Another hammer issue

[bartizzle]

I'm not having much luck with 2 of my hammer frags, they both had 2 heads. One of them got knocked over a few days ago and I didn't catch it until late. I think that my octospawn is still doing well, or at least I hope. They were all 3 added 1/7.

I've had bad luck in the past with a branching frogspawn that bailed out back in August and wall hammer that didn't make it long back October. Folks mentioned the wall hammer didn't look healthy when I brought it home. I always dip my stuff before it goes in the tank. Coral get a bath in CoralRX and checked well for pests.

I've had some issues in the past that I posted about and folks told me that the nitrates and phosphates were too low, so I pulled the chemical filtration. Since then my GSP has been growing like crazy, other Duncans are doing great, octospawn opened fully etc. Nitrates went from <10 to about 20ppm, Phosphate went from 0.03 to about 40ppm.

I realize the phosphate level is high, I just recently (2wks ago) added a skimmer and ordered some Brightwell Phosphat-e (not yet delivered). I manually ran my auto water change yesterday 4 times in a row (1.5Gx4) my tank is 32G in an effort to help. Also have some Red Sea trace Iodine+ on the way since the level is a little low.

My hammer that got knocked over by snail or crab is pretty much 100% gone due to bailout. Now my other branching hammer seems to have retracted some and I'm not yet sure as to why. I had the wavemaker up a little high after cleaning the sandbed a few days ago and I'm wondering if the current caused a rip in the flesh. I'm afraid it may be a goner now as well and may possibly be brown jelly. I'll post some pictures in order and I'd appreciate any advice. My water parameters are at the bottom, under the photos. Thank you all!

4 DAYS AGO:

LAST NIGHT:

TODAY:

Date

Temp F

SG

pH

dKH

(NO3) ppm

(PO4) ppm

(Ca) ppm

(Mg) ppm

(NH3) ppm

(NO2) ppm

(I2) ppm

Notes

7/12/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

8.9​

5​

0.03​

370​

1200​

0​

0​

Day after vacation, prior to adding frogspawn, GSP, zoas, duncans, 12 trochous, 6 nassarius, 12 red leg crabs

7/14/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

8.9​

5​

0.03​

370​

1200​

0​

0​

Tested and then dosed 10ml

7/14/2020​

78​

8​

9.4​

400​

0​

Tested 1h after dosing

7/16/2020​

78​

8​

9.4​

5​

0.03​

400​

1150​

Tested and then dosed 9ml + 5ml Mg

7/20/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

9.8​

5​

0.03​

380​

1170​

0​

Tested and then dosed 15ml Ca only + 9ml Mg

7/21/2020​

78​

8​

9.8​

390​

1180​

Tested and then dosed 15ml Ca, 9 ALK, 9ml Mg

7/23/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

10.2​

395​

1200​

Tested and then dosed 18ml Ca only + 9ml Mg

7/28/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

10.1​

7​

400​

1200​

8/3/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

10​

10​

400​

1200​

Changed filter floss and PolyPad

8/4/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

9.9​

10​

0.25​

405​

1215​

Dosed Ca, Mg before testing, added Chemi-Pure Blue 5.5

8/5/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

10.1​

7​

0.1​

410​

1275​

8/7/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

10.2​

7​

0.1​

405​

1180​

Had a polyp eject. 10%WC, dosed 12ml Mg

8/10/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

9.9​

7​

0.1​

405​

1200​

0​

Last Frogspawn polyps ejected.

8/16/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

10​

10​

0.1​

400​

1185​

0​

0​

8/28/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

10.3​

7​

0.03​

405​

1185​

0​

0​

9/14/2020​

78​

1.025​

8​

10​

7​

0.03​

0​

0​

New gate valve and 5g WC, swept sand.

9/15/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

10.1​

7​

0.03​

400​

1200​

0​

0​

Removed Chemi-Pure Blue. Added wall hammer.

9/25/2020​

78​

1.025​

8​

9.9​

10​

0.03​

400​

1215​

0​

0.05​

Replaced Chemi-Pure Blue and PolyPad.

