Coral ID Help & Hammer Coral Question

[captaincaiti]

hi everyone! i just had a couple quick questions. first, i have this coral(?) that hitchhiked on one of my pieces of rock and has been growing like crazy. i haven't really been able to ID it and i just want to make sure it's fine to have in the tank/if i have to take any precautions with it?

i also just wanted to double check on my new hammer coral. it's my first coral ever and of course only a few days after getting it i had a stinkbug poison my tank and kill two fish. it didn't look good for a bit but seems to be okay now, and i just wanted to make sure nothing looks strange with it since i really don't 100% know what it looks like when it's completely happy. levels are all fine in my tank aside from an ammonia spike (couldn't find one dead fish) yesterday that i quickly got under control.

and a picture of the tank as a whole for good measure. thanks for any help!

 

[jml1149]

Looks fine to me! Does it close up at night?

 

[pyithar]

the hitchhikers look like palys. the hammer coral looks fine. ammonia should be zero. lastly, i can see some cyano around the corners of the tank.

 

[captaincaiti]

it closes up some at night, some of the branches more than others, but as soon as i turn on the lights it fans out like that.

ammonia is back down to zero, it was up to .25 yesterday i'm assuming from the fish i can't find, but i did a water change and dosed with prime and it's back to zero. the cyano is being a pain but slowly going away, i just blew it off my rocks this morning.

for the palys, should i be concerned about sticking my hand in the tank with them or is it more if they're touched?

 

[Animagus]

It looks like you've got some Protopalythoas in both the first and second picture. There also seems to be some red bubble algae in that second picture too. You might want to remove that before your next water change.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/2/inverts

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/corals

 

[uncleL]

Your hair looks fine but if you can place it at an angle you will get better growth and adding a little kalkwasser to your ATO container.

 

[dana_ag]

yea get rid of the cyno before it encases your sandbed. Chemi-clean does the trick for me.

 

[pyithar]

for the palys, should i be concerned about sticking my hand in the tank with them or is it more if they're touched?

i believe you need to be wary of the palytoxin only when you handle/frag/boil the palys. but if you're worried, you could run carbon in the system and use gloves when you need to put your hand into the tank.