Coral TLC

[dan10342]

Sometimes corals come in looking a bit rough. I decided to log the progression of this hammer coral, through photographs, to show how patience, and good husbandry can tremendously help coral aesthetics.

Here it is, fresh out of overnight shipping.

I was worried it wouldnt make it. the water was about 60 degrees F, and the skeleton had ripped through fleshs in a few places. Also with the fact that they dont ship all that well, things looked grim.

After about two weeks, things looked MUCH better.

although slightly bleached, things were looking quite positive.

Anyway, 3.5 months later, it has darkened up and gained a lot of color, since the day i took it out of the bag.

 

[RyanEG]

Nice thread with good shots. Very nice hammer.

 

[Gravesj1s]

~ Dan great stuff all around with saving the coral and photos.

Looks to be the same as the frag I got from you at the swap.I cant capture the color like that though.Pics here are very accurate to the true color,I can attest to that.

Any chance you saw that pastel hammer recently AA had listed ,looked awesome but I think it was photoshopped.Hard to tell.First Ive seen with red pigment.Went up on ebay last night.
-Steve

 

[smogl00]

Nice! I went though the same thing with my torch. It's amazing what these corals can go through and still live sometimes

 

[Dave VG]

Very nice Dan. TLC has worked for me more than once.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

fantastic pix of a gorgeous hammer

 

[pascal32]

Nice thread and great pictures! Inspiring me to follow suit with an orange hammer that doesn't like it's location in the display....

 

[Tank14]

Dan - what measures of TLC did you use? Used lower light, lower flow, fed more?

 

[Henry Colf]

Sweet pics Dan..some very nice progression shots.....

 

[dan10342]

Thanks all

when i first got it, i isolated it away from all other corals, in case of the dreaded brown jelly infection. once i got through the initial period of acclimation (a few days) i began to increase the flow (indirect low/moderate flow). upon doing this, the hammer began to swell up bigger and bigger each day.

As far as lighting, It was housed about 30 inches under a tek t5 light. I only ran 2 ATI blue plus bulbs for the most part. (no daylight). (as the coral was decently bleached when i got it).

It still is only under blue plus bulbs... and seems to be VERY healthy.

My water params are as follows:
temp: 77degrees F
SG: 1.026-27
Alk: 10.5dkh
PO4: .04-.06

I really dont test for anything else. (yes im bad about testing)

 

[acdraindrps]

The first pic you posted actually looks like a hammer that faired pretty well to shipping.

Have about a hundred more shipped to you and you'll understand what I'm talking about.