Branching Hammer concerns

[Jnickles85]

I have a 24g tank. My salt level runs around .026. The temperature right now in the tank is 80 degrees F. My concern is I have had this Hammer for about four months now and he really hasn't changed. I have the Kessil A150W LED pendant over the tank. I have the Hammer placed in the sand bed more to the left of the center of the tank. Right now there are a couple of heads that have one or two tentacles that are starting to turn transparent. I really have not spot fed them any food although I do have some brine shrimp that I can if someone thinks I need to. I have one picture right now to post but if anyone thinks they can help with more pics just let me know. I am starting to wonder if I need to move the Hammer higher up in the tank. Oh yeah my main water return is a MJ 1200 I have three circulation pumps that are rated at 425g. I have two on one side and of course the third on the other. My skimmer is the aqua c remora with a MJ 1200.

First picture is the Hammer right now. Sorry so blue.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e242/jermthe1/HammerCorral.jpg (http://s40.photobucket.com/user/jermthe1/media/HammerCorral.jpg.html)

This is the Hammer when I first got him.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e242/jermthe1/Fluval%20M60/2014-07-31161707.jpg (http://s40.photobucket.com/user/jermthe1/media/Fluval%20M60/2014-07-31161707.jpg.html)

[ReefCowboy]

Looks bleached....i would place it at a corner and observe is the colors come back over a bit of time. Good thing is branching hammers are tougher than the wall ones. My branching piece has been through tons of issues, and the wall pieces, a tiny but of change, you fimd a corner start to recede...and then it spirals down from there

[Jnickles85]

Thanks for the quick reply, Moving him right away!


Also just a few minutes ago I tried lightly spraying brine shrimp in to the hammers and they did not even budge.

[Jnickles85]

Looks bleached....i would place it at a corner and observe is the colors come back over a bit of time. Good thing is branching hammers are tougher than the wall ones. My branching piece has been through tons of issues, and the wall pieces, a tiny but of change, you fimd a corner start to recede...and then it spirals down from there

I moved him to the corner of the tank, I also turned my pendant a little more towards the other side of the tank just to make sure my acan stays happy. Now when you mention that he looks bleached, and to move him away from the light, is he getting to much light ? should I try raising my pendant higher from the water ?

[Jnickles85]

Bump

[saltwater_pappy]

I had a bleaching problem years ago when just starting out with branching hammers. I was advised to lower my temp to 76 or 77 degrees. It seems if the temp is too high the symbiotic algae can leave the coral, starving it to death. I also started adding a regular dose of iodine and feeding them a couple times a week with phytoplankton. They returned to normal and grew so well I have probably sold $1000 worth in the last 5 years. Good luck.

[Jnickles85]

I had a bleaching problem years ago when just starting out with branching hammers. I was advised to lower my temp to 76 or 77 degrees. It seems if the temp is too high the symbiotic algae can leave the coral, starving it to death. I also started adding a regular dose of iodine and feeding them a couple times a week with phytoplankton. They returned to normal and grew so well I have probably sold $1000 worth in the last 5 years. Good luck.
Wow that's some serious growth for sure! Thanks for replying with your info. I have actually had some temp problems. Its really hard to keep my tank below 80F. Today I read over the manufacturing details of the Kessil light. They actually recommend leaving the light one to two feet above the water. I moved the light to one foot above the water surface. I am hoping this helps with my temperature issue.

[Jnickles85]

After raising my light to the 12 inch mark above my water line my tank temp dropped from a usual 80F to 76F. I am hoping to see some improved health from my tank over all. I will throw a picture up tonight hopefully of the full tank.

[MondoBongo]

for what it's worth i have never seen a very pronounced feeding response from my hammer either (Euphyllia paraancora) nor from either of my torch corals (Euphyllia glabrescens). the only one i did have that ever really responded for me was a frogspawn (Euphyllia divisa).

what do your alk and cal numbers look like? all of my Euphyllia grow best with rock solid alk/cal (as you would imagine being scleractinians).

the higher temperature is interesting, i usually run my tank round about 77.8 degrees. a usual culprit in bleaching though can also be too much, or not the right kind of, light. my hammer is actually in a fairly shady spot, and thus far has seemed quite happy there. LEDs can be fairly intense.

