Hammer Loosing Heads

[Jgranados]

Hi everyone,

This is my very first post on reef central so hopefully im doing this right. I have this wall hammer thats loosing polyps day by day. I recently started the triton method and since i started this coral hasnt been doing to good. Im not sure if its related to the triton method or not but its the only thing i can think of thats changed. It started about 5 days ago. I fed the coral 6 days ago and noticed it closed up to take some of the food in i guess but other than that no other changes.

I read online that others starting the triton method have had crazy alk swings which i havent. I Just checked my ALK and its sitting at 7.8. In the past 5 days my all has stayed between 8.4 ans 7.8. Im dosing smaller amounts to get my alk around 7 so its been comigg down from 8.4. Is there anything else that would cause this?

Any help is appreciated.

https://ibb.co/bHUioH

[AlSimmons]

If you haven't already you might want to look into "Polyp Bailout."

[Sk8r]

Alk 8.3/ magnesium 1350/ calcium 420 for hammer, are good params. Check all 3.

[nereefpat]

I would not let your alk fall to 7.0 dKH. Your previous value of 8.4 is much better/safer.

Wall hammers are difficult, unfortunately. How long have you had it?

[jgal912]

Try less flow if its in a turbulent area

[Jgranados]

Well unfortunately all the polyps bailed. Ive been keeping ALK at a steady 8. I even had a triton test done. Heres what i got. I just finished doing the water changes they suggested to lower the elements that were high.

https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/56202/

The weird thing about ALK is my Red Sea Alk test comes back to 7-7.5 but my hanna check is saying 8.1. Which one ahould i believe? Ive done the test 5 times with same results on both.

[180+55reef]

ALK is too low