10/1/2020​

78​

1.025​

8​

10​

7​

0.03​

400​

1200​

0​

0.05​

Cleaned sand bed, changed floss.30%WC

10/4/2020​

78​

1.025​

8​

9.9​

7​

0.03​

400​

1215​

0​

0.05​

10/5/2020​

78​

Dipped Zoas and Duncans in CoralRx Pro.

10/7/2020​

78​

Pulled Chemi-Pure Blue and Poly-Pad (expecting PO4 to increase per recommendation)

10/8/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

9.8​

10​

0.1- 0.25

400​

1200​

0​

0.05​

Refreshed Matrix Carbon

10/9/2020​

78​

0.22​

New Hanna PO4 checker

10/10/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

8.4​

5​

0.12​

370​

1170​

0​

0​

50% WC, added more carbon, dipped wall hammer and duncan in MediCoral

10/14/2020​

Donated 6 crabs, Dipped Zoas, Duncan, and Hammer in CoralRx Pro and MediCoral.

10/16/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

8.8​

5​

0.3​

370​

1140​

0​

0​

10/20/2020​

78​

1.024​

8​

9.2​

5​

0.23​

0​

0​

11/8/2020​

78​

1.025​

30% WC Switched to Tropic Marin Reef Pro Salt

11/9/2020​

78​

1.025​

8​

8.3​

5​

0.13​

415​

1290​

0​

0​

0.05​

12/22/2020​

78​

1.026​

8​

8.5​

5​

0.23​

420​

1240​

0​

0​

1/8/2021​

78​

1.026​

8​

8.5​

20​

0.39​

440​

1230​

0​

0.05​

0.05​

Added new corals. Octospawn, 2 hammers, duncan, Ricordea Florida, Goni

1/12/2021​

78​

1.026​

8​

20​

0.4​

0​

1/16/2021​

78​

1.026​

8​

7.9​

20​

0.36​

0​

1/18/2021​

78​

1.026​

8​

8​

20​

0.49​

420​

1260​

0​

0​

0.04​

 

[bartizzle]

Here's a video of the entire tank.

 

[DE FISH]

I can see based on your recorded parameters that alk and calcium seem to swing a lot along with the nitrates and phosphatesI’d suggest trying to stabilise all these parameters as the corals will not like these massive swings stability is everything in a reef tank. The coral unfortunately looks like it could be a goner. Get everything stable and keep your fingers crossed

 

[bartizzle]

I can see based on your recorded parameters that alk and calcium seem to swing a lot along with the nitrates and phosphatesI’d suggest trying to stabilise all these parameters as the corals will not like these massive swings stability is everything in a reef tank. The coral unfortunately looks like it could be a goner. Get everything stable and keep your fingers crossed

I was thinking it had actually been somewhat stable. I have dosed anything at all in 5 months and have been doing more regular water changes. I thought it had been stable since the beginning of November.

One of the purple hammer head just bailed. I'm down to one hammer head and then my octospawn that fortunately still looks okay.

Do you believe this is caused by the high phosphates?

 

[tnewell]

I was thinking it had actually been somewhat stable. I have dosed anything at all in 5 months and have been doing more regular water changes. I thought it had been stable since the beginning of November.

One of the purple hammer head just bailed. I'm down to one hammer head and then my octospawn that fortunately still looks okay.

Do you believe this is caused by the high phosphates?

Any new placement/flow/lighting/fishy’s/inverts

 

[1guydude]

More frequent smaller wcs and more frequent smaller dosings if you can might help with stability.
If the coral was upside down for too long it might just be too late
D

 

[1guydude]

Tank looks great btw. Throw away that dead coral skeleton and get those corals up on the rock off the sand. I go to dollar tree for.super glue gel. Hths
D

 

[bartizzle]

Any new placement/flow/lighting/fishy’s/inverts

Actually most of the corals are new, the GSP and zoas have been in there for about 6 months. The day light intensity was bumped up from 2 to 3 hours, other than that I actually gave away a bunch of crabs because they kept harassing my wall hammer which has since died. Fish have been there for 6 months or more.

