Hammer Coral help - New lights

[fishkeepersaltnfresh]

Hello All,

 

I got a Hammer coral frag around a month or 2 back. It started opening its polyps readily and was looking great. I hat put it on the bottom of my 29G tank. At that time I have a stock black bar LED light. I upgraded my lights to 2 50W Nicrew LEDs. Since then, my hammer has refused to open. I had kept it in the same spot. I have now moved it under a ledge where there is low light and low flow. That has not helped either. How can I acclimate this hammer to my new lights? Any suggestions are welcome....

All the posts that I have read regarding hammer talks about testing water params. I do not test and hence do not have those numbers. But I do bi-weekly water change. I think it has to do with the lights.... hence asking for suggestions...

 

[Zer0]

Do you have any other coral in the tank or is it just this hammer frag? If yes, how are they doing under the new lights? How old is the tank? Without being able to test any water parameters, you’ll likely need to rely on gauging the conditions of the other tank inhabitants, but even that won’t exactly tell you what the problem could be. 

[fishkeepersaltnfresh]

Yes, I have Blasto, Torch, Mushrooms, Acan, Montipora..... They all have acclimated very well. Just the Hammer...The tank is up for just over 1 year now....

[Zer0]

How long has the hammer been looking like this? It looks a little pissed off, but it doesn’t look like it’s on deaths door. Maybe it just needs more time to acclimate. I would keep it in low flow and low light for now, and maybe start to consider investing in a couple test kits.

[fishkeepersaltnfresh]

Ever since I changed the lights.... 3 weeks maybe...

[Murphs_Reef]

Can you tell if it's getting more light than its used to? 

[fishkeepersaltnfresh]

When I changed the lights, absolutely yes. I upgraded from a normal black LED bar to Nicrew 50 W (2 of them). Since then it has been in this state. I have now moved it under a ledge where it is in sort of shadows and getting indirect light with little flow. Its been a week since I have moved and yet no improvement .

[travoose]

I had a Frogspawn that had a lower level light on it for quite sometime and it was doing fine, but not really growing much.  Got a new light (more powerful) and for the first three months it seemed as though I was going to lose it.  Then...out of nowhere...it just took off and I cannot keep up with its' growth.  So maybe it just needs some more time.  I, by no means, am an expert, but just telling you what I have experienced in hopes that it helps you get your hopes up.

[Murphs_Reef]

Yeah they can take a fair time to get used to more intense lighting 

[fishkeepersaltnfresh]

This is how it looked yesterday. Seems better to me. Maybe I just have to be patient and not move it for couple of months.

[fishkeepersaltnfresh]

It is looking better. Should I move it from under the ledge or continue keeping it there for now? 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

I'd pick a spot and leave it alone. Corals don't really like to be moved. Find somewhere you'd like to keep it and let it be. The more you move them around the longer it'll take to get them acclimated. Every time you move them they have to get used to the lighting and flow of that spot.

It is really pretty though. Good pick up 😃

[fishkeepersaltnfresh]

The only reason I want to move is to get direct light on the Hammer. It is now getting indirect light and I am not sure if it is advisable long term. Since I have upgrade the lights, I have moved the Hammer & Blasto under the ledge because these two were the only ones who started closing up.