Hammer Sulking Months Later

[TheReelColton]

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

 

[Adamc13o3]

It looks pretty open to me. The only thing that I noticed at swaps and stores is that they have little to no flow in lps tanks. Specifically at swaps since most tanks are top downs or shallow reef tanks. It does allow the lps to really open up but they can’t thrive like that long term. Maybe move it to a lower flow spot if you think that it can open up even more?

 

[Cichlid Dad]

This is how they sould look, and are in good flow

 

[Cichlid Dad]

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

How often do you do water changes and what salt are you using. What test kits

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

If its alive for months but just hanging on, to me it usually means lack of light or flow, or both. Just enough to keep it alive but not enough to thrive

What kind of light do you have and what intensity? I see only one powerhead in that 6' tank, it looks like nothing is moving, maybe consider another?

 

[TheReelColton]

If its alive for months but just hanging on, to me it usually means lack of light or flow, or both. Just enough to keep it alive but not enough to thrive

What kind of light do you have and what intensity? I see only one powerhead in that 6' tank, it looks like nothing is moving, maybe consider another?

That picture must have been before I added my second. The one on the left is an 800gph SunSun and the one I added about 3 weeks after getting my corals is a 3400gph Hygger set to full intensity with on off intervals every couple seconds.

I have 2 black box, "Wills" 165W set roughly to roughly 75% blue and 50% white, which is roughly how it looks to the eye in the video. I'm wondering if the light intensity is indeed to low, since the BTA decided to move up higher in the rocks.

If you're able to see this video I attached, it might help see how much flow is getting. And my BTA close by, just above.

Thanks

 

[kevgib67]

Your parameters are spot on, the only thing that jumps out at me is nitrate ( I know you just lowered it maybe to well) . I think you should bump it up to 10-15. Light is not addressed, I know you are an experienced reefer, so Im assuming you have it in a moderate par? Flow has been addressed so I won’t go there. From what I see this is a hammer not on it’s way out, nice, at least an inch, flesh band, but one that is grumpy. I think a few tweaks will turn this around.

 

[TheReelColton]

How often do you do water changes and what salt are you using. What test kits

I had been using Instant ocean for the years leading up to getting coral, then a couple months before, I bought a used RODI system and got a full bucket of Kent sea salt. I probably should have used something else, given that I'm not able to find that brand anywhere. Not to mention during a waterchange I noticed a piece of dark metal in the salt (which I removed). Do you think there could be contamination in the salt other than what was visible? (Didn't notice any other foreign objects or particles in the salt)

I have Salifert tests for Ca,Mag,Alk,NO3,PO4, and Hanna eggs for NO3 and PO4 as well.

I had been doing about 25% water changes every 2 months leading up to getting corals. I did one the night before the swap. Then I started carbon dosing and I wanted to see what was possible without changing water, so about 50 days no water change, I found the suspicious impeller shaft in my sump and did another 25%. So that has been my schedule recently, but now I'm worried about doing more before I get my nutrients up. Although I would assume something bad in the water is worse than very low nutrient levels.

 

[Cell]

If no other symptoms are present that would indicate pests or coral warfare etc, then I would suspect the massive nutrient changes and suggest focusing on extreme stability moving forward. If it was happy and adjusted at 45 nitrate and .15 PO4 then some shrinking wouldn't be surprising to me dropping down to 2.9/.08. Sometimes the damage we do doesn't show up for weeks/months and is just a slow decline over time.

 

[TheReelColton]

Your parameters are spot on, the only thing that jumps out at me is nitrate ( I know you just lowered it maybe to well) . I think you should bump it up to 10-15. Light is not addressed, I know you are an experienced reefer, so Im assuming you have it in a moderate par? Flow has been addressed so I won’t go there. From what I see this is a hammer not on it’s way out, nice, at least an inch, flesh band, but one that is grumpy. I think a few tweaks will turn this around.

If I'm going to increase my lighting, should I wait until my nutrients are higher? And if I do, I would assume increasing the blue channel will not do as much harm as white at first? I'm playing this by eye as I don't have a par meter (but definitely investing in one soon). Are there any things I can look out for as stress-related to light increases so I don't push it too far?

 

[Cell]

This is one of those tough situations where some stuff is doing fine, others are not. Rapid change is likely what got you to this point, so even more tinkering can be risky. Before messing with the lighting, without a par meter you are merely guessing anyway, I would consider getting nitrate and phosphate levels locked in. I'd shoot more for 10-15 nitrate with hammer/mushrooms/zoa/bta. You went from high nutrient to very low. The coral you are stocking tend to like it a little higher.

 

[kevgib67]

If I'm going to increase my lighting, should I wait until my nutrients are higher? And if I do, I would assume increasing the blue channel will not do as much harm as white at first? I'm playing this by eye as I don't have a par meter (but definitely investing in one soon). Are there any things I can look out for as stress-related to light increases so I don't push it too far?

I wouldn’t do to many things at once. The reason is multiple changes could stress the hammer more or the hammer improves but you don’t know which change caused it to turn around, no lesson learned. I think @Cell nailed it get the nitrates to the appropriate levels. Personally I would lean towards that causing the most improvement. Remember it takes weeks to show outside stress of a coral. Improvement takes the same. With nitrate corrected you won’t wake up the next day with the coral double the size. It will improve over the course of a week or two. Trust me I know impatience, but you are working with a healthy hammer and not one with receding flesh, polyp bail or bjd. I have a very positive feeling about this one.