Hammer Coral Slowly Dying

[ArabTanker]

I added a Toxic Hammer to my tank a little over a week ago. I dipped before introducing it to the tank and it seemed fine. Opened up instantly after I added it.

 

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Then things took a turn for the worst. I think my first mistake was placing it in direct path of my MP10. I was under the impression that hammers like strong flow. After some more research I found that I was wrong and they actually like low flow. By the time I realized it was kind of too late. It had already started shrinking.

 

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I then moved it to a low flow area on the other side of the tank (about 5 days ago). But that didnt seem to help. It now looks like this

 

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Im looking for any advice that could help me bring this hammer back to life.

 

Some info about the tank:

 

12g long with a 20g sump

ATO

Carbon reactor

Kept at about 80*

2 T5HO light fixture (1 blue bulb 1 white bulb)

Running for a little over a month

Bio load is relatively low. Some Z/Ps, a mushroom, GSP, and a cuc.

 

Paramaters:

 

 

PH: ~8.4

SG: 1.022-1.023

Phosphates: ~0 ppm maybe <.25

Ammonia: ~0 ppm

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 0 ppm

Ca: ~390 ppm

 

Feel free to check out my build for anymore info or just ask.

 

Thanks for any help in advance. Anything will be appreciated.

[bretski]

I recently lost a hammer that did great when my tank params were wack and then withered away when I got things straight.

You probably shouldn't have hit it with so much flow at first but oh well.

Wish I could help more. Put it in a quiet place. Raise salinity and calcium a bit. See if that does anything.

One of the more difficult Euphyllia species for me. My torch and frogspawns do well.

[ArabTanker]

Its sad. I wish I knew better. I also wish I knew if the flow is actually what did this. I guess we'll never know.

I try moving it very few times. I want it to get used to a spot rather then me just moving it all over town.

How do you know when its dead? Ever have one get better?

 

Thanks.

[bretski]

I've only had the one. Just before I started dosing two-part, several of my LPS stopped opening up and never quite recovered.

I may lose what was once a beautiful Duncan soon too.

I have a Frogspawn that I got as my first coral and has been through it all, and also sits three inches from an MP-10, doing amazing.

Maybe the Hammers are just more sensitive.

An unfortunate loss due to the learning curve.

Try a Frogspawn!

[markalot]

I still say your tank is too clean. No fish, a carbon reactor to strip out the bad stuff, but will also remove a lot of other things.

 

To see if your hammer is still alive run just blue light. If you see some color then there is still tissue and it may come back when conditions are favorable. My experience with harming corals, and unfortunately I have a lot, is that damage is done quickly but shows up slowly. I had a frogspawn recede almost all the way and now it's back. I have two tanks, so when my old 20 long had an issue (mini cycle I think) I moved it to my 40 to recover.

 

In the end, you may never know what is wrong or what happened. I said this before in another thread; new tanks follow something like a sine wave with a reducing amplitude. As things settle conditions will go from good to bad to good to bad but slowly even out. Corals like zoas might survive, but just close up for a couple of days, while others like hammers and frogspawn (same family) will show more severe effects.

 

I've been there, done that, unfortunately. I saved the frogspawn but was unable to get my first branching hammer to recover.

[skimlessinseattle]

I still say your tank is too clean. No fish, a carbon reactor to strip out the bad stuff, but will also remove a lot of other things.

Totally agree. I have run into coral health issues in the past when using carbon. I recommend you stop using it, and do several water changes over the next week to start chemically rebalancing your tank. I would try a 20% change every other day, and see how things respond.

 

You may also want to consider the fact that it may just be way to early to introduce that type of coral to your tank. Some of your rock is still bright white. 3-6 months is a safer bet when adding LPS corals to the tank.

 

I noticed you didn't list your alkalinity. That is a parameter you should get familiar with, especially when dealing with any type of stony coral.

[ThePhilosopher]

Keep it in your tank. If you can provide it with stable parameters, it might start to grow back. At least, that's what my hammer coral did.

