Hammer Coral Help

B

BobJones02

New member
So I've had this hammer colony of about 8 heads for 6 months now, and it's had zero growth. For the first week or or so it would be fully extended and the polyps would have the little anvils on the ends. Then they slowly became more like they are in the picture below, over the course of a few weeks, and they've stayed like that. I've tried moving the colony in high flow, low flow, almost no flow, but it doesn't change. I had it in the middle of the tank, but it didn't open much and started to lose color, so I moved it down, where it currently remains. Lighting is Led with metal halide. Flow is about 40-60 times volume per hour, with one power head doing a surge type of flow and two doing random flow. Parameters below
Calcium: 410ppm
Alkalinity: 8 dKH
Magnesium:1230ppm
Temp:78-82 degrees Fahrenheit.
Nitrate: Test kit shows zero-probably wrong
Also, my frogspawn has only grown about two new heads in the last 10 months. Any advice?
5ec80a8049f8be9e7fe7a58ceeb2b22e.jpg
5df4d4967d719c7226d6eb1cbb5fe2e7.jpg



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Seems like you may have too much lighting? What's the wattage of the mh's? Depth of your tank? Photo period? SG? Also, I would raise your mag to 1350 slowly, over a two day period. More info and we may better help you.
 
The metal halides are 250 watt hqi bulbs. I have the halides on for 6 hours, and the led's on for 12. The tank is a standard 125 gallon tank, so around 22 inches tall I think. The SG is 1.024
 
I would put them in lower light and medium flow and let them adjust for a while. Probably off to the sides of your tank. They'll adjust to higher light, but it has to be gradual, over several weeks. What led's and intensity?
 
LEDs are radion xr-15s, at about 40% intensity at peak. Does it seem like too much light then?


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It looks fine to me, it doesn't seem to be getting too much light and it will adapt in time, assuming of course it is getting higher light than it is used to. If you start to see it getting white or anything then yes, go ahead and move it.
 
It seems like it barely opens up. I just want to know how I can get it to look like it used to.


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Tagging along to this thread

My hammer (branching- two heads) looks exactly the same as far as the "heads" are not anvil shaped, but more oval shaped with a dent in the middle. I bought it like this as it was doing so well at the LFS and I wanted to see if I could save it. It looks 10x better in my tank than when it was at the LFS, but the shape is still wrong.
 
I'm not dosing carbon, but I am running gfo. I don't think the water is too clean, as there is some hair algae on one of my rocks


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Euphyllia's can take med to high light, but it should be a gradual process. Unless it came from a high light tank? I would find a med to low light area with med flow and leave it be for a while. Does your temp swing 4 degrees in a day? Or is this the range throughout the year, month, week?
 
I believe the previous owner had it under led's. But, it's been at the bottom of my tank since I've gotten it, so it's been getting the lowest light I can give it. Yes my temp swings 4 degrees during the day, but that swing is going down now that summer's getting over. Another question, do they like wave type flow or random, but constant flow?
 
BClute said:
Tagging along to this thread

My hammer (branching- two heads) looks exactly the same as far as the "heads" are not anvil shaped, but more oval shaped with a dent in the middle. I bought it like this as it was doing so well at the LFS and I wanted to see if I could save it. It looks 10x better in my tank than when it was at the LFS, but the shape is still wrong.
Click to expand...

Branching hammers do not have nearly as much curve to the polyps as wall hammers do. They're far more kidney shaped than anchor shaped.
 
Thanks for the help. I still want to know why the polyps have changed shape so drastically. What could have caused this?
 
I have a branching hammer in my tank and it's lost most of the "hammer" shape too, but my tank is high light and flow for the most part. I have it on the sand bed in med flow with par hitting the low 200's. Also, my clowns have adopted it as their host. I would give it time and just keep everything stable. Stability is the key in the hobby, no matter what parameter, keeping parameters from swinging too much goes a long way in keeping a healthy tank.
Good luck and be patient.
 
To me, your parameters are a bit low.
Your levels are within limits, but right at the low end.
I'd get them up to allow for a bit of wiggle room.
I run 440/8.4/1350.
Are you doing regular water changes?
 
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