with the temp. I can tell you calcium and alk swings always result in death to LPS corals in nanos. I always had this problem with LPS and SPS in my nanos. I lost so many corals. Now that I have switched to a 75 gallon I never gave problems.

Interesting. Would you recommend dosing calcium to try and keep it at a stable level? Seems like the only viable option considering how calcium's already too low.

[jyg]

Interesting. Would you recommend dosing calcium to try and keep it at a stable level? Seems like the only viable option considering how calcium's already too low.

 

 

What's the size of your tank? If its a nano, proper water changes will make most chem levels more steady than you could by testing and dosing. I have never tested anything but nitrates.

 

I would get the temperature down, just for general goodness.

 

Do you run any carbon? I used to run it all the time and then stopped, but now only a day or so after water changes. And, I also run it for a day when I see this sort of behavior in any corals.

 

My recommendations (what I consider the best medicine for almost everything):

 

1) Get the heater under 80F.

2) Give more distance between possibly offending corals, if you can.

2) Do a 20-25% water change

3) Run carbon for a day

 

NOW... with all that said, I had a similar discussion with an LFS guy. He mentioned that sometimes corals retract when they are conserving energy, usually for growth. I have found this to often be true, when it seems that they are looking a bit sickly for no reason.

 

So, do what you can do and let nature take its course.

 

[speaking of which... I had a torch who wasn't lookinig great yesterday and a hammer that coldn't make up what to do with itself, going in and out. Earlier in the day I placed a colony of buttons between them. I moved the buttons and ran some carbon over night. This look much happier this morning.]

[ThePhilosopher]

Thanks Jyg. The tank is a 5 gallon. I already do 20% water changes weekly, one of which was after the hammer started looking bad.

There are no corals which could have possibly stung the hammer, too. The closest thing to it is a favites whose tentacles are less than an inch long and would have to weave around a rock if it did want to sting.

 

It's starting to look better which could partially be due to a slightly lower temperature and running carbon for a day.

 

While I hope it's closing up to conserve energy, I highly doubt it. Part of the skeleton is starting to show where there should have been polyps. As I'm typing this, the partially extended polyps have closed up again for apparently no reason and it's driving me mad.

 

Also, I thought I'd point out that this is a hammer coral colony with 2 heads, and that the smaller one of the two doesn't seem to be affected by whatever's going on right now. Suddenly I'm starting to suspect that some kind of burrowing parasite may be attacking the larger head.

[Prodigal1011]

My first hammer coral did the exact same thing in my aquapod 12 due to low/fluctuating calcium and alk levels in the tank. If you have any coraline growth going on, the amount of calcium in whatever salt mix your using may not be enough to keep everything stable. I would try a 25% water change and try dosing with a 2 part calcium solution. Also monitor your calcium and alk levels daily to see how much is being consumed. Hope it works out for you. I actually lost one of the heads, the other 2 recovered in a about 2 weeks and never had another issue...

 

You are also doing the right thing by bringing the temps down. I have found my lps corals seem like the 79-80 degree range best.

[Lawnman]

Here is what I have figured out in years of reefing stability is #1.People usually start with nanos because they are plug and play and the most affordable.Alot of people are scared of sumps and don't know what equipment to purchase.It is very hard to keep a 5 gallon tank stable.I would not recommend dosing a 5 gallon tank. What I would recommend is a 1-2 gallon waterchange 3 times a week.This is a great way to keep the tank stable.I am not really concerned with the temp.By your post I think it will be very hard for you to keep the temp 78-79 like I keep my reef.Try to keep it around 82 that should be pretty easy for you.I would bump my heater if need be so at night it does not fall back to 78 then climb to 82-83 in the day.I think you will have great success with more frequent water changes.

[Prodigal1011]

Lawnman, you have really had good luck with changing that much of the water?

 

What is the reason for not wanting to dose the small tank? I have had awesome growth and good stability dosing my tanks (never to often and always after testing). I may reconsider if you can elaborate on this a little bit.

Edited August 7, 2011 by Prodigal1011

[jyg]

Here is what I have figured out in years of reefing stability is #1.People usually start with nanos because they are plug and play and the most affordable.Alot of people are scared of sumps and don't know what equipment to purchase.It is very hard to keep a 5 gallon tank stable.I would not recommend dosing a 5 gallon tank. What I would recommend is a 1-2 gallon waterchange 3 times a week.This is a great way to keep the tank stable.I am not really concerned with the temp.By your post I think it will be very hard for you to keep the temp 78-79 like I keep my reef.Try to keep it around 82 that should be pretty easy for you.I would bump my heater if need be so at night it does not fall back to 78 then climb to 82-83 in the day.I think you will have great success with more frequent water changes.

