Is this common for hammer corals?

[F4talreeefer]

I had a frogspawn do this (same family) and I put it under a ledge that had low flow and flow light. Once it opened back up I moved it out and it's been fine for the past 6 months.

 

[Sk8r]

Test your alk, cal, mg.

 

[diegoluv]

RIP my friend. It's dead. Check your params because a hammer is very easy to keep. Something must be way off.

 

[Jritter02]

The only thing that could be off would be cal, mg or alk. In fortunately I don't have a test for these. I don't add anything for them, but the only nutrients are the ones that are in my reef crystals salt.

 

[kurt_n]

After a few months of having corals, you should start testing for at least cal/alk on a weekly basis. At some point, they'll start using more cal/alk than you can replenish with water changes. I'm pretty sure you're not at that point yet, but testing won't hurt anything.

With the timing of when your hammer went bad, and how quickly it went bad, I really really don't think it's your water parameters. Too often the Euphyllia species of corals get damaged during shipment and it just takes a few weeks to become obvious. They're definitely easy corals to keep, but that assumes you get a healthy one to start with. With how quick it came off the skeleton after you brought it home, it wasn't your water parameters. It was damaged when you bought it, but because you're just starting out you didn't know what to look for. Been there... done that... bought the t-shirt AND lost a few corals in the process!

 

[Jritter02]

It actually looks alot better today. Maybe it's not dying. I'm trying to post a pic but my phone is being a Complete retard. It's alot more "inflated" then it has been the last few days and even seems to have more tentacles

 

[Jritter02]

this hammer looks great now. im glad I didn't give up on it. tentacles fully extend about an inch and a half or so, great bright colors. ive been trying to upload a pic from my cell phone and my PC for 2 days now but its not working.

 

[Jritter02]

here it is

 

[Sk8r]

You cannot raise stony coral just with water changes. The amount of calcium these corals suck up in a few days will deplete amount contained in salt. These are easy corals if you have adequate light, tests and supplements for alk,cal, mg, and keep parameters similar to those in my sig line. Without this supplementation they will fold up and die.

 

[Jritter02]

I think I may have damaged it a few months back. When I was taking it off the ceramic disc I dropped the coral on the floor. Forgot about that. That May have been why it was acting funny. This hammer along with the other one I have too are both looking great now. I have a test kit to test for everything you listed above. Every time I have checked all the paramaters have been good.