Reef Discussion

Susan Bates · Dec 12, 2015

I have some hammers and this has happened, what will course this please?

lukusis · Dec 12, 2015

Whats your phos at?

i lost nearly all my hammer garden from this. My P04 was higher than usual, but not abnormal, never did figure out if that was the main cause or not....

Susan Bates · Dec 12, 2015

lukusis said:
Whats your phos at?

i lost nearly all my hammer garden from this. My P04 was higher than usual, but not abnormal, never did figure out if that was the main cause or not....

sorry i am still new to this what is po4?

daveH · Dec 12, 2015

Po4 is your phosphates.
I'm following this because I have just recently had a couple of my hammers shrink away.
But I'm tending to think it's because the new tank has 0 phosphates, unlike when they were in the previous tank which always seem to run around the .03 mark and they were all quite healthy.
Maybe they need a bit dirtier water. Not sure.

Susan Bates · Dec 12, 2015

daveH said:
Po4 is your phosphates.
I'm following this because I have just recently had a couple of my hammers shrink away.
But I'm tending to think it's because the new tank has 0 phosphates, unlike when they were in the previous tank which always seem to run around the .03 mark and they were all quite healthy.
Maybe they need a bit dirtier water. Not sure.

phos is 0.25 on API test kit

hoangii · Dec 12, 2015

Brown jelly disease?? Unknown cause but it just happens. Best is see if u can do a coral dip to help the healthy tissue otherwise worst case scenario is to chop off the receeding area

daveH · Dec 12, 2015

That was the first thing I checked for but there was no disease at all on any of mine, they just slowly receded.

Susan Bates · Dec 12, 2015

daveH said:
That was the first thing I checked for but there was no disease at all on any of mine, they just slowly receded.

that is heart breaking, I have some expensive large hammers, there must be something wrong??

Lesley · Dec 12, 2015

@Susan Bates I hear you. It is heartbreaking. I have mysteriously lost 8 of my red gonis. Still have 2 receding. No explanation , no reason , just dying one after the other. :(. Is that a frogsporn right next to him
? Could they be fighting each other for space with sweeper tentacles ?

ReeferRob · Dec 12, 2015

Wall hammers are tough at best. I run my PO4 around .03-.04 and they seem to be happy there. Wall hammers will go along good for months/years, then all of a sudden, BOOM, brown jelly and the whole colony is wiped out in the period of 72 hours. I've tried cutting out the diseased portion and dipping to no avail. I'm hoping the new dip from Polyp Labs is a cure.

slin1977 · Dec 12, 2015

Tested salinity and alkalinity recently?

daveH · Dec 12, 2015

Salinity 1.025
Alk 9.9

Both really constant.

Mattres · Dec 12, 2015

I recently lost many hammers as well, nothing had changed in the tank for months. Happened slowly over a month of two. Tissue receded up the branches to the tip and then finally the polyps would float off in the current. lost one i had for 4 years, i made the decision to remove all but one orange hammer and somehow the recession has stopped. I think best bet is to remove the infected part from the tank.

Buddy · Dec 12, 2015

Are you running carbon at all? I lost a bunch of LPS over the course of a few months until I put it down to using a particular brand of carbon. The heads of my hammers died off just like in the picture.

Susan Bates · Dec 12, 2015

Buddy said:
Are you running carbon at all? I lost a bunch of LPS over the course of a few months until I put it down to using a particular brand of carbon. The heads of my hammers died off just like in the picture.

yes i am using Aquamaxx rox 0.8 carbon

Susan Bates · Dec 13, 2015

slin1977 said:
Tested salinity and alkalinity recently?

yeah salinity 1.022 and alkalinity 12

Susan Bates · Dec 13, 2015

Lesley said:
@Susan Bates I hear you. It is heartbreaking. I have mysteriously lost 8 of my red gonis. Still have 2 receding. No explanation , no reason , just dying one after the other. :(. Is that a frogsporn right next to him
? Could they be fighting each other for space with sweeper tentacles ?

no it is another hammer

ReeferRob · Dec 13, 2015

Your salinity is low, it needs to be around 1.024-1.026. Raise it VERY slowly.

Susan Bates · Dec 13, 2015

ReeferRob said:
Your salinity is low, it needs to be around 1.024-1.026. Raise it VERY slowly.

yeah I know had it low for blue tang with his spots, just spent all morning trying to clean that pink hair out of sump but it grows faster than i can get red of it,so i make water change a little stronger 1.024

Lesley · Dec 13, 2015

Susan Bates said:
yeah I know had it low for blue tang with his spots, just spent all morning trying to clean that pink hair out of sump but it grows faster than i can get red of it,so i make water change a little stronger 1.024

Best and safest way to raise salinity is to use SW instead of rodi for top up & test daily. It needs to raise slowly. Hope this helps.