Hammer coral mucous strands

[notanobsession]

Hey all,

This is my first time posting here. I was wondering if anyone had any advice. I bought 3 new hammer frags about 8cmx10cm so decent size, they were healthy and fully open in the shop tank. I moved them into my tank following a float and dip. They have however completely receded into their shell and are expelling long mucous strands. I’m not sure how to fix this and they have been like this for 2 days now.

My tank is a 140L tank with 2 x AI Nero wave makers, AI Prime lighting running at 18% UV, 60% Violet, 65% Royal Blue, 70% Blue and 20% Cool White (during peak and tapering both sides).

Parameters are;
PH- 8.4
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 5
Salinity- 1.025
Calcium- 450
Magnesium- 1290
Alkalinity- 7.7
Phosphate- 0.1

The tank has been established for 2 years with torches, other hammers, heliofungia, acans, zoas and gonnis with no other issues except for these new hammers.

Is it possible that it’s just them adjusting or should I be looking to change something. They are also in a relatively central area with good lighting and flow.

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Can you post a picture?

 

[notanobsession]

Can you post a picture?

It’s not the best picture but this is what it looks like. It was all 3 but now the other 2 have stopped expelling the mucous and are just closed up, the lights have gone into their night cycle now but they have been closed for 2 days now like this. I’ve never had this happen with any other corals before.

 

[Formulator]

Hey all,

This is my first time posting here. I was wondering if anyone had any advice. I bought 3 new hammer frags about 8cmx10cm so decent size, they were healthy and fully open in the shop tank. I moved them into my tank following a float and dip. They have however completely receded into their shell and are expelling long mucous strands. I’m not sure how to fix this and they have been like this for 2 days now.

My tank is a 140L tank with 2 x AI Nero wave makers, AI Prime lighting running at 18% UV, 60% Violet, 65% Royal Blue, 70% Blue and 20% Cool White (during peak and tapering both sides).

Parameters are;
PH- 8.4
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 5
Salinity- 1.025
Calcium- 450
Magnesium- 1290
Alkalinity- 7.7
Phosphate- 0.1

The tank has been established for 2 years with torches, other hammers, heliofungia, acans, zoas and gonnis with no other issues except for these new hammers.

Is it possible that it’s just them adjusting or should I be looking to change something. They are also in a relatively central area with good lighting and flow.

Do you know the parameters of the LFS tank they came from? A couple of your tank parameters are on the edges so it could be adjusting slowly. Nothing wrong with your parameters, just could have been a large swing from what they were used to. pH is a little higher than most tanks (its great, and I wish I could keep mine that high, but still potentially very different from its previous home). Alk is also a little low for a tank with that high pH.

 

[notanobsession]

Do you know the parameters of the LFS tank they came from? A couple of your tank parameters are on the edges so it could be adjusting slowly. Nothing wrong with your parameters, just could have been a large swing from what they were used to. pH is a little higher than most tanks (its great, and I wish I could keep mine that high, but still potentially very different from its previous home). Alk is also a little low for a tank with that high pH.

I’m not sure about the parameters of the tank they came from unfortunately, my parameters are a bit on the edges of being outside the flags but they’ve kinda been stable at those parameters for a year now so I figured it was best to keep them stable rather than trying to chase numbers, should I be trying to get the alk up? The tank is dosed daily so I could start upping it a bit. I’m just worried because I’ve never had this happen and I don’t want it to nuke my tank if it’s something bad happening. Sorry in advance if these are dumb questions but I’m still relatively new to reef tank keeping I’m hoping they’re just slowly adjusting to the levels in my tank

 

[ryanjohn1]

What did you dip them with?

 

[notanobsession]

What did you dip them with?

I dipped them with the Red Sea ‘DipX’

 

[Formulator]

I’m not sure about the parameters of the tank they came from unfortunately, my parameters are a bit on the edges of being outside the flags but they’ve kinda been stable at those parameters for a year now so I figured it was best to keep them stable rather than trying to chase numbers, should I be trying to get the alk up? The tank is dosed daily so I could start upping it a bit. I’m just worried because I’ve never had this happen and I don’t want it to nuke my tank if it’s something bad happening. Sorry in advance if these are dumb questions but I’m still relatively new to reef tank keeping I’m hoping they’re just slowly adjusting to the levels in my tank

I don’t think there is anything wrong with your parameters. Your coral might grow faster if you raised the alk a bit, and it shouldn’t hurt anything if you do it slowly (0.25 per day). But the main point was not really to say theere is anything wrong with your current params, just that they are probably different from the LFS and your new coral could take longer to adjust, but should be fine in another day or so as long as it isn’t expelling polyps.

 

[notanobsession]

I don’t think there is anything wrong with your parameters. Your coral might grow faster if you raised the alk a bit, and it shouldn’t hurt anything if you do it slowly (0.25 per day). But the main point was not really to say theere is anything wrong with your current params, just that they are probably different from the LFS and your new coral could take longer to adjust, but should be fine in another day or so as long as it isn’t expelling polyps.

Thank you so much, that puts my mind at ease!!
It hasn’t expelled anything except for these mucous strands which I’ve read is mostly a stress response so hopefully they’ll adjust and open up during the day.
I’ll also start raising the alk slowly over the next week or so.
I appreciate your help

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Thank you so much, that puts my mind at ease!!
It hasn’t expelled anything except for these mucous strands which I’ve read is mostly a stress response so hopefully they’ll adjust and open up during the day.
I’ll also start raising the alk slowly over the next week or so.
I appreciate your help

Could you please post a picture? I would like to see if there is a flesh band around their heads and if there is then they're fine.

 

[notanobsession]

Could you please post a picture? I would like to see if there is a flesh band around their heads and if there is then they're fine.

I posted a picture in response to your earlier reply but it’s waiting for moderator approval

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

I posted a picture in response to your earlier reply but it’s waiting for moderator approval

Ah, okay. No worries!

 

[notanobsession]

Ah, okay. No worries!

I sent you a message with the photos so you can see them quicker I hope that’s okay

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Here are OPs photos.