My hammers are closed i dont know whats happened

JMS98

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I have had a gold hammer on my 75 gallon tank for a month it closed up after a week in the tank. I thought that it might be a individual case so I bought a purple hammer and it stared to close (not fully yet) I can't figure out what happens to it

My par is 120-130
Salinity 1.024
Temp78.6
Nitrate 9.6ppm
Nitrite 0.01ppm
Phosphate 0.05ppm
Ph 8.1
Alkalinity 9.17 dkh
Calcium 474ppm
Mag1368

Gear used to test were hanna checkers for Nitrate, Nitrite, Phosphate, ph, and alk
Also have a trident to test alk, mag, and Calcium. And probes to test ph and temp apogee parmeater for par testing refractometor for Salinity

Fish/clean up crew
Yellow tang
2 clownfish
Royal gramma
Aptesia eating file fish
Leopard wrasse
Yellow head goby
Barbershop goby
3 lyretail anthias
Starry bleny
Snowflake eel
2 urchins
Snails

I would appreciate the help
 

Rjukan

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Can you double check the salinity to another meter? Or calibrate your current one? Just wondering if it could be even lower than .024
I've found my checker reading high .003 recently is the reason I'm mentioning this
 

Doctorgori

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Please pardon the blue photo and full image shots, I can’t readily adjust these Red Sea lights to white
Anyway, notice the skeleton in the first picture. That was a 100% alive torch yesterday, today it’s gone. Usually deaths this fast are BJD and this tank and it has easily over 1K in euphillias ….Im gonna pray, act fast and post over in the emergency section

image.jpg

In this next photo you will see a hammer towards the bottom. It is not fully extended and has been this way for months… Actually this is the fullest extension is weeks. Sometimes euphillias simply aren’t happy or they are recovering or I don’t know…In any case, so long as they have not receded deep into the skeleton, the prognosis is decent. Again, full extension could take months.




image.jpg


an finally if you look directly above and behind the green Lobo (or trachy or whatever) you will see another hammer. This one has been this way from the get go…My only advise when they are retracted is to actually lower the flow and look to see if the trend is for it to extend less and less and/or you get a deep retraction at night…Usually this equals a slow decline


image.jpg
 
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JMS98

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Can you double check the salinity to another meter? Or calibrate your current one? Just wondering if it could be even lower than .024
I've found my checker reading high .003 recently is the reason I'm mentioning this
I calibrate with rodi water before every use I don't have any other way to check in the moment but I'll do that
 
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JMS98

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Please pardon the blue photo and full image shots, I can’t readily adjust these Red Sea lights to white
Anyway, notice the skeleton in the first picture. That was a 100% alive torch yesterday, today it’s gone. Usually deaths this fast are BJD and this tank and it has easily over 1K in euphillias ….Im gonna pray, act fast and post over in the emergency section

image.jpg

In this next photo you will see a hammer towards the bottom. It is not fully extended and has been this way for months… Actually this is the fullest extension is weeks. Sometimes euphillias simply aren’t happy or they are recovering or I don’t know…In any case, so long as they have not receded deep into the skeleton, the prognosis is decent. Again, full extension could take months.




image.jpg


an finally if you look directly above and behind the green Lobo (or trachy or whatever) you will see another hammer. This one has been this way from the get go…My only advise when they are retracted is to actually lower the flow and look to see if the trend is for it to extend less and less and/or you get a deep retraction at night…Usually this equals a slow decline


image.jpg
I already turned off my gyre and it came out a little but and it dosent seem to be that strong of a current but I'll lower the percentage on the other 2 normal wavemaker
 

Doctorgori

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I already turned off my gyre and it came out a little but and it dosent seem to be that strong of a current but I'll lower the percentage on the other 2 normal wavemaker
I know they can take medium flow, but IME they really really really like to sway back n forth in low flow. Torches can take a lil more but not really …
Here are some shots before BDJ or whatever it is kills all my LPS (I got issues also)
The flow is waaaaaay down
 

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Rjukan

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I calibrate with rodi water before every use I don't have any other way to check in the moment but I'll do that
Yeah I used to do the same but it was out like .005 the other way lol.. I've heard it's not good to use RO to calibrate them for some reason.
 

AquaLogic

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Water change, lower flow, raise your mag a little. That has always worked for me with hammers. They seem to appreciate higher mag. Also, get a calibration fluid.
 
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JMS98

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Here are some photos of the hammer corals affected
 

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Doctorgori

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I don’t see any skeleton showing so IME those are far from terminal …
I don’t want to sound overly optimistic but I’d bet if you try some of the suggestions the will turn slowly for the better…
About the only thing hammers do fast is die…
For whatever reason they can take a while to respond if initially unhappy
 
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JMS98

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I don’t see any skeleton showing so IME those are far from terminal …
I don’t want to sound overly optimistic but I’d bet if you try some of the suggestions the will turn slowly for the better…
About the only thing hammers do fast is die…
For whatever reason they can take a while to respond if initially unhappy
Thank you for the response appreciate the help
 

AquaLogic

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Thanks will do. How much is you mag
Mag is (from what I understand from the experts around here) notoriously hard to get accurate tests for, but the last time I used my Redsea mag test about a week ago I was at about 1600 which is on the high side. I wouldn't aim for that, especially because there is no guarantee that it's totally accurate. That said, as long as a mag test is consistent it can still be very useful because you can measure how much you are raising or lowering, which is what's important in this case.

With your mag testing at 1368 I would aim to raise to 1400 testing with the same kit. Then I would give it a day or so and see if the hammer responds. Then raise accordingly from there. Very high mag is said to have a negative impact on snails, clams and some other creatures so I would avoid raising it above 1500 at the top end probably. My educated guess is that if the hammer is feeling mag limited you will see results between 1400-1450.

Hammers can be really, really picky. They like gentle flow so that they are gently moving around in the current, and they don't tend to like super bright light unless slowly acclimated to it. I would make sure that flow and light are right, and move them if you have to. For me, getting flow and light right was important, and then raising MAG was what made mine really thrive.

From your photos, your hammers don't look like they are dying to me. They look a bit unhappy. I would prioritize making sure they have gentle-ish flow and medium/medium low light and getting mag to 1400 for a start, and then see how they are doing. Good luck!
 

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