hammer coral ?

I have a hammer and it retracts at night. I am not sure why. Look on the liveaquaria.com website for the flow and placement of the species. It just might not like where it is right now. Move it and see how it goes. Good Luck!

-Jonathon
 
My biggest concern w/ hammers/frog is the flow around the coral. I have a hammer in my tank and it hates moderate/high flow. I have a large frog in another tank and it too recedes if it gets blown around too much. IME low flow is a must for these corals.
 
From Eric Borneman's Aquarium Corals:
"Large-polyp recession condition 1 is most common in large-polyped corals such as faviids (favia, favites,etc.), mussids (Lobophyllia, Symphyllia, etc.) An apparantly healthy coral with good expansion begins to display a loss of tissue from the margins, expanding septa and the rest of the skeleton. The condition may or may not be accompanied secondarily by Ostreobium algae or protozoan brown jelly infections. the tissue recession seems 'forced,' as even marginal tissue at the edges of recession appear healthy, though slightly shrunken or 'stretched.'. The coral may experience a certain amount of tissue loss, and then have the progression halt as quickly as it began. At other times, the entire coral is lost through a slow wasting.
Again, the coral seems unresponsive to normal coursees of action. It may well be that a nutritional deficit is being exeprienced, as other massive corals show tissue atrophy and necrosis in salinities lower than those of natural seawater seem to increase the incidence of this syndrome. The separation of the polyp from the skeleton in Catalaphyllia may be related to this condition."

IME Euphyllia corals appreciate random, medium flow. My hammers, torch and frogspawn, as well as the other LPS, have all shown increased growth since I improved flow in the 65g. The flow pattern is random (direct flow can tear their tissues), and they seem to like having their tentacles tossed around.

Borneman does mention that Euphyllia corals don't like overly strong flow, but also says this:
"Sedimentation of detritus, sand or other particulate matter in the tank can have serious consequences to corals. Stagnant water can lead to a 20-fold increase in bacterial populations, and the resultant hypersecretion of mucus can create pathogenic conditions or even suffocate the coral [...] Because of the accumulatoin of microbes and other microorganisms, including sulfer-reducing bacteria that thrive in locally anoxic conditions, local necrosis can spread beyond the area of settling, potentially killing the entire coral. Good water flow, or at least periodic blasting of dead water areas, eliminates the likelihood of such depositions, as well as the problems asociated with them."

How much do you feed your hammer, and how much flow is it exposed to? It's not necessarily a factor, but if your water parameters are the same as always, these are the two things I'd look at next.
 
the hammer is in an area that gets medium flow, every other night I target feed my corals oyster eggs, I spray across the top of them. thanks guys for the help
 
Re: hammer coral ?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8151855#post8151855 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by enemec1
the water was tested and I have no signs of chemestry problems.
Not good enough.
Exactly what did calcium, alkalinity and salinity test out at? You might also want to check your Mg level.
How do you supplement alk and Ca?
If you rely on a LFS to do water tests you might end up purchasing a lot of corals from them to replace the ones you lose.
The bottom line is that you need to perform your own water tests if you want to keep your corals healthy.
Wall hammer coral is much more sensitive than the branching type IME.
 
Assuming your tests are accurate, nothing in your water jumps out as being the culprit. Nitrates should be almost undetectable- do you have a DSB and/or a good amount of LR and run a good skimmer?
FWIW- hammer coral closes up at night. I would feed it during they day when the polyps are out/open. Feed sparingly.
 
I am thinking of buying a hammer so am following along. My question is that my Ph is at 8.7, always has been is this a problem for a hammer?
 
is there anything I can do or just sit by and watch the shrinking of my hammer. the loss has doubled in size so far
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8166876#post8166876 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by enemec1
is there anything I can do or just sit by and watch the shrinking of my hammer. the loss has doubled in size so far
I've seen Iodine dips stop tissue necrosis in wall hammer coral.
 
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