I've had this hammer since mid September, and its never opened up more than It has in its first week. It looks nowhere like it did at the swap when I bought it (it was bicolor, blue and green) The first photo is day one in the tank, and the second is today. The last month or two has been slightly better than today but not much more extended, maybe more "wide" or "flat" in sort-of a stretched look.
My tank is roughly 4 years old, and I added my first corals this year (September).
Around September my nutrients were high, around 45 nitrate and probably close to 0.15 phosphate. I started carbon dosing vinegar and brought levels down to 2.9 nitrate and .08 phosphate 60 days. Unfortunately I expected it to take longer than that so I wasn't testing as regularly as I should have and would had dialed the dose back to end up sitting higher than that.
I checked for rusty parts and found the small internal filter in my sump running activated carbon, it's impeller shaft was a little rusty looking so I removed it and did a 25 percent water change. I ran a Poly-filter pad for about 10 days with no discernable color change.
But other than crashing my nutrient levels, everything else seems to looks pretty spot on, so I've run out of things to try.
I've been adding Red Sea AB+, my own Phytoplankton (nannochloropsus) culture in the evenings, and feeding a little heavier to bring nutrients back up slightly.
I've decreased lighting levels a little over the last month assuming the lack of nutrients may have made things more sensitive to higher lighting, but without a par meter I can't say exactly what my black boxes are putting out (Wills 165w).
I have a bernardopora that was doing well but after the nutrient drop has turned very pastel colored and doesn't extend nearly as much although I think it is recovering. Rodactus mushroom, ricordea yuma, blasto, zoas and a BTA all doing well.
I have "medium" flow, not too much, and not too little.
I'm dosing Kalkwasser on a Versa as well as BRS 2-part manually. Also Tropic marin trace.
As far as pests, I dipped and inspected all corals I've gotten in and I even re-dipped the hammer a few days ago to be sure there was nothing on it irritating it, no change.
I'm stumped, and honestly with all the open space in the 6ft tank, I'm itching to get more corals, but I'm worried adding more of anything is a bad idea before I figure this out.
Salinity 1.026
77°F
Nitrate 3.5
Phosphate 0.08
Calcium 480
Magnesium 1440
Alkalinity 8.6
TIA and have a wonderful evening,
-Colton
My tank is roughly 4 years old, and I added my first corals this year (September).
Around September my nutrients were high, around 45 nitrate and probably close to 0.15 phosphate. I started carbon dosing vinegar and brought levels down to 2.9 nitrate and .08 phosphate 60 days. Unfortunately I expected it to take longer than that so I wasn't testing as regularly as I should have and would had dialed the dose back to end up sitting higher than that.
I checked for rusty parts and found the small internal filter in my sump running activated carbon, it's impeller shaft was a little rusty looking so I removed it and did a 25 percent water change. I ran a Poly-filter pad for about 10 days with no discernable color change.
But other than crashing my nutrient levels, everything else seems to looks pretty spot on, so I've run out of things to try.
I've been adding Red Sea AB+, my own Phytoplankton (nannochloropsus) culture in the evenings, and feeding a little heavier to bring nutrients back up slightly.
I've decreased lighting levels a little over the last month assuming the lack of nutrients may have made things more sensitive to higher lighting, but without a par meter I can't say exactly what my black boxes are putting out (Wills 165w).
I have a bernardopora that was doing well but after the nutrient drop has turned very pastel colored and doesn't extend nearly as much although I think it is recovering. Rodactus mushroom, ricordea yuma, blasto, zoas and a BTA all doing well.
I have "medium" flow, not too much, and not too little.
I'm dosing Kalkwasser on a Versa as well as BRS 2-part manually. Also Tropic marin trace.
As far as pests, I dipped and inspected all corals I've gotten in and I even re-dipped the hammer a few days ago to be sure there was nothing on it irritating it, no change.
I'm stumped, and honestly with all the open space in the 6ft tank, I'm itching to get more corals, but I'm worried adding more of anything is a bad idea before I figure this out.
Salinity 1.026
77°F
Nitrate 3.5
Phosphate 0.08
Calcium 480
Magnesium 1440
Alkalinity 8.6
TIA and have a wonderful evening,
-Colton