Hammer coral needs help

[CStrickland]

People here told me my tank is too small for dosing.

People here told you to get tests for alk, ca, and mg so you could figure out whether you need to dose to keep your corals happy. I don't recall anybody discussing your tank size. In fact, just like in this thread you managed to avoid mentioning that this is a 29 gallon tank.

Good luck with the fish. The yellow tang needs 100 gallons and the blue one needs 180. The clowns aren't going to share a biocube with the rest for very much longer. I hope you're at least feeding some algae for the tangs as your rock looks pretty bare. A healthy diet will at least slow HLLE, though it won't do anything for the stress of overcrowding.

 

[Member No. 1]

That's not reef salt for corals. What I was looking for is on their website and once again this is Marine salt not Reef salt. Here is from their website.

Salinity PH Cal Mag Alk Nitrate Phosphate

I had to add the bottom row to correspond with the values in the chart. These values are not good to support corals, they are for plants, inverts and fish only, not corals!

You really need to learn how to research this stuff. It's as easy as going to Google.com and entering in what you wish to know,.

Here is the link to Omega Marine salt website

http://www.omegasea.net/products/sea-salt/premium-marine-salt-180-gallon

And Omega Reef salt

http://www.omegasea.net/products/sea-salt/premium-reef-salt-60-gallon

I just reviewed the 2 links you supplied. Can you please explain why you think the Marine Sea salt is not good while the Reef Salt is so much better?
The calcium is only 42 ppm lower, and mag is only 50 ppm lower. Alk is the same ar 180 ppm (10.02 dKh). While true they might be on the lower side, they are still well within acceptable range.
The Op will be fine with the salt he has.

FYI... A lot and I wouldn't be surprised if not more than 50% on here use plain old Instant Ocean vs "Reef Crystals". That's what I use.

 

[Member No. 1]

You really need to learn how to research this stuff. It's as easy as going to Google.com and entering in what you wish to know.

Yup, you hit a nerve.

That advise works both ways.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

 

[heritage]

Plain old instant ocean for me and dose kalkwasser.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I just reviewed the 2 links you supplied. Can you please explain why you think the Marine Sea salt is not good while the Reef Salt is so much better?
The calcium is only 42 ppm lower, and mag is only 50 ppm lower. Alk is the same ar 180 ppm (10.02 dKh). While true they might be on the lower side, they are still well within acceptable range.
The Op will be fine with the salt he has.

FYI... A lot and I wouldn't be surprised if not more than 50% on here use plain old Instant Ocean vs "Reef Crystals". That's what I use.

I'm not going to argue with you about one salt mix over another. You, as well as others probably do use IO and you're probably dosing, which in both cases is fine. While this really has nothing to do with this thread because the OP has corals that are receding and clearly has a problem. He has no way to test water parameters from using a salt mix that is clearly on the low side to begin with. The OP has a very stressed system it's clear with the way the corals look and there is no way to determine anything unless the tests are available.

So other than to question my advice to get the kits so the OP knows where he stands you have added nothing to this conversation, or helping the OP with fixing his problem.

So in addition to water issues he has a tank size issue as well. I'm sure those stressed fish are further adding to the poor health of the corals.

 

[Member No. 1]

I said nothing about the getting kits and testing. I'm all for it. I'm not debating salts here either. But you told the OP to change salts and my point is he doesn't have to. The salt he is using is fine.

Bottom line, to the OP,mbefore you make any changes, get your water tested for ca, mg, and alk.

 

[CStrickland]

I think the larger problem is OP thought they were using a reef salt, when it was a marine salt. They have some reading to do. Also that substrate. Also the tangs. Also that nem.

It's more like a general lack of research than one particular thing. When asked for parameters they say its fine, but then it turns out they don't have a number of important tests. I think this is one of those threads where the poster comes in asking about issue #1, but #2, #3, and #4 are whats wrecking their tank. It's tricky for us to help folks like that cause they just want to hear what number their alk should be, even though that's far from their biggest problem.

FWIW the Ca, Alk, and Mg aren't the only difference between marine salt and reef salt. It varies by brand but you can have variations in organics (I think reef crystals has more than IO, they call it "vitamins" or something), and more importantly some marine salts are high in borate. That's fine for FOWLR, the intended use of marine salt, but not ok for reef. The borate acts like alk kinda but it isn't, so tests and coral can get screwed up. IDK if this brand uses a lot of borate or not, I don't think IO does.

 

[heritage]

Other than the wall hammer, I honestly don't see a problem with any other coral in the tank at least from those pictures.

How long has the hammer looked like that ?


And I agree you need to re House those tangs and pickup test kits for alk, calcium, magnesium, phosphates and nitrates.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Yes there is a HUGE difference between Reef salt and Fish salt. The additional "vitamins" you are talking about are things like iodine, stronium, iron and a lot of others as well.

So Pete, My advice still stands on changing out the salts so he at least has better water nutrition for his corals and in the long run if he doesn't get many he won't have to dose anything. The additional trace elements are a huge benefit for the OP that are in the Reef blend salt mix.

As of now I don't yet need to dose and it's because I'm using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals. I use to use plain IO and it was getting to the point of having to do something. A buddy gave me a bag of IO RC and I was sold with the first bag.

I'm about at the point to have to start dosing or doing my water changes every week. I'm not sure I will get everything I need to do an automated dosing but I'm collecting what I'll need if I decide to dose my tank. I've got quite a few LPS and a few SPS in addition to my fish, leathers and a couple of anemones. So that in addition to all of the coralline I've got in my tank it will either need the additional wc's with Reef Crystals or that I begin to dose and add Trace Elements.

 

[CStrickland]

Well, the "vitamins" I was talking about are organic matter that leaves a sludge in the mixing container, and can result in ammonia in freshly mixed sw. But trace elements are important too. IDK if those differ between reef and marine salt, seems logical it would.

 

[Fishfreak_MA]

I have a feeling your nitrates and phosphates might be quite high. That gravel in there is a detrius trap. In freshwater it's not as bad because your not keeping corals and invertebrates. In a reef tank it would really need to be vacuumed weekly and to do a through job it would require more than the entire 29 gallons of water being syphoned would allow. On my old 90 gallon freshwater tank it would take about 65 gallons to get even a remotely decent amount of detrius out of my rock bed. I'd recommend going bare bottomed or with a sand bed eventually. Your also going to have to find a new home for that yellow and naso tang fairly soon. At full size they'll barely be able to turn around without hitting each other.

I highly recommend you take the above advice and purchase the test kits. If you don't have the money I have a hunch that even the API reef master at 25 dollars will give you a basic idea of the parameters because they'll be high enough to not need to worry about low level testing. Good luck. I hope you are able to get your tank back in line.