Problem with hammer coral... HELP!!

salt newbie01

salt newbie01

New member
I have a small hammer coral that was doing great for a month or so then last week it began to shrink or not inflate as much. It is still not as big and several heads do not inflate at all. All my water parameters are good. The last thing to change was I added a small toadstool (sarcophyton) 3-4 days before the hammer began to look weird. It's head is only about the size of a quarter maybe slightly larger. I have read the toadstools (sarcophyton) and spaghetti leathers (sinularia) can "poison" some soft corals. But the hammer and toadstool are on oposite sides of the tank. Has anyone had any experience with these corals together? I would assume any of the frogspawn family would be the same ( hammers, torch etc ).

If they do not do well together I will need to find a home for the hammer. I am supposed to get some spaghetti leather from Mel this weekend.
 
help

help

Do you feed the hammer? Is the leather close to the hammer? If so move it. Do you use carbon to remove toxic problems ? How much water flow, how much light, where is it placed in the tank. dennis
 
Have you checked your calcium? That's the first thing I would check. Then I would do a big huge water change...that actually helps a lot of problems.
 
I have tried to spot feed but it never seems to take food - I am running 4 110wt vho lights in DIY canopy approx 8 inches above the water. hammer is 6 inches above sandbed. I am running emperor 400 penguin 330 and magnum 350 + seaclown skimmer. I am cycling alot of water per hour but I don't have much lower level water movement. I am picking up a Seio 820 power head this weekend to help with that. I do have carbon in my filters but it has not been changed in 2 months. the corals in question are on opposite sides of the tank

I will change the carbon tonight and see if that helps.
CA 540
nitrate & nitrite 0
phos .5
ammonia 0
ph 8.2
temp 80

I will try the water change tomorrow night.
Mel have you ever had any problems with your spaghetti leather affecting any other corals?

Thanks for the help.
 
with calcium levels that high, i would be concerned that your alkalinity is too low - have you checked alkalinity?

like Mel said, water changes can often help, if not fix things.
 
CA has been that high - The tank is only 3 1/2 months old - I do not have many corals in it and the salt I use ( oceanic ) has CA in it. It has not bothered anything else that I could see. Everything has looked healthy - and is growing. I do not have a test kit for alk.
 
I agree with the folks who say carbon and water changes. Weekly water changes perked up my leather. It will also provide iodine which can become depleted by skimming. If you have moved it lately or changed any flow or lighting changes it may not like it.
Mike
 
I completely agree with Dave about your alkalinity. If your calcium is that high then your alkalinity is probably about nil.

I would definitely go get an alkalinity test kit and in the mean time water change...water change...water change.

I am extremely curious to know what the calcium and alkalinity values are for your saltwater just before you water change. I mean what the values are for newly made saltwater made with Oceanic salt. LMK because I am very curious.
 
When you say alkalinity - do you mean ph?? Just to show that I am a newbie I have not heard of an alk test.

But even if alk is low, shouldn't that have affected the hammer before now? It has been happy for approx a month or so.

And mel have you ever seen a problem from your spaghetti leather affecting another coral??
 
I used to have Ca that tested out at 900ppm, my hammer was fine. I don't think that's the issue, as the pH is good. I would lean more towards chemical warfare by the leather.
 
Patrick:

Your alkalinity is likely low if you're using Oceanic salt, and changing water with Oceanic is not likely to correct the problem, since it has been frequently reported to mix up low. Baking soda is your best solution, see the Reef Chemistry forum for directions on how to dose once you have a test kit to measure. I doubt that's your problem, though, since the coral's been in the same tank for awhile with no ill effects until recently. I suspect the stress your toadstool experienced when adding it caused it to release some toxins, and your carbon isn't removing them from your system because it's either not good quality carbon or needs replacing. HTH.

Dave
 
Thanks for all the help everyone. I am going to get an alk test kit. In the meantime I changed out the carbon in my 2 hob filters tonight after I got home. I will watch for a day or so before doing a water change. I don't want to make too many changes too fast until I see the affects of replacing all the carbon.


My kenya tree is the closest to the toadstool - It has been shrivled up all day. Could it be sensitive to the leather also? I don't see many people talk about kenya tree corals very much. Does anyone know there scientific name? Are they not that popular in the hobby?

Thanks again, looking forward to meeting everyone this weekend!!
 
Hi Patrick, I have personally never experienced any problems with my leather and sps or lps. I have had the leather grow to occupy about a third of the tank and still had booming sps and lps growth.

Toadstools are supposed to be worse though I think.

I've been told you need to replace carbon very often so it doesn't leech out the very nutrients that it was supposed to sequester.
 
I have I a couple huge green sinularia a large sarcophyton along with other leathers. No skimmer or carbon ever used and have no problems with my hammers I have had for years or my sps or other lps corals. So Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m not sure if this is your problem.
 
Thanks for the input. I need to get on a regular schedule of changing out the carbon. do you know how often?

If the toadstool is not the cause, then I am once again confused....
 
This hobby continually confuses me. My zoanthids close up for 4 months and it turns out to be low salinity because of a bad swing-arm specific gravity tester. I fix that and everything grows like crazy for a couple of months then stops. I start adding alkalinity booster to my top-off water again and everything opens up and starts growing like crazy. My pistol shrimp goes silent for two months. I think he is dead but remember that I forgot to add iodine and strontium for the last few months. I add it and within a week he starts popping again. Tonight, he is digging around again. At least I that my actions had something to do with fixing the problems. Maybe. Perhaps....
 
There's a good discussion on carbon over in the MTRC forum right now that you may find enlightening.

Dave
 
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