Help my Hammer

[quicksil328]

So I am sorry for the long post but I need some help. I bought a hammer and torch a couple months ago and at first the hammer seemed fine. In fact one head split into 2 in the first week. However within about 2 weeks I noticed it starting to pull back into its skeleton. I have a 190 gallon display, total volume of about 265 gal. I have an ATI 6x80 watt sun power fixture with 4 blue plus, 1 Coral plus, and 1 purple plus bulb about 6 inches from the water and about 28-30 inches from the sand bed. I have 2 brs gfo reactors running along with a remote fuge with chaeto also. I had the hammer a little lower than the middle of the tank then moved down thinking it might be retracting because of too much light. My Parameters and a picture follow. Any help would be appreciated.
Salinity-1.025
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0
Ph-7.8-8
Dkh-10
Calcium 420
Mag-1600
Phosphate 0

 

[LetItReef]

My hammer not doing well since I upgraded my lights. Im still trying to find his spot.

 

[Jason mack]

So I am sorry for the long post but I need some help. I bought a hammer and torch a couple months ago and at first the hammer seemed fine. In fact one head split into 2 in the first week. However within about 2 weeks I noticed it starting to pull back into its skeleton. I have a 190 gallon display, total volume of about 265 gal. I have an ATI 6x80 watt sun power fixture with 4 blue plus, 1 Coral plus, and 1 purple plus bulb about 6 inches from the water and about 28-30 inches from the sand bed. I have 2 brs gfo reactors running along with a remote fuge with chaeto also. I had the hammer a little lower than the middle of the tank then moved down thinking it might be retracting because of too much light. My Parameters and a picture follow. Any help would be appreciated.
Salinity-1.025
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0
Ph-7.8-8
Dkh-10
Calcium 420
Mag-1600
Phosphate 0

I see your nitrate is at 0 could that be it maybe ..and also your alc seems a little high too .. is this a new tank ...

 

[quicksil328]

No, the tank is 3 years old. My alk and calcium and ph all were a little low so I started dripping kalkwasser. Alk was at 7, ph at 7.8, calcium was at 380, and mag was at 1350. U said my nitrates may be a problem? How so?

 

[Jason mack]

Low nutrients or 0 nutrients in your system .. would be my guess but then I'm no expert .. maybe get #reefsquad in on this

 

[Diesel]

If we measure 0.0 on nutrients we talking undetectable nutrients.
We also talking here starving your corals.
Do you have any rectors running?
How often you feed the fish and what do you feed them?

 

[quicksil328]

So....do you think I should spot feed the hammer. Or just over feed my fish a bit to get a little nitrate build up? I don't post that often since I just started trying my hand at Coral, How do I go about asking reefsquad?

 

[quicksil328]

Diesel, I have 2 brs gfo reactors running with 4 cups (based on the calculator on their site) for my volume. I thought the gfo would only remove the phosphate in the water though? As far as feeding I feed once or twice daily. I feed the spectrum pellets (think that's the name). I also feed PE mysis a few times a week. I only have 6 fish. 1 unicorn tang, 1 yellow tang, 1 big eyed squirrel, 1 flame angel, and 2 clowns. I started the tank as a fowlr but decided to try to try some Coral. I have 2 maxspect gyre 150s on opposite sides of my tank for flow but I have the hammer positioned so it isn't getting hit hard at all.

 

[Diesel]

I'm afraid you stripping the water from your nutrients with the 4 cups of GFO.
Try to reduce that slowly.
Also some tangs can get after some corals as well and I don't know much about a Unicorn tang but will tag our tang #expert in here @4FordFamily

 

[quicksil328]

Ok. I can take one of the reactors offline in the morning. I have never noticed either tang go after it but I will keep an eye out for that as well.

 

[Diesel]

Another thing with Euphylia corals is that they can develop brown jelly disease
It's very contagious to Euphylia corals only.
You can dip in Lugols or iodine.
I have seen ppl dosing once a month some lugols in there tank for prevention.
Google or take a close look tomorrow when light on if you can spot some of the brown slime.

 

[Jason mack]

I would also suggest lowering your alc too around 8.0 -8.2 and maybe increase your salinity too 1.026 or 35 ppm ..

 

[AntarcticIkeelu]

If it were my tank I would try to raise that ph significantly over the next two weeks to 8.3, I keep my tank at 11 dkh and 8.3 ph and my hammer loves it. Your nitrates also do need to come up a bit to about 5-10ppm as lps tend to need some. Also did you test that ph when your lights were on or off?

 

[quicksil328]

Antarcticlkeelu....I have been testing both with lights on and off. Seems steady at 7.8-8. My tank is in my finished basement. (My house is old and I was worried about the weight) I think I am having an issue with co2 preventing my ph from rising. I have a fan blowing but opening the windows right now isn't much of an option because of the cold Temps here in pa.

 

[AntarcticIkeelu]

You said the tank was a 190 gal so what type of sump do you have, how big and if you could send pics that would be great.

 

[quicksil328]

I have a 75 gallon sump with asm g4 skimmer and a mag 18 return. I also have a mag 12 pumping up to a 40 breeder where I keep my chaeto. I can take some pics in the morning. And diesel, I will look and check for the brown jelly disease. Thanks for the help thus far everyone.

 

[4FordFamily]

I'm afraid you stripping the water from your nutrients with the 4 cups of GFO.
Try to reduce that slowly.
Also some tangs can get after some corals as well and I don't know much about a Unicorn tang but will tag our tang #expert in here @4FordFamily

Yeah tangs can go after coral, but usually it's relentless and you see it frequently once they decide it's on the "menu". It often begins because they're picking algae or something out of the areas around the coral and they on rare occasions can acquire a taste for said coral. Watch their behavior!

 

[quicksil328]

So far my observations have been that the tangs could care less. So I'm guessing it's more so that there aren't enough nutrients in the water. Although, I have to say, everything that I have read suggests that euphylia mainly need a good light source. So now the question is what's the best way to up my nitrates a bit. Do I just overfeed for awhile?

 

[Jason mack]

So far my observations have been that the tangs could care less. So I'm guessing it's more so that there aren't enough nutrients in the water. Although, I have to say, everything that I have read suggests that euphylia mainly need a good light source. So now the question is what's the best way to up my nitrates a bit. Do I just overfeed for awhile?

You can also turn your skimmer of for a couple of days then on for a day then off couple of days ..

 

[quicksil328]

Any ideas on bringing the ph up since the tank is in my basement?