Reef Discussion

[DavidS]

Hi All,

My hammer isn't happy. I've had him for a couple of weeks, and for most of it, it's been retracted and not happy looking.

When I first got it home it was all extended and looked nice. Over a period of a few days, it retracted.
Initially it had a corner to itself, and I moved a power head away to reduce the flow, which didn't make any difference. I tried moving the dual T5 closer to directly above it without much luck.

Yesterday I rigged up a shelf with a clamp and a cut up demineralised water bottle, that's holding it up close to the light, with enough flow to keep the few bits that are extended to move gently.
It seems to be a little less retracted, but I'm still seeing way too much skeleton.

Everything else in the tank is fine.

All the usuals are 0. Calcium is about 450 and Alk is between 8-9dKh.
SG is 1.026. Tank temp is pretty stable between 25.5 and 26.5C.

Any ideas?

 

[MTG]

Maybe you are just not giving it enough time. exactly how long has it been retracted? i bought a hammer a week or two ago and its only just starting to come out. it can depend on the individual coral tho.
what are your nitrates/phosphate at?
do you have any more coral in the system?

 

[DavidS]

Got it about 2 weeks ago, and it started to retract a couple of days after I put it in.
Nitrates are 0. Phosphates are 0 - I didn't believe it until I used a second kit with same result.

Other stuff in the tank - a leather, ric, a few zoas, a morph, a bit of candy cane coral. Candy cane isn't really happy - it's never really fed, and it's never really fully puffed up - a couple of the heads did for a while after I got it, but assumed that it was just not particularly healthy from when I got it.
The rest of the stuff in the tank seems to be happy and healthy.

 

[MTG]

check that theres no parasites on it. if all your other corals look fine just give it time to settle in. so that means no more touching it! :rolleyes

 

[DavidS]

havent seen anything bugging it. I was a little concerned that it's little corner might have been too dark for it (it's at the front in front of live rock).

So I guess if I'm going to leave it alone, I'd probably best put it back down in it's corner.

 

[MagicJ]

David, can you show us a picture?

 

[DavidS]

Here 'tis

 

[MTG]

not to happy is it. keep it in a low flow area that still gets decent amounts of light. i think it will pull through

 

[DavidS]

As far as light goes - it'll get the most where it is. Can't get it up any higher. Otherwise it goes back to it's corner - at the bottom of the tank. No where else I can really fit it at the moment - if it's up the rocks, it's too close to other inhabitants.

Just realised, I forgot to mention the coral that's attached. Not 100% sure what it is. When it's all sucked up tight, I thought it might be a scolly, but when it puffs out it's different. That was the one thing I bought without really knowing much about it. Whatever it is, it likes to eat :P

 

[slin1977]

What are you using to reduce phosphate?

 

[DavidS]

Nothing for phosphate - two test kits and I'm yet to detect any, despite my own belief that it's pretty unlikely that there is none.

 

[slin1977]

I am at a loss then, hope it gets well:(

 

[Dr. Schell]

Haveyou tried feeding it? Try small testy foods like mysis.

 

[Dr. Schell]

How is the iodine/iodide in your tank? I have noticed that my inverts look sad if I forget to dose with iodide

 

[DavidS]

I tried feeding it mysis a couple of times, which it seemed to ignore. Other things, like that coral that I can't identify above, and a ric love them, but the hammer ignored it. As far as Iodine/Iodide - not something I've got test kits for. Something I may have to put on the shopping list with a magnesium test kit.

 

[MagicJ]

The algae encroachment is a bit of a concern as this can lead to further problems. Random water flow is best for hammers rather than just in one direction so I would place it where there is the most water movement, but not directly in front of a pump.

Do you have two pumps or one? Also I noticed that you have an extension piece on the outlet of the pump in the video - I would remove this to try and get a wider flow pattern.

Your candy cane is also looking pretty sick - where do you buy your corals?

 

[DavidS]

There are two small power heads and one crappy wave maker at the moment. The wavemaker is near the top pointing down, sucking water from the surface a bit. One of the power heads is near the top at the opposite side which tends to interfere with the water moving in one direction. I have another one coming I was going to direct at the existing one to see if I can get them to work against each other a bit.
I have stuff pretty well spread out across the tank.

Yeah that candy cane is about knackered I think. Has been pretty knackered since I got it - never really managed to get it to eat, not for the sake of trying.

 

[MagicJ]

If you can aim the pumps at each other or bounce them off the tank walls you maybe able to get some random flow happening.

Sorry, bad spelling above - where do you buy your corals?

 

[DavidS]

Ah ok.... gotcha.

That candy cane from coral mania.
The hammer, leather, unidentified coral from the last photo I posted above and ric came from Reef & River Aquatics, some zoas from Matt, and some zoas and a morph (as well as my macro) from Matt Richards.

Can't really get anything local - either travel or post.

 

[MagicJ]

I was just wondering that maybe they were both in poor condition when you got them.But they came from different places so I will just shutup :confused:

Been a few years since I lived in Melbourne but I think Williamstown Aquarium has a pretty good name. How's the weather in Ballarat at the moment ? I used to play a few sports comps up there in June and it was pretty cold....