 

I would agree with Lawnman for the most part. Up those water changes. I am under the impression that corals can affect each other when far apart, not only when battling for space in closes quarters. Whenever I've added a new coral, or just moved one around, a sizable portion of my tanks coral gets irritated. I usually do two things, another water change with the carbon, and also adjust my flow a bit. When I had my 5 gal I was changing water on the order of one to two quarts a day. So my entire tanks water was getting fully recycled at most every two weeks. I had much more consistently positive response from my corals and they started staying open in the dark, which I read to mean that they were very content.

 

I do disagree with Lawnman about it being difficult to keep a nano stable, providing you're not lazy. So many problems are nipped in the bud with an agressive water changing schedule. Once you get a pattern down and the tank's in maintenance mode, caring for the tank is a breeze. Of course that's boring...so I moved to a 9g

[jyg]

Lawnman, you have really had good luck with changing that much of the water?

 

What is the reason for not wanting to dose the small tank? I have had awesome growth and good stability dosing my tanks (never to often and always after testing). I may reconsider if you can elaborate on this a little bit.

 

Prodigal1011, for myself, I've changed 50% in emergency situations without a problems. I've changed 30 to 40% (of a 5 or 9g tank, albeit) with no detrimental effects. As long as pH, salinity and temp match, its seems quite safe. Its not like fresh water where so much of your bacteria is in the water column, that such a change will cause a crash. Now, between the sloshing of water and the differences in those measurements, stirring up detritus and nitrates, you will stress things at least a bit. But its surely causing far more good than harm. In fact, in my recent move from m5g to 9g, I matched those parameters, then mixed about 2g of each tank into the other, and then just moved everything over. Within a day everything was back to normal.

 

You just don't need to dose. A small tank with aggressive water changes is going to get all the nutrients it needs from a good salt mix. There's also a really good trick I've learned: what you don't know can't worry you, or cost you money. If the animals in your tank (this means fish and corals) look content, then don't mess with things. I went through that beginners phase where I was testing each form of N all the time. Now I just test nitrates *after* a water change, or if I can see something has gone wrong.

[ThePhilosopher]

Okay then. I should be able to do 1-2 gallon water changes 3 times a week. I'll probably stick with Mon-Wed-Fri for consistency's sake. I'm using Reef Crystals, which is generally agreed to be a good salt mix.

Also, I do have a lot of live coralline algae, now that you mention it. The vast majority was already established on the live rock and is starting to spread very slowly, so that may be taking up some calcium.

 

What's really ticking me off is how the hammer seems to be recovering at times and then takes a nosedive in a couple of seconds. Now it's inflating again.

[Prodigal1011]

JYG thank very much for the info. I will have to figure out why I need to dose to keep calc levels up I guess. I do a 25% WC a week on my small tanks. Guess this means I need more water changes too!!

 

I also use reef crystals salt.

[Nolesx4]

SHRINKAGE!!!

I think that's how George Costanza put it once.

[jyg]

FWIW I use Instant Ocean. Its the only thing I've ever used. A friend got it for me when I started my tank and its worked well enough.

[ThePhilosopher]

Slight update on the situation. I've managed to lower the temperature by a few degrees. One head seems fully recovered while the other one looks like green poop.

 

I find it strange how one head is constantly losing polyps while the other one is now fully extended without even a little bit of the skeleton showing. I would imagine all of the heads would be dying if something was wrong with the water chemistry or coral.

 

Should there be any pests I should keep an eye out for? It seems like the one thing that may have done this is some kind of burrowing worm, if they even exist.

[Putzyjd]

It's been a while since anybody posted in this but one of my hammer corals is doing this too?

[PshThisGuy]

^^ @ Putzyjd Did you find out the cause? 

[Putzyjd]

On 3/12/2018 at 1:41 PM, PshThisGuy said:

^^ @ Putzyjd Did you find out the cause? 

Nope I haven't tried another hammer since so idk. I haven't lost any other Coral though but I have heard a few times that wall hammers are a harder to keep species.