Hammer coral questions

[dragoneye898]

Hello, I have recently joined the saltwater hobby (I bought an full setup off of Craigslist, it's been established for a year ) and had a few questions about the hammer coral in the tank. Last night when I was turning the lights off I noticed brown spots on the heads( I think they were falling off also) and was worried what it was and if the coral was sick or uncomfortable. It's only been 2 days since transport and setup of the tank.
The parameters are
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate : 0
Nitrate: 0
Ph: 8.0
Calcium: 400
Temperature : 76

 

[paradox_of_reef]

Looks like it might be flatworms. Most species do not do much more than just irritate the coral. Manual removal can get most of them but if you want to be sure you can pick up a six line wrasse to eat them all in no time.

 

[dragoneye898]

Looks like it might be flatworms. Most species do not do much more than just irritate the coral. Manual removal can get most of them but if you want to be sure you can pick up a six line wrasse to eat them all in no time.

Would there be any other way to remove the flatworms? Also can it spread to ny frogspawn coral and elegance?
Thanks for all of the help!

 

[paradox_of_reef]

Most species do not eat coral they simply hang out on their skin bothering them. So they could move to other corals, into your rock work, or on to your glass. I have solved the problem with manual removal but it is not a guarantee because there may be eggs or larvae that you cannot see and the problem could come back in a few months. If you add something to predate them you can solve the problem entirely though. Again the six line wrasse being the most common solution.

 

[Ron Reefman]

You can use Flatworm Exit, but I would NOT recommend that on a tank that has just been moved and is being re-established. It can be harmful to some other inhabitants of the tank. And even if you do the Flatworm Exit, they still recommend removing as many as possible manually as they end up end up dying and add toxins to the tank.

I got an 18" piece of Pex tubing (Lowes) and enough clear flexible hose to attach to the Pex and then reach comfortably down into the sump or a big bucket. If you go to the sump, add a big filter sock to strain out the flatworms and allow the water to get back to the sump. Start a siphon (Pex in the tank and the other end ready to go in the sump or bucket). I added a small airline ball valve to the outlet end on the hose to control (slow down) the flow as most of mine were on mushrooms and a leather and a strong flow wanted to suck the mushrooms too much.

This isn't hard to do and after 2 or 3 cleanings a day or 2 apart the numbers will be drastically lower and your corals will look happier. Then you can take your time to consider what approach you want to take next.

 

[Sk8r]

Your calcium is too low and you didn't report your magnesium or alkalinity. Dose to reach these parameters: magnesium (dose first) to 1300, alkalinity (dose second, after fixing magnesium) to 8.3, calcium to 420... the low calcium alone can make hammer unhappy. If it is entirely happy it will be better able to survive the pests.

 

[cloak]

You might want to look into freshwater dips. The flatworms usually fall right off in a matter of seconds due to the osmotic shock. Just try and siphon out the rest. GL.