Hammer coral not opening and losing tissue...

[Bill S]

What he said. These guys will put up with quite a bit of flow when healthy - but it's easy to tear tissue with flow.

[twychopen]

[QUOTE=bstreep;717460]What corruption said.

Also, torch/hammer/frogspawn and bubble corals seem to "like" an iodine dip when feeling bad. They will sometimes get overrun with pests (usually planaria), and not open. As I recall, 4 or 5 drops of Lugols in a liter of tank water for 10-15 minutes. QUOTE]

The back of the lugols bottle says to add 40 drops of lugols for a gallon...That is double of 5 drops a liter. Which should I do?

Also is it ok to do the zoas and hammers together?

Thanks!

[Bill S]

[QUOTE=twychopen;718230]

What corruption said.

Also, torch/hammer/frogspawn and bubble corals seem to "like" an iodine dip when feeling bad. They will sometimes get overrun with pests (usually planaria), and not open. As I recall, 4 or 5 drops of Lugols in a liter of tank water for 10-15 minutes. QUOTE]

The back of the lugols bottle says to add 40 drops of lugols for a gallon...That is double of 5 drops a liter. Which should I do?

Also is it ok to do the zoas and hammers together?

Thanks!

10 drops per liter should be fine. Be sure and limit the time.

Do not dip corals together, and discard the water between them. Zoas, especially, may put out toxins that could have an adverse effect on whatever goes in after them. Wear gloves when handling zoas.

[twychopen]

Good news: Zoas are doing even better after iodine dip
Bad news: No change with the hammer corals.

I will test my water after lunch and post. I was at aquarium masters yesterday and the guy said that 2.5 months is too short of a time to have lps corals in the tank. Does anyone agree/disagree? Also, I ordered a refractometer from Drsfosterandsmith.com, should be here by the end of the week. I have gotten the salinity up to 1.026ish. Yesterday when I checked the KH and alk and Calcium they were respectively: 8.3 2.97 300ppm. I am wondering if I should begin dosing calcium but want to wait to see if the 5 gallon water change has helped. I have the bulk 2 part system from bulkreefsupply.com

[corruption]

I wouldn't start dosing anything yet -- and I'd agree with Aquarium Masters' assessment -- 2.5 months is a bit too early for LPS... I'm sure many will disagree here, but I'm a firm believer in a healthy fallow period on new tanks, before stocking them with life... let that live rock become REALLY live!

Good to hear on the refractometer, you won't regret it -- its so much quicker/easier/more accurate, you'll begin to wonder why they even sell the swing arms

-Corruption

[stoneroller]

I agree also that it's too young of a tank.

[twychopen]

Well just an update, both the hammers and zoas are opened! I dipped the corals in Lugol's last week and I increased the ph to about 1.0265 and this seems to have been helping. Also, I tested the water and the nitrates are less than 10ppm for the first time. The only negative is that the calcium is still about 320ppm and the magnesium is at about 1100. I am not dosing anything, I am just hoping the water changes will fix it. Thanks for everyone's help, I will keep you updated!

[Mr Cob]

looks good. Glad they opened. Frequent small water changes with a good salt will keep your calcium levels up and stable.

[stoneroller]

And if you do need to dose... check this out first.

http://reef.diesyst.com/flashcalc/flashcalc.html