I recently purchased my first hammer coral and wondering where a good placement would be. I have a current led light and I have been told that that's not a good light for coral. To compensate I put my hammer higher in the tank to maximize my light but he still doesn't seem happy. I have good flow on him and water perameters are good. I've read several things online about hammers from some saying they like moderate light and good flow and some saying they don't need much light and flow. So I am starting to think maybe it is getting to much light? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you
Hammer Coral Question
- Thread starter caliAO
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AnthonyA9953
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They usually like moderate light and medium flow. However if you just got him me may just be a little shocked and retracting polyps.
Had him for about 3 weeks to a month now
What kind of LED do you have? If you have a marine land LED that has little to no power it's not enough light for that guy, if you have a black box LED could be to much light?
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Hammer Coral Question
I'm still wondering what kind of LED he has I can't find the info anywhere?
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I'm still wondering what kind of LED he has I can't find the info anywhere?
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This is the light that I have. Got it with the tank when I bought it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00GFTSV24/ref=psdcmw_2975458011_t1_B00V3R9Y4W So even if I have him at the top of my tank it's still not bright enough?
I read up on them a little and seems like for small aquariums they work ok if you can place coral on top of the water. Anything bigger than a 55-75 gallon they seem to not be strong enough. From what I've read they don't have a whole lot of penetration and idk if it has to do with cheaper LEDS or what but if you have a larger deeper tank it's probably just not strong enough.
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Euphyllia is an LPS coral. They're typically found between 2-25m - they can absolutely utilize high-light but they do not NEED it. That being said, they do like a decent amount of flow - and random flow at that - IME they seem to stress if the flow is too constant in one direction. Just my 2 cents. I wouldn't worry about moving it away from the light - in addition your current LED has plenty of power to keep the hammer happy. There's not a whole lot of par 70' below the surface of the water and these guys still thrive 
It appears retracted and losing flesh after looking at your pic, looks like some of the skeleton is becoming pretty apparent towards the right side of the flesh. What's the flow like in that spot? High or low? Regardless, definitely stop moving it and just let it be for a bit.
I wouldn't worry about moving it away from the light - in addition your current LED has plenty of power to keep the hammer happy. There's not a whole lot of par 70' below the surface of the water and these guys still thrive
When I checked on their website it shows their PAR comparison chart that between 9"-12" its only getting 50-70 PAR if turned all the way up (assuming you have no lids and no obstructions) and below that it drops to 35 PAR. That's why I'm saying depends on your tank my tank is 30" tall so at the bottom of my tank I would be getting 0-3 PAR value. Also I thought wall hammer needed somewhere in the 100-200 range to grow, I mean a little less might be able to keep it alive? Just curious on where you found the 70 PAR info?
I did not specify 70 par, I said 70' (70 feet). They come from depths up to 25m deep (82 feet below water surface). The par levels that far down are not very high. I don't live on a reef and I don't own a lux meter to go test, but it's not as high as one would think. Also that was my bad. Don't worry about PAR so much, PAR stands for 'Photo-synthetically Active Radiation" and not all LEDs are able to create that type of light source but still produce enough lumens (LUX) to grow coral just fine.
Got ya sorry I misunderstood about the 70 feet I re read it and it made sense lol! That being said I understand your point about lumens, but the way I've always understood it is one isn't a replacement for the other that you need to have a certain PAR rating as well as enough lumens to grow coral. If you have a high lumen rating but terrible PAR values your coral will still not grow and vise versa. I like hearing others thoughts (I like geeking out with other reefers) since not of people locally have these convos.
AFAIK - it's not so much that the LED's don't 'create' the desired PAR - but rather the meter's available for testing do not pick them up correctly. If you want a place to start and get as confused as I am about it, check out some threads about kessil par ratings. They produce way more than enough light for any coral you could imagine but very rarely do you see them test par ratings above 400, even with the kessil 360's tested 5" from the light ABOVE the water line - yet we know it's not that low based off how well they grow corals. It's one of the most controversial topics of our hobby right now and is one of the main reasons I still primarily use 400 watt halides and only use LEDs to supplement.
Yea I had the power head hitting that spot so I pointed it in a different direction
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