Green tip hammer coral shrink

[assafelbaz]

Hi.

I have a hammer coral in my tank for about 4 months now. This is my nano tank (10 gallons). It was doing great, expending and eating (when directly feeding), until last week.

Last week i noticed that it got shrink like it's a night time and it stays like this no matter what. I checked the water levels and everything is normal.

PH - 8.2, Nitrate,Nitrite and Ammonia - 0ppm, Salinity - 1.025.

I have sump with Chaeto algae, in my filter i have activated carbon and phosphate media.

See the image of how it looks now...

 

[Kelz88]

Hmm do you have clowns in there? Or any fish that was hanging out by him?

I just ask because sometimes my clowns physically abuse my hammer.

 

[FishyReef]

I've experienced similar shrinking with a frogspawn and can't figure out why. Do you have anything nearby that could be stinging it?

 

[assafelbaz]

I have a clown fish, but he is not harming anything... I didn't see him nearby the hammer. And i don't have any other corals in my tank.

 

[FishyReef]

Does your clown spend any time near the coral? My clowns have been going up to a bubble coral and getting close to peer at it and just that behavior has led my coral to totally shrink up. I wonder if your clown is paying any sort of attention to your hammer - if so, that is probably what's causing it to close.

 

[assafelbaz]

I don't see any attraction between the two... he doesn't seem interested in the coral at all. He swims around, but not near the coral.

 

[Kelz88]

Hmmm not too sure, do you test alk and cal? Temp too?

 

[assafelbaz]

Temp. yes, Alk & Cal no.
Temp is 78.5 right now...

 

[Kelz88]

Can your lfs check it for you?

 

[assafelbaz]

They said they can't... I don't know why.
But they surely told me to buy Essential Elements bottle.

It looks good, it has a lot of supplement for the corals. Should i buy it and try?

Kent Marine Essential Elements | Products

 

[Bifferwine]

Are you doing regular water changes? If so, then no, don't buy it. The salt mix has all that stuff already in it. :) Essential Elements won't help whatever is bugging your coral.

 

[assafelbaz]

OK, thanks.

So, that's what not to do, what can i "DO"? I am doing water changes once in a week (10%), all readings are 100% good (Calcium & Alkaline haven't been checked).

PLEASE HELP MY CORAL!

 

[FishyReef]

What kind of lighting do you have?

Also, has anything changed in the tank - slight adjustment to a powerhead, slight temp increase, etc? And what kind of flow is it getting in its current spot? Has it always been in that spot since you added it 4mo ago?

 

[assafelbaz]

I have LED fixture of 18 LEDs (15 White 10,000K and 3 Blue). This light has been setup before the coral was in the tank.

I really didn't change anything in the tank, not the flow, position of coral, or anything else. Except one thing that been added about 1-2 months ago. It is the Phosphate media that been added to the filter because i had a red slime problem...

I removed yesterday both, the Phosphate media and the Activated Carbon, from the filter to see if it has any connection.

 

[FishyReef]

What brand is the LED fixture (or if you could provide a link to that particular fixture that would be great!)

Also, is your 75 set up in such a way that it could do coral (in terms of light and reef safe occupants)? If so, perhaps you should move it to your 75 and see if it improves?

 

[assafelbaz]

I read that high temp changes also can cause that, maybe i had it in my tank when it was very hot here in NY. But i am not sure since my AC is on while i am home and i didn't see any high temp when i checked...

Let's say that this is the case, can he recover from it?

 

[assafelbaz]

The fixture is from eBay, and i don't remember the brand. I just know that it was a good deal and it is a clone of Marineland Reef Capable fixture... :(

Anyway, he did great up to now... 4 months with no problem. I even thought it will grow, because he has been opened wider and wider...

 

[FishyReef]

Well, a swing in temp can cause problems for some corals - if it was used to being at, say 80, and suddenly the tank is now at, say 76, I would think that type of change could impact it. Obviously a difference in the other direction could impact it as well. But if its only a degree one way or the other, it probably wont impact it hugely. Frogspawns are pretty hearty though and from the picture it just looks closed, not receeding to me. That's why I was asking about lights and flow - I've found with my frogspawn and other euphyllia corals that even a slight change to a powerhead (for example if I knock it when doing maintenance or slightly adjust it a little), my corals will close. Speaking of flow, what kind of flow do you have in your 10g?

As far as the fixture goes, do you know if they were .5 watt, 1 watt, or 3 watt LEDs?

Oh, and one more question - do you see any sort of bugs crawling on it (they might be really tiny) or anything near it that looks like cobwebs?

 

[FishyReef]

And am I right that this is in your 10g tank? Or is it in your 75g?

 

[assafelbaz]

My circulation pump is a small one 500GPH (Aqueon Circulation Aquarium Pumps at PETCO)

And i have also the powerhead with my sump, it gives about 60GPH of water.

About the lights i found my make and model - BeamsWork 18" 1W 1300.