What ate my hammer?!?!?!?

[GreenSaltyOne]

I woke up this morning and looked at the tank as I'm new to this. My water parameters were checked just a day ago and all was perfect. My mushrooms have been acting up but I found the few culprits - asternia stars. I killed 3/4 today and 4/5 I've ever seen. I will hunt that last one down. Could they be doing that to my hammer? I've seen none in that area. My hammer is off on its own as you can see in the picture. Nearest inhabitants are a kenya tree colony, a new frag of Devils Armor, and a green polyp well below it. It was perfect yesterday, today that one side looks chewed. My cerith snail was very close to it when I woke up - do they eat hammers or LPS? PLEASE HELP ME!!!

I will be up late tonight watching for critters in the dark........

 

[vette.tech]

The asterinas are most likely not doing that, although when I had an explosion of them in my tank they did munch on a couple zoas. I would leave them in the tank they are mostly beneficial IMO. You did t mention what fish you have? How long has the tank been set up? It just looks like it's not doing well, but it's hard to tell from the pic

 

[cloak]

Do you have any shrimp in your tank? Lately it seems like more and more people are having problems with their peppermint shrimp eating corals. (usually LPS)

 

[GreenSaltyOne]

I have no fish and no shrimp in my tank. I have 2 hermits, and a Halloween crab thats lazy.
Heres a link to my post about my tanks inhabitants and history. I and it are new.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2302260
Thanks for for looking.
I had my water checked again today, and all was perfect except my temp was maybe to high for my salinity. Temp was 78' and salinity was 1.0245. My temp is now at 75' and my salinity is at 1.0225. The hammer is looking slightly better, but its still not in the best shape like it was last night. I still think my cerith snail that was next to it in the morning could have had something to do with it.

 

[GreenSaltyOne]

I also moved my hammer and my other LPS, a trumpet, to the bottom of the tank and reduced the flow of water slightly.

 

[GreenSaltyOne]

Also, I've been killing the asternia stars cause when they go near my green hairy mushroom, it bunches up and is obviously irritated. I took it out of the tank this morning, killed 3/4 stars near it on the rock, and when I put it back in it was open and happy in 5 minutes. One star got away so cat and mouse it is. I've read too many mixed reviews to let them live. And my focus is zoas, mushrooms, and polyps which all are soft and edible i feel.

 

[Beandawg]

Your salinity is low. That will affect your pH and alk. This is most likely the cause. You say your parameters are perfect, but what are you testing? You only listed your temp and salinity. Your cerith has nothing to do with this.

 

[Fishypapa]

Your salinity is low. That will affect your pH and alk. This is most likely the cause. You say your parameters are perfect, but what are you testing? You only listed your temp and salinity. Your cerith has nothing to do with this.

Tend to agree with you Beandawg.

GreenSaltyOne, what are you phosphate and nitrate levels and are you dosing any kalkwasser or 2part calcium? How often are you doing water changes? I have some stars in my tank but they don't both my hammer, torch, toadstool leather, duncan, or zoas.

 

[GreenSaltyOne]

Beandawg -
I have the LFS test my water cause I have no test kit yet. They said water was perfect as far as calcium, mag, ph, phos, nitrite, nitrates, etc.... I do not know the exact parameters but their opinion was its spot on.

Their recommendation was to lower my temp and my salinity because I have mostly soft corals. Can you please explain why the salinity should be higher? The hammer is looking worse after I followed the LFS's suggestions so I'm open to thoughts cause everything else in the tank looks great.

The LFS said that a high salinity (mine was 1.0245 when the hammer started dying) coupled with a high temp (mine was 78) could cause the hammer to do that. So following their advice, I lowered my temp and salinity to 74 (its at 76 cause of the air temp), and 1.0225.

I also think my flow might have been a little strong? Its moved to a highly protected spot now with very little flow, just enough to move the hammers slightly, and into a low light area. I also did a 20% water change.

My other LFS, a trumpet, looks great for now. The hammer had a few hammers that spit out brown or white stuff, and its loosing more hammers. The flesh went from white to brown, and is progressing. One out of three heads looks fine, but they are all closely connected. Once head is almost bare now, one cannot inflate, and one looks weak but it can hold itself up.

Any advice at this point would be greatly appreciated. I hate to lose something this early in the tanks life. I don't think I should have listened to the LFS and got this coral in the first place, but now I'm trying my best to save it.

Please explain the salinity....it must be my issue. And its relation to temp please.

 

[GreenSaltyOne]

Phos and nitrate are at 0. I'm not dosing with anything. Did a water change today, my first one cause the tanks been running for a little over three weeks. I was going to do a water change once a month at 25%.

