My hammer corals may be dying. Help?

[petebsbll]

Hello all,

Thoughts would be appreciated on what's happening with my massive supply of hammer corals (pictures below).

Quick background - I've had these corals for nearly 5 years and in that time they have gone from a small stalk with a few heads to what I have today. I'll be completely honest, I'm not thorough with monitoring parameters. I don't dose my tank and I never spot feed my corals. I've been in the hobby for over 2 decades and generally don't run into issues as long as I don't overstock along with a partial water change every 2-3 months.

In recent weeks I've noticed my hammers have began shrinking and just not looking as happy in general. I've also noticed clear/brown ooze coming from some heads. To my knowledge, I haven't made any major changes to the water quality itself in regards to temp swings, salinity, or PH (I never add buffer).

Here are a few tank parameters (Don't have test kits for too many items, never have been needed - might get some now though).

65 Gallon - 5ish years for livestock (moved from a 46 gallon a year ago)
Nitrates - 5-10 (tops)
Nitrite / Ammonia - 0
PH - 7.8
Salinity 1.023
Temp - 79

^ Happy to try bumping PH if that really seems to be what could be off, but again, I've kept these corals and others with zero issues for nearly 5 years.

Possibly reasons for hammer struggling are below. Curious on your thoughts here.

I added a phosphate removing pad to my canister filter about 2 months ago in hopes to reduce algae buildup on my glass. From a bit of research, it appears too low of phosphates could indeed be an issue for corals? I just took the pad out of my filter and tossed it.

About 2 weeks ago I got a peppermint shrimp from a LFS. I have now read they can potentially go after corals?

My melanurus wrasse has poor vision. He sometimes bumps the hammers and also enjoys brushing against them. I've also seen him try to dislodge sinking pellets from them a time or two. I doubt this is the cause, as he's been doing this for some time.

Light potentially wearing out? I'm running a Current USA LED light that I purchased back in 2014.

1 photo is of the hammer in healthy condition for reference. I really appreciate any thoughts or suggestions. I'm trying to stay on top of this before I lose them. Thanks!

 

[Uncle99]

Salinity is too low at 1.023
S/B 1.025 or 1.026, but only raise it .001 per day.
Your nitrate is fine.
Need your phosphate, S/B say 0.03-0.05, but certainly no higher than 0.1

What about your calcifiers, ALK, CA and MG, the Stoneys won't grow without these three maintained in the range if water changes can't keep up. By the look of their size Inexpect you would need to dose.

My ALK is stable at all times at 10 DKH, combined with CA 430 and MG 1360

Maybe they have grown so much they are sucking up to fast and destabilizing your water.

Need to bring all 8 parameters on-point.

 

[slief]

Salinity is too low at 1.023
S/B 1.025 or 1.026, but only raise it .001 per day.
Your nitrate is fine.
Need your phosphate, S/B say 0.03-0.05, but certainly no higher than 0.1

What about your calcifiers, ALK, CA and MG, the Stoneys won't grow without these three maintained in the range if water changes can't keep up. By the look of their size Inexpect you would need to dose.

My ALK is stable at all times at 10 DKH, combined with CA 430 and MG 1360

Maybe they have grown so much they are sucking up to fast and destabilizing your water.

Need to bring all 8 parameters on-point.

Having grown hammers for well over a decade in varying salinity, I don’t think the salinity is too low. Not ideal but it won’t bother the hammers as long as things are consistent. I do however agree that the Po4 could be too low. Especially in relation to the nitrates. I will also note that Hammers and in particular, branching hammer are very forgiving and do just fine in lower alk levels. 7-7.5 DKH suits them just fine. Again, as long as things are consistent. 400 calcium at minimum is fine as well. They also do just fine with higher nitrates. Mine regularly hit 25 ppm but, and this is a big but.. My phosphates are in balance with that at .25 ppm. So, 25ppm no3 with .25 Po4.. I run a high nutrient system and my SPS, LPS and softies love it. I also keep my alk relatively low around 8 DKH. But my tank is very stable and very consistent and has been up and running at this house of over 21 years and I love it here from my previous home. With that said, you may also have a point that their growth rate is destabilizing things in the system given the small display size. They will take up a fair amount of Alk and Ca but regular water changes should keep that in check if not daily supplementation.

What they don’t like are sudden changes in chemistry and the sudden drop if Po4 would cause them to receede. It could also be the peppermint shrimp irritating them. In a large system like mine, I wouldn’t worry about it but in a small display that can be an issue.

