No hammer coral growth

[Nanobros]

I have had my hammer coral for 3 months now. He has still not grown any new heads. I try to feed him some mysis shrimp or some Coral Frenzy and it just sticks to him and flys off.
Biocube 14 stock lighting

Calcium: 420 ppm
Carbonate Hardness: 14 ppm
Phosphate: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 3.0 ppm
PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm

 

[Grassguy1]

I feed phyto 2 times per week and in 3 months my hammer has 2 new heads on it this may help you.

 

[Nanobros]

I feed phyto 2 times per week and in 3 months my hammer has 2 new heads on it this may help you.

Alright thanks! I do have some phyto but I never use it. I probably should start

 

[shadowmonster]

I think you might be spinning your wheels by adding the phytoplankton. The polyps of this coral just weren't designed to feed on microscopic plant matter IMO. I suspect it was something else that caused Grassguy1 Hammer to hit a growth spurt like that. Maybe a change in lighting, stable parameters etc. I'm not too familiar with those Biocubes, but if I had to guess I would say that the stock lighting that came with the tank just isn't cutting it right now. The coral is sort of in limbo so to say.

 

[Nanobros]

I think you might be spinning your wheels by adding the phytoplankton. The polyps of this coral just weren't designed to feed on microscopic plant matter IMO. I suspect it was something else that caused Grassguy1 Hammer to hit a growth spurt like that. Maybe a change in lighting, stable parameters etc. I'm not too familiar with those Biocubes, but if I had to guess I would say that the stock lighting that came with the tank just isn't cutting it right now. The coral is sort of in limbo so to say.

Alright. My hammer still opens and is happy just a slow grower. Probably the lights like u said


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[Fish Keeper82]

My hammer was not growing at all for 8 months or so. It was extending polyps but thats it.Then it started to receded tissue slowly over months. I had it in the lowest light in my tank since all I've read says they dont like a bunch of light.
I moved it to an area with more light and now has 2 babies growing in just a months time and regrew the receding tissue.

 

[rtparty]

I kept a hammer in my JBJ Nanocube that had to be fragged every month. It was higher up in the tank with the stock lighting.

Have you tried moving it around at all?

 

[shadowmonster]

I kept a hammer in my JBJ Nanocube that had to be fragged every month. It was higher up in the tank with the stock lighting.

Fragged every month? That's some impressive skeletal growth. Almost too good to be true.

 

[rtparty]

Fragged every month? That's some impressive skeletal growth. Almost too good to be true.

You're welcome to question it all you want. It constantly had growth going on somewhere. I'd cut 2-3 heads off at a time. If I said every 4-6 weeks would you feel better? [emoji1]

 

[shadowmonster]

Pictures?

I don't doubt that you were seeing growth, but enough to where you had to use some bone cutters to remove multiple frags each month just sounds a little far-fetched to me. Like mentioned above that's some amazing skeletal growth, not to mention the soft tissue that comes with it.

 

[rtparty]

Pictures?

I don't doubt that you were seeing growth, but enough to where you had to use some bone cutters to remove multiple frags each month just sounds a little far-fetched to me. Like mentioned above that's some amazing skeletal growth, not to mention the soft tissue that comes with it.

I don't have pics of that tank on hand. It was my dad's and I ran it for him. I'd have to dig around old disks to see if I could find any.

After it had been in the tank for a year it was too big. We started cutting off 2-3 heads when the upper branches would shadow the bottom branches too much. That hammer and a piece of frogspawn ruled the tank. They did extremely well. It was a fun, easy tank