Opinion on my Hammer Coral

marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
I put my first coral in my tank on 4/21/12. It is a single stalk Hammer coral with 3 heads. I just stuck it down into the sand on the bottom. Here it is on 4/21. Its just starting to open up Notice the nice green tips.

I took this picture yesterday. It seems to me that the green has faded a little, but the hammer is extending more. Does this look healthy. I run my white/blue lights 10am to 10 pm with blues only from 7:30-10 and 10-11:30. too much light. Do you think I may be bleaching my hammer?
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
Wondering if I should move it up onto a rock closer to the light. I was hoping to keep him in the sand and away from other corals I will add. The first time I tried to feed it it released a long white strand that looked like piece of spider web. I'm just not sure if my lights are too weak or strong. Its an LED set up. I admit they are a cheaper "Marineland style" LED. I was really hoping they would be sufficient. so maybe I need to raise him up and see if that helps.
Do you think I might need to supplement the lighting by adding a Single T5 ballast or other type of light?
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bang Guy http:///t/391483/opinion-on-my-hammer-coral#post_3471988
It doesn't look like it's bleaching to me. If anything it looks like it wants more light.
On my lunch break I ran to *****, picked up a 2 bulb T5 HO ballast with one blue and one 10K bulb. I'm gonna hang it next to the LED and see if that helps. I agree its probably insufficient lighting. I cheap'd out on my lights when I first put my tank together. Didn't realize at the time it was such an important feature of a reef tank (*Smacks himself in the head).
I'm gonna hang the T5 tonight and hope it helps bring back the color of the Hammer.
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
So.. the T5's don't seem as bright as the cheap LED's. Is it true the T5's could still be better for my corals PAR wise then the 1W LED's. Does brightness really mean anything?I'm going to be running both my LED's and my T5. I have the 24W Actinic and 24W 10K about 2"-3" off the water surface.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
visible brightness doesnt mean a whole lot, but if your bulbs look dim they probably are. its the amount of par, that is important. but on the bright side even if they are dim you are adding their par to the already existing par from your leds and that may be more than enough since hammers are generally not extremely light demanding as far as corals go.
as far as appearance goes your hammer looks ok to me, it could be colored up more but it does not look unhealthy to me.
also make sure the lower flesh of the hammer isn't in the sand as it can cause necrosis and recession. your best bet would be to secure it onto a small piece of rock as a base.
 
xcali1985

xcali1985

Active Member
It's fine, the reason the color is not as bright is because the tissue has stretched once the coral started to take in the tank water. It looks plenty happy to me. I have Kryptonite, Aussie Golden, Yellow Torches. Along with Bicolor Hammers, and Frogspawn, they all lose some color as they expand.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I didn't state my opinion fully earlier. Sometimes, an LPS will inflate more than normal in order to gather more light and grow more Zooxanthellae. They do not inflate in response to too much light.
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
I finally got both LED and T5's mounted and hooked up. I'm using the T5's as the primary source. Since I had the LED's first I noticed that the shimmer is gone with T5, but the corals seem to like the addition of the T5. Adding the LED in the back brightens it up a bit more and adds the shimmer and Maybe its just me, but the Hammer seemed to stand up a little more instead of looking so floppy. I got some frags yesterday. I forget the names, so if anyone can ID them I'd appreciate it. 2 birds nests, a joker, watermelon zoa. A zoa that I don't know and a plate.

T5 Only

T5 & LED (picture doesn't really show the difference. Little brighter, but in person there is an added shimmer. T5's make the colors pop ALOT more.
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
Here are the Frags:

Plate - not sure what kind (placing towards the top though)

Mystery Zoo and White star polyps

Watermelon & Birdsnest

Birds Nest & Jokers

Hammer Coral
 
tur4k

tur4k

Member
The top pic looks like a montipora capricornis to me. It's not a plate coral. It's one of the hardier SPS. Put it near the top in your setup.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
the white star polyp is probably clavularia viridis
the hammer is euphyllia anchora
the whitre or pinkish birdsnest is Seriatopora hystrix
and the green birds nest is Seriatopora guttatus
the monti (orange thing) is montipora capricornis
and the zoanthids are all Zoanthus sp. (Identifying the specdies of each is impossible from a photo)
 
xcali1985

xcali1985

Active Member
As for your zoas I would look into Joker Palys as the purpleish blue ones with green skirts.
And its possible you have Captain America Zoas in the one pic.
Lighting is tricky with zoas as they can fade and grow color depending on the light they are under.
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
I finally got around to placing the corals. Zoa's are all around the middle of the tank. Nests are low/mid. and the monti is up high.
I left the star polyp on the sand. I'm hoping it will grow and cover part of the bottom of the tank. Will it attach/cover the sand? Should I place it to a rock? i just buried the plug into the sand so only the polyps were visible.
Thanks for the help!
 
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