[ArabTanker]

Try a Frogspawn!

 

Sorry to hear.

And I may do that.

 

I still say your tank is too clean. No fish, a carbon reactor to strip out the bad stuff, but will also remove a lot of other things.

 

To see if your hammer is still alive run just blue light. If you see some color then there is still tissue and it may come back when conditions are favorable.

 

In the end, you may never know what is wrong or what happened. I said this before in another thread; new tanks follow something like a sine wave with a reducing amplitude. As things settle conditions will go from good to bad to good to bad but slowly even out. Corals like zoas might survive, but just close up for a couple of days, while others like hammers and frogspawn (same family) will show more severe effects.

 

I've been there, done that, unfortunately. I saved the frogspawn but was unable to get my first branching hammer to recover.

 

Haha. You have said that before. I went to the lfs yesterday trying to find a yasha goby with no luck. I just cant come to believing that because of all this ugly algae that wont stop growing. Im only running maybe an inch of carbon in the TLF 150 reactor. But I'll take it off like for a few days and see how everything reacts. Stay posed for an update if any.

I really wish I knew these were harder to keep. I would have stayed away. I did a quick look up before I got it and people were saying they aren't too hard to keep. But it is still alive.

Thanks.

Also, good sin graph example.

 

Totally agree. I have run into coral health issues in the past when using carbon. I recommend you stop using it, and do several water changes over the next week to start chemically rebalancing your tank. I would try a 20% change every other day, and see how things respond.

 

You may also want to consider the fact that it may just be way to early to introduce that type of coral to your tank. Some of your rock is still bright white. 3-6 months is a safer bet when adding LPS corals to the tank.

 

I noticed you didn't list your alkalinity. That is a parameter you should get familiar with, especially when dealing with any type of stony coral.

 

I only use carbon to compensate for the fact I dont run a skimmer, really. Would a 10% every day be okay? My mixing container is exactly set for 10% wc haha.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if you were right. All my parameters were looking great; I thought it was ready.

 

I do have a Red Sea alk test kit. I just never tested for it. Ill check it out. Thanks.

 

Keep it in your tank. If you can provide it with stable parameters, it might start to grow back. At least, that's what my hammer coral did.

 

Glad to hear. How bad was yours looking before it started to improve?

[skimlessinseattle]

10% would do, its just you may need to do a couple more to get the job done. I dont think you need the carbon. Curious to hear what your alkalinity is.

[ThePhilosopher]

Glad to hear. How bad was yours looking before it started to improve?

About as bad as yours, if not slightly worse. Very minimal flesh on the actual coral, but it somehow managed to recover.

[#Anthony]

Keep it in low flow and I the sand and feed it everyday. I had a three head frogspawn that almost died fully but now after 3 months it is almost fully recovered

[iSea]

I lost a couple of these wall hammers due to high/direct flow and I was very disappointed. From my experience, I found that the branching hammer type is good with high flow while the wall type is very sensitive to high flow, very difficult to keep. Unfortunately, the wall anchor/hammer is one of my favorite.

 

Your hammer looks like it is not completely gone so keep it in the low flow area. Hope this helps.

[ArabTanker]

No signs of recovery from the hammer. I got a torch and a frogspawn a week ago. They were fine the first few days now they are receding like the hammer.

10% would do, its just you may need to do a couple more to get the job done. I dont think you need the carbon. Curious to hear what your alkalinity is.

I did one 10% yesterday and one today. I could continue to do so if you think it will help.
Alk is around 9

About as bad as yours, if not slightly worse. Very minimal flesh on the actual coral, but it somehow managed to recover.

Really? Thats good to hear. Hopefully mine will recover as well. How long did it take?

Keep it in low flow and I the sand and feed it everyday. I had a three head frogspawn that almost died fully but now after 3 months it is almost fully recovered

What should I feed it?

Your hammer looks like it is not completely gone so keep it in the low flow area. Hope this helps.

Thank you. I am.