 

[bartizzle]

More frequent smaller wcs and more frequent smaller dosings if you can might help with stability.
If the coral was upside down for too long it might just be too late
D

My AWC is about 1.75 gallons weekly and I haven't dosed anything in 5+ months. Both hammers are dead, I cleaned them out in an iodine dip last night. The golden one has a couple tiny polyp tips that I can see glowing way down inside right now. I'm just more concerned at this point something could happen to my others.

Tank looks great btw. Throw away that dead coral skeleton and get those corals up on the rock off the sand. I go to dollar tree for.super glue gel. Hths
D

Thanks! I just wish we could keep our coral alive and get things stabilized. I've been so confused throughout this 9 month journey. I had thought that 6 months ago that I had my parameters pretty much in the middle of what any chart recommended and was told that nitrates at 7 and phosphate at 0.03 was too low and also needed to lower alk from 9.9.
I was dosing Oceans Blend 2 part and a magnesium supplement back then. I haven't dosed anything at all in 5+ months now though.

I asked about what levels I should be trying to maintain and never really heard back about nitrate and phosphate, now they are at 20ppm and about 0.4ppm, alk is right at 8dkh. I've added a skimmer about 2 weeks ago, cut out the Reef Roids, and have some phosphate remover coming tomorrow. Hopefully I can bring it back down from 0.4 to 0.1 very slowly. I also have iodine coming, it's been a bit low, I'll go really slow with it too.

Is there no benefit to keeping the old wall skeleton around? It's an eyesore but I was under the impression it should have a lot of "good" organisms in it that I should keep.

All of the frags are in white rocks at the moment... haha, I didn't want to glue them in place until I found out if I could keep them alive or not. Sad but true. We probably got a little too happy at the live sale a couple weeks ago, we got 7 in that sale.


I'm pretty much doubting just about everything I do at times now.

My tank is an AIO, so in the back I run filter floss, just recently added some Poly Filter to reduce phosphate, Seachem Matrtix carbon 250ml, and regular Seachem Matrix 500ml for bio. I even doubt the mix of those, I ran Chemipure Blue for a while but pulled back at the beginning of October when I had issues with the wall hammer and folks said I needed more phosphate/nitrate. Any better ideas here? I also have 2 heaters on a controller in case of failure (room is constant 65F), Tunze 9001 DC skimmer, and Jaebo DCP2500 dc return pump.

I should also research more into disturbing the sand bed. I rarely (once every 6-8 weeks or so) vacuum the sand bed and wondering if that's too long to wait between or not, opinions?

Thanks so much.

 

[redeyejedi]

Any damage to the flesh while falling will prob result in losing the polyp eventually.

 

[tnewell]

This hobby is all about the intricate delicacies and patience a reef hobby is about. That being said, most euphyllia need very stable and somewhat “dirty” water. IME, they like .05 pho’s and .10 nitrates, but they may be different for a newer tank. If bailouts are happening, it’s definitely a parameter issue or a bacterial infection spreading like wildfire.

 

[bartizzle]

This hobby is all about the intricate delicacies and patience a reef hobby is about. That being said, most euphyllia need very stable and somewhat “dirty” water. IME, they like .05 pho’s and .10 nitrates, but they may be different for a newer tank. If bailouts are happening, it’s definitely a parameter issue or a bacterial infection spreading like wildfire.

Do you mean 10 nitrates? I was without euphyllia for a few months, how long would an infection possibly stick around? My zoas have been around as my first coral but not looking well either. Any suggestions?

 

[tnewell]

Do you mean 10 nitrates? I was without euphyllia for a few months, how long would an infection possibly stick around? My zoas have been around as my first coral but not looking well either. Any suggestions?

IMO, once you get a bad bacterial infection, it will always stay in your tank. I could be wrong, but lps in bad conditions usually get some sort of infection.

 

[1guydude]

Ur doin a lot of changes. Adding and taking things away. A media bag with bulk carbon. Large wc with a refractometer. Calibration fluid...
Dont be focused on nitrate and phosphates yet. Try and hold salt level and alk....9.9 aint bad imo. Just keep it their.
D