Green hammer coral

[Anonymous]

I have had a green hammer in my 25 gallon reef for about a month now and I can't tell if things are goin good or bad. It certainly does not look as good as it did at the lfs when I bought it. I had it under 52 watts PC (1 actinic,1 daylight) for two weeks under intense light and now I have moved it farther down yet things don't look good. All perameters are fine but this corals has yet to come around.... Any ideas, tips, pointers etc? It's a beautifull coral and I hate to loose it. Please help.
Thank you.

 

[Anonymous]

Have you try feeding it? it could be starving to death.
They don't like strong currents,hope you're not blasting it with power head.
I can hardly call 52 watts pc "intense", mine is under 1400 watts of MH, well under 400 watts bulb atleast so you can move it back up cause light is not the issue.
Do you have other kind of corals in there that might be having chemical warfare with it? do you use carbon? if not, try the hydro carbon by Two little Fish.

 

[Anonymous]

From the Sprung book, it places the coral midway or at the bottom, with medium water flow and says its aggresive to others.
My lighting is similar to yours and I placed mine at the top, with medium flow. It has seemed to do do very well except when I first got it , it got the brown jelly disease which I treated very aggresively by fresh water dip and cuting off the affected part. I now have it for about a year, It seems to like being fed krill about every other day. I just put pieces of krill on different parts of the coral and the tentacles take it- just like an anenome.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with about 52W not really being intense lighting. We have our anchor about 3/4 of the up in a 46g bowfront. It's under a total of about 230W of light. We've only had it for a couple of months, but it's been absolutely thriving. We directly feed it about once a week, and it usually gets a little food every day when some of the stuff the fishes miss falls to it.

Dave

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http://members.xoom.com/lcrandall/reefpage.html

 

[Anonymous]

By intense I just mean the "spot". It's the middle of the tank and about as far up as you can go.
I have yet to feed the coral. The coral doesn't seem to extend completely out of its skeleton. It almost seems to be retracting. I will run Kent reef carbon for about 3 days out of a month. The other corals in the tank are; brain coral, pearl bubble, 2 candycane corals, Finger leather, shrooms, button and star polys. The coral is currently about 3 inches away from the next coral in any given direction. It is also in an area of "slack" water movement. Could it be sick? Would a freshwater dip be an option? I will try to feed it tomorrow. Please help.

 

[Anonymous]

You say you haven't feed it over a month, so I'll say he is starving , try feeding it, again, I would not use Kent Reef carbon, it leech Phosphate.

 

[Anonymous]

I have mine over a year now. It grew from 2" in length to about 9". It's seating midway in water column directly under 4 96W PCs with medium current.
I have never directly fed hammer & it's bright green & keeps growing.

 

[Anonymous]

I have never fed my hammer either. 2 months since I have it. It is extending is tentacles further and further and growing.

Or maybe it is just extending it tentacles further because it is dying for food.

I might try feeding mine directly.

What do they do in the ocean to eat?

Keith

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Visit Keith's Reef

 

[Anonymous]

In the ocean there's generally a lot more zooplankton floating by, and it's easy for them to grab enough of that.

Feeding them isn't completely necessary, depending on your habits. Since we feed fairly heavily, some food just gets missed by the fish and falls onto the corals, so they get their food that way. Or if there are a lot of fish, their droppings will help feed the coral.

Dave

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http://members.xoom.com/lcrandall/reefpage.html

 

[Anonymous]

I am going to try and feed it today. Shrimp, silversides, krill, whatever it takes.
Today it looks really bad. The skeleton is showing all the way around and the tentacles are way back in the skeleton. It will stretch a little once I turn the lights on but they don't for another 2 hours. Is there any other reason this coral is acting ths way? I feel like if it doesn't feed them I have no clue what to do. Thanx for all replys. Help!!!!
ph 8.2
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
nitrates 0
SG 1.025
dKH 14
temp 78-86
lighting 52 watts PC (1 actinic, 1 daylight)

 

[Anonymous]

I might worry about that temp swing you've got there. That could very well be the root of all your problems, since the other things look OK. You usually don't want your temp to swing more than a few degrees. Ours is always 80-82, and some people think that's too much of a change. Bur an 8 degree change is really not good for the tank's inhabitants. I can't say that this is what started the problem, but I'd be willing to bet that it's playing a big role in slowing down any healing the coral is trying to do.

Dave

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http://members.xoom.com/lcrandall/reefpage.html

 

[Anonymous]

My temp deffinitly fluctuates but I guess thats what you get with a 25 gallon tank and a shallow pocket. I am not sure temp is really the final prognosis here but I am truly at a loss as to what to do. Maybe I'll go rob a bank tomorrow.......................