The branching hammers in the pictures below went from a single head the size of my pinky nail to a colony half the size of a big beach ball and well over 300 heads in about 3 years. It grew like a weed and still does even though I sold 99% of it and only kept a handful of heads. And it grew like that in water that averaged .25 Po4 and 25 ppm No3. My Ca levels were around 400 while the colony was growing out. Alk around 7 until I added my calcium reactor just before I broke the colony up and started fragging it out. They grew out directly in the path of my returns getting blasted all day and night by my pair of sea swirls. When I broke the colony up, it literally filled a 36” wide by 12” deep space in my frag tank and I still had some huge pieces in my main display. They are in my experience, one of the easist LPS corals to grow in a mature system provided that the parameters are stable.

One thing that I will point out is that corals in low nutrient systems prefer less light than corals in a higher nutrient system. So the sudden drop in Po4 could have had more of an impact than just irritating the corals because of the No3 and Po4 getting out of balance. You might reduce your light intensity a bit if you are running LED’s and see how they respond. I’d also remove that phosphate pad or whatever you are using for phosphate reduction and get yourself a good phosphate tester such as the Hanna HI736 ULR phosphorus tester. You need an ultra low range tester for accuracy and having some phosphate in the water is important. And don’t chase pH. My system consistenly runs between 7.8 and 8.1 depending on time of day and time of year. It’s never been an issue and my main display is overgrown with coral of every type.

 

[Tastee]

I killed a torch last year (I'm a newbie) due to removing too much Phosphates, in turn due to a bad test kit leading me to dose Lanthalum Chloride for too long. So I would be taking the feedback about Phosphates on board personally.


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[petebsbll]

I appreciate the quick responses and input everyone! The phosphate pad has been removed and I'll likely take out the peppermint shrimp to return to the LFS. I will also order some test kits for the items mentioned above, as I currently only have a calcium and magnesium kit (both expired though). I have the basic kit to measure common items, but I've never gone into depth with parameters for corals. That's my bad, but I've always purchased easier to manage corals and have had success.

Slief, when you mention light intensity are you referring to duration on or level while on? My Current USA LED gives me the option for adjusting intensity levels 1-100%. I just reduced the 11 hours at 100% intensity (both blue and white) to 10. Should I instead keep it at 11 and reduce the intensity? If so, what would you recommend? I'm trying to keep things consistent here and hope the phosphate pad was the culprit. These hammers have by far been my most successful coral to keep along with my candy cane.

Again, thank you all and I will order kits and begin to dose accordingly if needed to keep parameters in check.

 

[slief]

I appreciate the quick responses and input everyone! The phosphate pad has been removed and I'll likely take out the peppermint shrimp to return to the LFS. I will also order some test kits for the items mentioned above, as I currently only have a calcium and magnesium kit (both expired though). I have the basic kit to measure common items, but I've never gone into depth with parameters for corals. That's my bad, but I've always purchased easier to manage corals and have had success.

Slief, when you mention light intensity are you referring to duration on or level while on? My Current USA LED gives me the option for adjusting intensity levels 1-100%. I just reduced the 11 hours at 100% intensity (both blue and white) to 10. Should I instead keep it at 11 and reduce the intensity? If so, what would you recommend? I'm trying to keep things consistent here and hope the phosphate pad was the culprit. These hammers have by far been my most successful coral to keep along with my candy cane.

Again, thank you all and I will order kits and begin to dose accordingly if needed to keep parameters in check.

I am not referring to the duration. I am referring to peak intensity. If you are runing for 11 hours with a peak of 100%, I would reduce the intensity down to 85% for a handful of days and see how the corals respond. If they respond well, keep it here for several days and then you can start increasing again but I would increase no more than 2% a week so you can back off if you see the corals respond adversely. Current lights are pretty weak but what you don’t want to do is increase the lighting too fast and stress the coral. FWIW, I run a 12 hour photoperiod with 4 hours of ramp up, 4 hours at peak intensity and 4 hours of ramp down. I have a ton of light over my display though.

 

[saltymichigan82]

Id personally start fragging the heads and placing them in separate areas of the tank in case there is some infection taking them down. hammers are very resilient to poorly maintained aquariums. of course improving water quality is also a must.

 

[Uncle99]

Question. my phosphates are .50 to .25 nitrate is 10-20 it varies and my corals are all fine, torch hammer, cepitularas, monitporas acroporas, and chalices, zoas, and a few leathers..

The only corals that shrink for me are the bubble corals i dont know why so i figured its the phosphates.. I put a ton of phosguard in a baggy maybe 1 cup worth.. Been 4 days phosphates are still reading .25-.50

Should i just give up on the bubble corals? Because everything else grows and comes out in my tank with phosphates this high and the phospguard cant seem to remove it. I tested some ina cup with my tank water and in 1-2 hours phosphates were 0 so it is sucking it up.. But in the tank it wont go down even with a 1 measuring cup of phosguard. I of course have a cyano issue though, which is another reason im trying to lower them.. But after reading phosphates dropping can kill corals from this thread i had to ask..

