Hammer coral may be dying?

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ajreefer721

New member
Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum and reefkeeping hobby. I've had several years experience with fresh water and I know the two are somewhat different. Anyhow, I have a 29 gallon biocube. I purchased it used from a buddy and for filtration, I removed the stock filter pads and bioballs. I installed a eshopps sump sponge along with a remora HOB skimmer, with filter floss, some purigen and chemipure. Its been set up for about 3 months and I have 2 ocellaris and an azure damsel. I purchased my first coral at the lfs. The guy at the lfs told me that I wouldn't need to acclimate it, which I thought was odd, and I should have known better. From the moment i dropped the lil guy in he shriveled up. I tested my params and They are as follows: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrates between 10-20ppm, alk 12dkh, calcium 512, and phosphate was at .5 . I decided to do a 15% wc and now all params are the same except phosphate has dropped to .25 alk to 10dkh, and calcium to 480. I am not dosing anything and just want to ensure that I'm doing what I can or if I'm S.O.L.? Thanks in advance!
 

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Nitrates are the biggie, I would try to reduce those asap. Check your filter floss, that's a known contributer. And yes you should always acclimate. Others I'm sure will chime in.
My hammers do best at 8-9 dkh and 420 ca.
Just my .02
 
Thanks! I do replace the floss just about every 3 days or so... That thing gets pretty nasty! :) What do you think as far as how it looks?
 
Hammers do very badly with swings in params, other than that they are very hardy. Just wait now, do not throw a whole bunch more change at it. I had a hammer shrivel up for 3 weeks due to an alk swing....now it is coming back just fine. I just had to wait wait wait.
 
Well after a couple of weeks, it turns out that my hammer bit the dust. :( My lfs was nice enough to give me a new one after finding out that it was my salinity level!! It was at 1.030!!!! My hydrometer is the culprit and I have since upgraded to a Refractometer! No more false readings!
 
Interesting, not calling your LFS a liar but salinity of 1.030 shouldn't kill the coral especially after a few days.

My frogspawn has been closed up for the past few days, pretty sure it was an ammonia / nitrite spike that caused mine to close up.

Like Kimberly I'll end up monitoring mine but I'm sure it's gone.

Really check your levels and water flow / light levels. Hammers are picky.
 
I see what you mean. Its the only thing that made sense since I tested my levels every day. I've been able to get my phosphate down to 0 and nitrates between 0 and 5 ppm.
 
Could have been stung or started at the LFS. Did you acclimate and or dip properly? Maybe too much light or flow.
 
Ive had hammers and torches do really bad when i first started because of high salinity levels. Usually have a little while between when it starts to bother them from when they die though. i have never dripped any corals but always temp acclimate them, also make sure if your getting into corals to dip everything you get even from stores.
 
I haven't been dripping, more like temp acclimate for 15 -20 minutes then start with about six oz of water slowly into the bag, continue every 5 minutes until its double the original water volume, dump half out then one more 6oz of water, then finally release, it takes a about 40-45 minutes nornally. I haven't had any problems so far, and I just started dipping my corals
 
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