 

[vette.tech]

I keep mine at 1.026 where NSW averages 1.027. I keep my temp around 80 as well, the average temp of reefs is something like 82.

I had asked earlier about how long the tank has been up but didn't see a response but above it looks like you say three weeks, in which case I feel you added corals way too soon, prolly still cycling ....

 

[Nano sapiens]

You are getting some strange advice from your LFS. The conditions for your Hammer coral should match what the animal is adapted to in the wild. Salinity on the vast majority of reefs is around 1.025-1.026 and temps average around 77-82. A small deviation up or down is usually not a concern, but stability certainly is. Pick your parameter levels within the accepted ranges and do your best to keep them steady.

Check at night for any worms/pests that might be irritating the coral.

 

[DragKnee]

Yeah I'd raise your salinity and temperature slowly back up to where it should be. What you're currently running is low and I don't know why your LFS would recommend doing that

 

[cloak]

I would raise the salinity/temperature as well, but I highly doubt that's what's causing the coral to look like that. FWIW, you might want to look into Brown Jelly Infection/Syndrome. GL.

 

[GreenSaltyOne]

All great advice and I did follow it today. I was ****ed that my coral wasn't looking good when everything else in the tank looks great. Yes, I probably put corals in a little too soon. My water was stable for a week so I was given the advice that I was ok to go, just to not put fish in because they are a main cause of nitrates/trites.

Also, I noticed my hammer had very little tissue going down from the head....a sign of weakness? My trumpet has a full 2" of tissue and seems very happy.

Question: Can corals affect nitrates/trites? Also, can 2 hermits, a halloween crab and a cerith snail affect nitrates/trites?

The reason I ask is because I was tired of my LFS giving me bad advice and false water tests, so I took matters into my own hands and bought a test kit even though I'm eating less because of it.

So the ACTUAL test results show:

SG - 1.0235 (Raising by .001 a day to get to 1.025 as recommended by everyone here)
Temp - 76' and fluctuating for some reason at night - could be the breeze from open windows so i'm raising it to 78' also 1' per day)
Nitrates - 20-40 I BELIEVE THIS IS WHAT HURT THE HAMMER! Thoughts?!?!?!?? Seems really high to me, but my trumpet coral is happy.
Phos - 0
Calcium - 420
KH - 9 / 161.1

I realize I am missing the test kit for nitrites and PH so I am off to the fish store again so I can have my own complete test kit.

Should i do a water change to drop my nitrates? I did one yesterday at 20% so 4/20 gallons. Also, I changed my filters today and added a massive amount of carbon. That should help to correct?

Thanks again everyone - I'm learning a lot - especially to trust everything I hear on RC, and not everything at my LFS.

 

[GreenSaltyOne]

Also, I cut the bad heads off the hammer because it was turning brown and progressively getting worse. I butchered the cut because there was not separation between the heads, but amazingly shes holdin on and askin for TLC. Givin it my best!!

 

[Beandawg]

Good job! I was going to advise to get your own tests and find a new LFS. Google is your friend, and the search function on this site is very informative. The link between the salinity and temperature would be oxygen levels, but this would affect your fish and inverts before it would affect your coral. The higher the temp, and SG, the lower the oxygen levels will be. Your temperature is within the correct range. Try to keep it between 76-80. Shoot for SG 1.026. pH can be as low as 7.8 and up around 8.6 in a healthy reef.

Your nitrate could very well be the problem, also worth checking is magnesium. Good luck!

 

[GreenSaltyOne]

Thanks beandawg. I just got the regular test kit as well, so I was able to test ph and nitrites. My ph is 8.4, my nitrites are at 0! So I am blaming this on my high nitrate level, bad LFS advice lowering the temp and salinity which compounded the problem. I will shoot for between 1.025 and 1.026 salinity, at a 78' water temp. I feel my water has lots of oxygen because I have good circulation, and my homemade skimmer leaks bubbles! lol. It just started to produce wet skim, and by early next month I'll have an octopus 100 HOB skimmer and my new LED installed.

 

[GreenSaltyOne]

Oh yea!! How do you check magnesium? I'll search google too but if their is a good way and better way to do it, please let me know!

 

[Beandawg]

It's another test kit. Once you figure out your consumption rate, you don't need to test as often. The way to figure out your consumption rate is, do the test (works for calcium too) record the results. Don't add anything for a week, and retest. The difference is what you tank consumes in a week. Simply add that amount weekly, and you're golden. As your corals grow they will consume more, occasionally run the test again to see how far off it is. Good luck.