Hammer coral is receding

[WhiteVelvetStarfish]

I have a tank that is a few months old. Specs looked solid and I added my first corals. Zoas and star polyps are doing fine, but my hammer seems to be pulling in a lot more as of late. 

 

My temp is 77

magnesium 1350

calcium 400

nitrate 2

 

Any thoughts on what the issue might be?  Could this be related to flow or light?  I have stock lighting in a bio cube LED 16g, which should be more than adequate. The hammer is in the sand and has been in the tank doing fine for almost 2 weeks. 

[Mido]

Hi there, I had the same problem a year ago, in my case there was a pine apple  sponge growing on the skeleton so I brushed it I also got rid of a vermetid  snail which was growing on the  skeleton using glue, gave it a coral dip and it got better... I am sure u know that moving hammers even so gently cause them to be angry for a few days.... hope this helps 

[Coinee]

1 hour ago, dasoxx said:

I have a tank that is a few months old. Specs looked solid and I added my first corals. Zoas and star polyps are doing fine, but my hammer seems to be pulling in a lot more as of late. 

 

My temp is 77

magnesium 1350

calcium 400

nitrate 2

 

Any thoughts on what the issue might be?  Could this be related to flow or light?  I have stock lighting in a bio cube LED 16g, which should be more than adequate. The hammer is in the sand and has been in the tank doing fine for almost 2 weeks. 

What are your other params? What kind of water are you using (RODI, tap etc)? What flow does it have? Is there any detritus built up inside of it that you can see? 

[dling]

I just went through this. Whst i found out was my temp reader was bad. It was reading 78. Tested with a new temp reader. Water was 85. I now keep two temp readers in my tank.

[Clown79]

Have you been testing alk? It's very important to lps and sps.

 

If it's in high flow area that can also cause receding.

 

The lighting in the biocube is fine for euphyllia

[WhiteVelvetStarfish]

There isn’t any direct flow and I’ve checked the temp with two methods.  I will try alk levels and see if that helps. No visible detritus and I’m seeing more of the skeleton than I should. It appears to be dying. 

[FISHnChix]

Yep like clown said fluctuating alk is the fastest way to piss off lps...  best way to keep it stable on a newly established tank is via weekly w.c.

[WhiteVelvetStarfish]

So I’m doing a weekly water change of 10-15%. I also do a daily water change off the top with a couple scoops of water for the sake of keeping consisten parameters. I rock the turkey baster on the bottom and rocks daily before my water change. When I do my weekly change, I pull from the bottom and stir up the sand. I do my best to follow all the best practices I’ve read on here. I believe alk could be the culprit, but I don’t have a test for it!  I’ll be picking that up today. Could phosphates be an issue?  I’ll pick up a test for those as well

[Newstead]

Ditto on the alk - I lost a 6+ year old frogspawn, along with several other corals, after downsizing when I had an alk spike - I kept testing nitrates & phosphates, finally ran the alk and bingo - it had jumped to 13! (I was still using the Red Sea black bucket salt I had used in my big tank with a lot of corals). Once I switched to the blue bucket and stabilized it at 8 everything that was still hanging on took off and my new frogspawn and hammer are doing great. Never realized alk was so important to LPS- now I test alk every few days to make sure my water changes and dosing keep it at 8 to 8.3.

[FISHnChix]

36 minutes ago, dasoxx said:

So I’m doing a weekly water change of 10-15%. I also do a daily water change off the top with a couple scoops of water for the sake of keeping consisten parameters. I rock the turkey baster on the bottom and rocks daily before my water change. When I do my weekly change, I pull from the bottom and stir up the sand. I do my best to follow all the best practices I’ve read on here. I believe alk could be the culprit, but I don’t have a test for it!  I’ll be picking that up today. Could phosphates be an issue?  I’ll pick up a test for those as well

Doubt is phosphates... sounds like you are on the right track.  Keep records of your ca, alk, mg it will help you diagnose problems .. just a heads up I have almost crashed a tank from a water change.. I used to buy saltwater from the lfs . Reputable place and used tropic marin salt.. did a 30 percent change and slammed the alk down.. I tested some of the left over water from the lfs and the alk was 5dhk.. guess moral of the story is I now check my mixed saltwater before a do a w.c. 😊

[FISHnChix]

What salt are you using??

[Clown79]

Alk I find is the single most important factor to reef tanks.

 

When I do a waterchange, it's what I test right after so if my tank is off, i can dose immediately.

 

I test ca, nitrate, mag, monthly.

I don't test phos or ph. 

 

[WhiteVelvetStarfish]

On 1/19/2019 at 12:50 PM, Weikel said:

Doubt is phosphates... sounds like you are on the right track.  Keep records of your ca, alk, mg it will help you diagnose problems .. just a heads up I have almost crashed a tank from a water change.. I used to buy saltwater from the lfs . Reputable place and used tropic marin salt.. did a 30 percent change and slammed the alk down.. I tested some of the left over water from the lfs and the alk was 5dhk.. guess moral of the story is I now check my mixed saltwater before a do a w.c. 😊

THIS. Turns out this was the problem. Alk was at 6.4 and calcium was at 360. I checked the water from LFS that I was using and the alk is 6 and the calcium is around 340. I was doing large water changes with this water over the last couple weeks to combat a nitrate issue. I will be mixing my own sw or at least checking ALL parameters moving forward. 

 

I am dosing carefully to raise my alk 1 per day until I’m back to normal levels. Some solid water will be brewed up and water changes will follow. 

[FISHnChix]

19 minutes ago, dasoxx said:

THIS. Turns out this was the problem. Alk was at 6.4 and calcium was at 360. I checked the water from LFS that I was using and the alk is 6 and the calcium is around 340. I was doing large water changes with this water over the last couple weeks to combat a nitrate issue. I will be mixing my own sw or at least checking ALL parameters moving forward. 

 

I am dosing carefully to raise my alk 1 per day until I’m back to normal levels. Some solid water will be brewed up and water changes will follow. 

Hey I forgot to finish that story... lowering alk fast didnt make the coral freak out too bad it's when I brought it up too fast that it crashed my tank lol.. they say raising it 1dkh per day is ok but I would go slower you will see improvement quickly too.. good luck . Glad you found the culprit... 

[WhiteVelvetStarfish]

On 1/20/2019 at 1:19 PM, Weikel said:

Hey I forgot to finish that story... lowering alk fast didnt make the coral freak out too bad it's when I brought it up too fast that it crashed my tank lol.. they say raising it 1dkh per day is ok but I would go slower you will see improvement quickly too.. good luck . Glad you found the culprit... 

I am doing a little less than 1 per day at the suggestion of a different LFS.  One that I really do trust, they just happen to be very far away so I don't go there as often.  I'm going to start mixing my own water to more closely monitor my levels.  All of my corals are loving life right now, but my hammer is still not doing so well.  I really hope it isn't too far gone at this point.