[Jnickles85]

for what it's worth i have never seen a very pronounced feeding response from my hammer either (Euphyllia paraancora) nor from either of my torch corals (Euphyllia glabrescens). the only one i did have that ever really responded for me was a frogspawn (Euphyllia divisa).

what do your alk and cal numbers look like? all of my Euphyllia grow best with rock solid alk/cal (as you would imagine being scleractinians).

the higher temperature is interesting, i usually run my tank round about 77.8 degrees. a usual culprit in bleaching though can also be too much, or not the right kind of, light. my hammer is actually in a fairly shady spot, and thus far has seemed quite happy there. LEDs can be fairly intense.
Sorry I'm responding to this so late, I never got the notification that you responded. My hammer has gotten a little more color to him but I really still feel nervous about him. I think I am going to have to move him to a corner of my tank. What are your thoughts on that? Should I move him? I really do not want to down grade my light but I do have a less intense and less blue fluval LED fixture. http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/12/31/da2244153ecd0bddf26a5187d682e31a.jpg

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/12/31/60afd3e075bb097c150c51827469c175.jpg

[Jnickles85]

And as for your question on all and cal numbers I really don't have those. I haven't been keeping track because I only have the two corals.
The reason he makes me nervous is because he just seems droopy if that's how you spell it. There's one head that's petty much shriveled up and at times there can be one head that's half inflated and half shriveled.

[Tweaked]

Clowns! They may be bothering the coral for sure. It does look better though, and in a tank that size, testing alk and ca is not needed if you are doing regular water changes IMO.

[mcfa2403]

If the clowns go into it they surely are bothering it. I currently have hammers in my tank as close as 12 inches from a kessil A350W (100% on blues, ~30% on whites) and they show no difference in coloration than those much further away. However, as said before LED's are intense and if the hammer wasn't under LED's before then it could have killed off the zooaxenthellae and it may take sometime for it to regain color.

In a tank that size with that few corals regular, consistent water changes should make testing less necessary in my experience. However, this only holds true if you are using RO/DI water and a high quality salt (for consistency from batch to batch) and dosing the salt (even quality salts like aquavitro salinity and tropic marin tend to run around 340 on calc, 7 on alk, and 1140 on mag which is much lower than what most reef tanks are run at). Also remember that nitrates and phosphates are much harder to control in smaller tanks and should be regularly tested to make sure water changes are keeping them in check.

Consistency with these corals is the real key to success. Branching hammers tend to very hardy and adaptive but tend to respond negatively to constant water parameter changes (light intensity, temperature for sure, calcium and alkalinity swings, ph swings -good reason to dose magnesium-, as well as other things that in the ocean would be held constant).

[Jnickles85]

If the clowns go into it they surely are bothering it. I currently have hammers in my tank as close as 12 inches from a kessil A350W (100% on blues, ~30% on whites) and they show no difference in coloration than those much further away. However, as said before LED's are intense and if the hammer wasn't under LED's before then it could have killed off the zooaxenthellae and it may take sometime for it to regain color.

In a tank that size with that few corals regular, consistent water changes should make testing less necessary in my experience. However, this only holds true if you are using RO/DI water and a high quality salt (for consistency from batch to batch) and dosing the salt (even quality salts like aquavitro salinity and tropic marin tend to run around 340 on calc, 7 on alk, and 1140 on mag which is much lower than what most reef tanks are run at). Also remember that nitrates and phosphates are much harder to control in smaller tanks and should be regularly tested to make sure water changes are keeping them in check.

Consistency with these corals is the real key to success. Branching hammers tend to very hardy and adaptive but tend to respond negatively to constant water parameter changes (light intensity, temperature for sure, calcium and alkalinity swings, ph swings -good reason to dose magnesium-, as well as other things that in the ocean would be held constant).
Thanks for the info. I have moved him more over to the right side. I really haven't seen the clowns mess with the hammer at all. I have been using RO/DI bought from a local fish store. My biggest battle on trying to keep things consistent is my salinity. Being a small tank and the amount of evaporation that happens I have to stay on top of adding more RODI water when needed.

[Jnickles85]

New placement.