[#Anthony]

I feed my tank cubes that i get from my lfs they are called marine cuisine and other things like that and each cube has about 4 different types offood so everything has a variety and eats what they want

[ArabTanker]

A long overdue update.

8/20



8/30



9/21



It is getting better... slowly. So im not complaining. Im glad I didnt give up a few months ago.

[tetraodon]

congrates, just keep things running well, itll take a while, but they are getting better

[ninjamyst]

The same thing is happening to my frogspawn. Glad to see patience paid off and it's bouncing back. I am hoping for the same for my frogspawn.

[DamselLover]

Hello, I am having the same problem you seemed to have had .

 

my parameters got a little out of wack in my 20 gal so I did a small water changed and my hammer shriveled in on it self.  At first I thought it might have been the shrimps I added to the tank instead of the parameters because I have had them spike before and it be fine after a day or so.  so I set up a camera and recorded it for a few days to see if anything was messing with it. But nothing

 

Ammonia spiked to 2 so I did a water change and got it back to .25 other parameters are pretty much the same for what you had but, my salinity I keep about 1.025 to 1.026 and my calcium is 440 and I keep track of my Magnesium at 1240.

 Did yours ever get better? I can still see a small amount of tissue on mine so I was giving it a little while to see if it could bounce back but it has been a month and I thought I would at least see some signs of it either getting worse or better. 

[MrObscura]

There's a number of possible issues with your tank...

 

Being in direct flow probably didnt help. They can like higher flow just fine if they aren't getting battered in one direction.

 

0 nitrates isn't good for any corals imo but especially not for Lps. 

 

There's a huge difference between 0 po4 and 0.25. Though being near 

zero would be more of an issue than being too high for a little while. 

 

Also salinity is low, and cal could be a bit low depending on your Alk, which by the way is the most important parameter... And you didnt list it. 

 

 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

I’m having the same exact problem with my hammer that was beautiful in WV reefers tank, and it’s been shrunken up for me the past few days. Literally every other coral in the tank looks gorgeous, it’s just my hammer. He’s in a low flow and moderate light area. For mine tho, it’s as if he didn’t ship good, or his tentacles are committing suicide. Some of his tentacles turned white and looked like they exploded from the inside out. I’m really nervous for him. He’s one of my favorites.

My water quality is not perfect, it’s a little out of whack, I have some excess nutrients. But I would think that a hammer would appreciate that

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

It’s not horrible, but not perfect 

[Coinee]

1 hour ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

I’m having the same exact problem with my hammer that was beautiful in WV reefers tank, and it’s been shrunken up for me the past few days. Literally every other coral in the tank looks gorgeous, it’s just my hammer. He’s in a low flow and moderate light area. For mine tho, it’s as if he didn’t ship good, or his tentacles are committing suicide. Some of his tentacles turned white and looked like they exploded from the inside out. I’m really nervous for him. He’s one of my favorites.

My water quality is not perfect, it’s a little out of whack, I have some excess nutrients. But I would think that a hammer would appreciate that

If the tentacles are white, make sure you are not blasting it with too much light. Move it to a low-flow area with less light. Also, "exploded" doesn't sound good. Post a picture of it here.

 

Also, you have to define what "out of whack"  is and give us numbers and some pictures would probably help us determine your situation. It is normal for corals to to be irritated and retracted for a few days or longer after being added to a new tank. It has happened to me with nearly all my euphyllia, however after about a week, they slowly open up more. 

1 hour ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

It’s not horrible, but not perfect 

Edit your posts instead of double posting. 

 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

1 minute ago, Coinee said:

If the tentacles are white, make sure you are not blasting it with too much light. Move it to a low-flow area with less light. Also, "exploded" doesn't sound good. Post a picture of it here.

 

Also, you have to define what "out of whack"  is and give us numbers and some pictures would probably help us determine your situation. It is normal for corals to to be irritated and retracted for a few days or longer after being added to a new tank. It has happened to me with nearly all my euphyllia, however after about a week, they slowly open up more. 

Edit your posts instead of double posting. 

 

Ok sorry. I’ll post pictures later tonight when I get home