dying hammer coral

[enosmeanus]

not sure why. i've got 4 48" vho's over it, 75 lbs of established liverock. other corals in the tank are doing fine, (frogspawn, xenia, toadstool, polyps, ricordia) it's not a branching, it's Euphyllia ancora. levels are as follows: Mg-1230ppm, Alk 7.6dKH, PH-8.3, CA-335ppm, trates-25ppm. what should i do?

 

[skirrby]

you cal and alk are a little on the low side

 

[enosmeanus]

that's what i thought. what can i do to save it? like i said, the other corals i have are doing fine.

 

[skirrby]

do you dose anythnig for cal and alk... like a 2 part doseing liquid..(ex. b-ionic, or oceans blend)
a water change would help bring the levels back up also

 

[enosmeanus]

i've been dosing seachem reef builder to get the alk up first; advice from the owner of the only lfs in my area that i trust. he recommended raising the alk first, then the calcium. unfortunetly the alk does not want to stay up. i've been adding half a teaspoon 2 times a day of the reefbuilder, to approx. 60 gallons of water, (55g tank + sump), and within a day or two of not adding it, it goes right back down. i'm pretty sure this is not normal, but i don't know for sure, or what to do about it. i'm pretty sure though that this has something to do with the deterioration of my hammer.

 

[skirrby]

i would think, and maybe someone could clear this up better, that you would want to raise cal and alk together. to keep them in balance.. i use oceans blend cal, and ph/alk. i dose it as needed, and always in the morning before the lights come on, to aviod any possible ph swings. i would look into getting a 2 part buffer, and slowly raising the cal and alk together. (ex. dose cal wait 3-5 min, then dose alk... thats how i do mine) i like the results i get with the oceans blend, and regular water changes... my cal is normally 460-450 and my dkh stays around 11

 

[jja]

How are your phosphates? I had the same problem and it was high phos. The calc. is high enough that it shouldn't cause it to die.:thinking:

 

[sagxman]

Originally posted by skirrby
(ex. dose cal wait 3-5 min, then dose alk... thats how i do mine)
Skirrby, is there a reason you wait? Is it bad to add one right after the other?

 

[skirrby]

i wait simply because thats what i was informed to do.

 

[sagxman]

I've just been doing what the instructions say (don't remember exactly becuase I've been using ocean's blend for a long time). I think it just says to add one at a time. I may try it your way though and see if it makes any differences. Can't hurt.

 

[enosmeanus]

sorry i left out phosphates, they're around .01, maybe .02. like i said, everything else, (other corals), is doing ok.

 

[sagxman]

My hammer was looking a little ill for a while. Wasn't opening very much for a number of weeks. I'd say just maintain your water quality and hopefully it will come around like mine did.

 

[enosmeanus]

no, it's dying. anyone else?

 

[enosmeanus]

bump^^

 

[enosmeanus]

i don't think it's been eating. it's about mid level in my tank, under 440 watts of VHO. i've tried moving it around; higher, lower, more flow, less flow. nothing seems to help. i try to be very aware of anything messing with it and i have not seen anything picking at it.

 

[enosmeanus]

had to split it into two pictures to make it fit...

 

[enosmeanus]

is there even a mouth left?? i tried using baby brine, should i try cyclopeeze or something like that instead?

 

[enosmeanus]

alright, i'll try that, thanks for the advice.