Just kidding. Hopefully things will look up tomorrow. Good night.

 

[Anonymous]

Feeding hammer corals????? how do you feed it? do you place food directly at his mouth?

 

[Anonymous]

Well,

My hammer coral has about tripled in the 3 years I've had it (under VHO lighting), and I've never fed it directly (although I feed the fish fairly heavily).

Other than the temperature swing (which you should be able to mitigate slightly by setting your heater higher, like in the 79-80 degree range), the other thing I noticed was that you also have a leather coral. Hammers, elegance, frogspawn and like corals seem to be particularly affected by the chemical warfare of leather corals, so moving the leather farther away, or "downstream" may help. FWIW, mushrooms also seem to have a negative affect on LPS corals, but only when they come into direct contact.

Kevin

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Anemone about the leather corals; I didn't really pay any attention to that in the original post. As for mushrooms, that sort of depends on which LPS. Our bubble coral got really irritated by some Discosoma mushrooms. But our anchor has one actually growing on its skeleton. Actually, the mushroom is just about dead, since, every once in a while, a sweeper tentacle from the anchor will stick out, and then swing down to smack the mushroom, and then retract. From what I've seen, the Euphyllia spp. don't have too much trouble with mushrooms, but it could be a problem here.

I'm still willing to bet that the temp is playing a big part. you should do what anemone mentioned and turn your heater up. I'd go to the 80-81 range. It won't fix everything, but it would cut a few degrees off of the fluctuation, and that should help. It's possible to keep small tanks stable. Our 10g tank never goes below 81 and never above 82. We just have a quality heater, and the apartment is always cooler than that, so everything works out.

Dave

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http://members.xoom.com/lcrandall/reefpage.html

 

[Anonymous]

I also agree with the temperature as a possible culprit, I have personally noted this in my tank when heater went blitzy.

 

[Anonymous]

not trying to flame but get some good books abought lighting a reef aquarium! del

[This message has been edited by littelfish (edited 23 May 2000).]

 

[Anonymous]

The leathers suck right now, the mushrooms have never looked good and my star polyps haven't been out in a month.
Its not the heater. My heater has been unplugged for a month. My room will always be hotter than every other room in the house. The sun does'nt hit it untill 1 PM. I get 7 hours of pure sun, with the blinds shut.
The 86 degree temp has only happened about twice within the last week. We have gone from winter to spring back to winter and then straight on in to summer in the central valley.
I have been using frozen 1 liter soda bottles throughout the day and have been able to keep the temp no higher than 83. I think the heat is playing an important role, but things were not looking good before the shift in temp. Everything seems to look bad eXcept a couple candycane corals, an open brain and some button polyps. Everything else seems to be doing something else....Please help. It's not just the hammer.
Thank You.

 

[Anonymous]

Fusion,

You might have several things going on here. It sounds kinda crowded in your 25 gallon tank, so chemical warfare between various species is a probability. Do you have a skimmer on this tank? A skimmer or occasionally running carbon can help remove toxins.

IMO, the temperature swings are more important than the absolute temperature. A tank kept at 84-86 degrees will be healthier than one that daily swings from 78-84 degrees. In all tanks, but especially in higher temp tanks, surface agitation of the water is very important to ensure maximum gas exchange.

52 watts of PC lighting is actually pretty week for that size tank ( I have 2 x 96 watts PC over a 40 gallon tank, and 37 watts of PC over a 6 gallon tank, and everything does well), so increasing your lighting might be an issue.

Also, what type of other inhabitants are in this tank? The types of fish or other invertebrates may effect certain corals (again, it sounds like you may have more than one thing going on here).

Finally, I'm a fan of high dKh, but IMO, a 14 is a little high. I prefer to keep mine around 10.

HTH,

Kevin

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. I'm still trying to put this puzzle together.
This is the first time I have ever heard of my tank being crowded. It looks so barren to me. I do have a seaclone skimmer in the sump and this has worked out great. I was running carbon for about three days a month until recently I heard the carbon I was using leached phosphates.
Could there really that much warfare going on in there? How do people maintain their tanks so balanced without a bare space on the reef?
Surface agitation is done w/ two rio 600's at opposite ends of the tank. The sump also has a "very" high amount of agitation.
My high dKH is the result of me fiddling with it looking for that #. Adding this, adding that, I've decided to leave the tank alone for a month. I want to see my tests after a month. Who knows, it might not be that bad.
Thanks for all the help.