Can you save my hammer?

[emilzabub]

My hammer is struggling, any suggestions to save it?

The first pic is today (moved because I picked it up). The hammer in my 14g is not looking good.

The second picture was from 2 days ago when it started looking off (plus params). Since then, we Added Calcium to increase the calcium concentration, increase the pH, and increase the alkalinity.
Did a 35-40% water change.

Today, nitrates are 19.6ppm, ammonia 0.04, salinity 1.0255, pH 7.9, alkalinity 10.1dKG

What would you do next? I also have a 75g reef with good parameters if you’d recommend any transfers. Thank you!

 

[KrisReef]

Measure nitrates.
Look into cipro treatments for Brown Jelly Disease.
If that works remove the blue stuff from the gravel, and gl!

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[Lavey29]

They don't like to be buried in sand. Use a piece of rock rubble and raise it up. How old is the tank? What is lights and flow?

 

[emilzabub]

Measure nitrates.
Look into cipro treatments for Brown Jelly Disease.
If that works remove the blue stuff from the gravel, and gl!

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

thank you! I came home from a trip and my fiance thought the blue would be a nice touch

 

[Auto-pilot]

Your alkalinity is high and One of the heads looks really rough. I would say that maybe this is due to unstable alk. If this were my tank I would make sure your parameters are stable and accurate. It will be tough because in This state your coral is going to be extremely suseptible to STN and RTN. I would be careful with it and I would drop your alkalinity. If your pH is at 7.9 I wonder if your dkh is really at 10

 

[emilzabub]

Measure nitrates.
Look into cipro treatments for Brown Jelly Disease.
If that works remove the blue stuff from the gravel, and gl!

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

on it.

right? I came home from a trip and my bf thought it would be a nice touch. it's in my 75g too

 

[homer1475]

I'm confused....

You say your DKH(not DKG) is 10, yet the posted pic says it's 6.4? Did you raise from 6.4 to 10 in those 2 days? Could be the issue with the coral.

 

[homer1475]

They don't like to be buried in sand. Use a piece of rock rubble and raise it up. How old is the tank? What is lights and flow?

+1 ^^

 

[iamacat]

I believe we have a cornucopia of issues here and playing with 3 water parameters at once will make things harder to pin down a cause.

other have pointed out some changes to make such as not burying in the sand for one.

 

[Rmckoy]

How long has the tank been running ?
Stability is always best .
typically most lps prefer elevated nutrients and you might want to lower alkalinity .
I personally prefer closer to nsw levels ( 7.5dkh
Nitrates >10
Phosphates <0.1
Cal I keep mine at 425

I would raise them out of the sand .

how much flow are they getting ?

 

[emilzabub]

How long has the tank been running ?
Stability is always best .
typically most lps prefer elevated nutrients and you might want to lower alkalinity .
I personally prefer closer to nsw levels ( 7.5dkh
Nitrates >10
Phosphates <0.1
Cal I keep mine at 425

I would raise them out of the sand .

how much flow are they getting ?

Not much, no power head just the tanks pump. Tank has been up a month. I’ve raised them up. You think lower alkalinity rather than hold it stable where we are now?

 

[Rmckoy]

Not much, no power head just the tanks pump. Tank has been up a month. I’ve raised them up. You think lower alkalinity rather than hold it stable where we are now?

Stable is best . But I was just saying I prefer lower Alk closer to natural sea water levels

higher Alk will cause faster growth but they would require more nutrients . More energy from photosynthesis etc

 

[Lavey29]

A month old tank is a difficult environment for a hammer coral. Euphyllia need a stable environment and that is probably at least 4 months and beyond.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Not much, no power head just the tanks pump. Tank has been up a month. I’ve raised them up. You think lower alkalinity rather than hold it stable where we are now?

Unfortunately a one month old tank is too immature for most coral.

Stick to a couple of fish for 4-5 months and then add easy to keep coral.
Hammers are not a beginner corals.

Best thing for you to do is try to keep things stable but slowly lower your Alk to around 7.5-8.0.
Stability is very difficult in a nano size tank.