Rapid removal of phosohate is problematic, slow removal is fine down to say 0.02-.0.07.

The main way in for phosphate is:
Water, test your RODI - make sure it's phosphate is Zero
Foods, some foods contain phosphates. -usually cheaper flake. - test in cup of water
Frozen foods -melt, rinse, and strain out parts,
Hands in tank. -never use soaps. -always rinse and dry with water

GFO material will bind up the phosphate, but at the levels you post, it will exhaust quickly. Plus there are better materials like ROWAPHOS, or Chemi-pure.

You can consider using an Lanthium Chloride product like Agent Green or Phosohate RX to bring down phosphate from your number to say .1 This will be much easier on you wallet.

At this point, use your GFO to mop up the remaining but not zero.

If you cannot lower phosphates through this method, the source remains, and must be found.

Maybe that helps a bit.

 

[petebsbll]

I am not referring to the duration. I am referring to peak intensity. If you are runing for 11 hours with a peak of 100%, I would reduce the intensity down to 85% for a handful of days and see how the corals respond. If they respond well, keep it here for several days and then you can start increasing again but I would increase no more than 2% a week so you can back off if you see the corals respond adversely. Current lights are pretty weak but what you don't want to do is increase the lighting too fast and stress the coral. FWIW, I run a 12 hour photoperiod with 4 hours of ramp up, 4 hours at peak intensity and 4 hours of ramp down. I have a ton of light over my display though.

Appreciate the suggestions. I've decreased the intensity to 85% and have not yet tried increasing in small increments. I like the idea of ramping up/down and plan on trying once things calm down, which seems to be happening right now!

I'm almost 100% certain it was the phosphate reducing pad that I had in my canister filter. I had it for nearly 2 months and as seen in the photos above, my hammers were really starting to recede. After just a few days with the pad back the hammers started bouncing back great. I have not yet removed the peppermint shrimp - 50/50 on it. It could also be contributed to the light intensity reduction, but I think the phosphate pad was the culprit. Again, like you mentioned with ease to grow branching, I had these for 5 years with zero issues. Didn't adjust the lighting, add any type of media, dose the tank with supplements. Your hammers look awesome, btw.

I did order some test kits and have those results below. I'm pretty convinced the pad is all that threw off my levels. I'm not looking to keep challenging corals, so I think I'll just continue maintaining the aquarium as I was and monitor levels from time to time.


Calcium - 440
KH - 6-7ish (seems low.. may look into this)
MG - 1260
Phosphates - .25-.50 (seems a tad high, but the hammers are looking great again)

Thanks again for the suggestions all and I will update this thread accordingly if there are any major changes. I'm hoping somebody will see this thread someday if they notice a sudden swing in coral health and realize to take out the phosphate pad before it's too late.

 

[slief]

Appreciate the suggestions. I've decreased the intensity to 85% and have not yet tried increasing in small increments. I like the idea of ramping up/down and plan on trying once things calm down, which seems to be happening right now!

I'm almost 100% certain it was the phosphate reducing pad that I had in my canister filter. I had it for nearly 2 months and as seen in the photos above, my hammers were really starting to recede. After just a few days with the pad back the hammers started bouncing back great. I have not yet removed the peppermint shrimp - 50/50 on it. It could also be contributed to the light intensity reduction, but I think the phosphate pad was the culprit. Again, like you mentioned with ease to grow branching, I had these for 5 years with zero issues. Didn't adjust the lighting, add any type of media, dose the tank with supplements. Your hammers look awesome, btw.

I did order some test kits and have those results below. I'm pretty convinced the pad is all that threw off my levels. I'm not looking to keep challenging corals, so I think I'll just continue maintaining the aquarium as I was and monitor levels from time to time.


Calcium - 440
KH - 6-7ish (seems low.. may look into this)
MG - 1260
Phosphates - .25-.50 (seems a tad high, but the hammers are looking great again)

Thanks again for the suggestions all and I will update this thread accordingly if there are any major changes. I'm hoping somebody will see this thread someday if they notice a sudden swing in coral health and realize to take out the phosphate pad before it's too late.

.50 would be very high. And having it in balance with nitrates can be helpful. Read up on Redfield ratio. Get a Hanna HI736 ULR Phosphorus tester if you want accurate Po4 results. You take those readings and multiply but 3.066 to convert Phosphorus to phosphate in PPB then divide by 1000 to get Phophate PPM. Or use Hannas conversion charts. I just to the quick math or enter the ULR results in Apex Fusion and it coverts the results. Alk would be low in that range. You want at least 7 - 7.5 DKH though Hammers aren’t all that picky. I like the Salifert test kits for Alk but the Hanna Alk DKH tester is also great and very accurate. Avoid the Hanna caclium tester though. I use Salifert for calcium also. And glad to help.