Green hammer dead?

[Amber]

I have been reefing for some time and had this green branch hammer for about 3 months fine, but the recently I barely changed the flow for some new coral and like a typical coral my hammer shrunk. I did’t think much of it until I started to see some skeleton of a head a few days later, so I changed the flow back and turned it down, but the hammer did not get better, it started with one end of a head to 3 heads detaching. So I moved my hammer up on a frag stand and with not much flow and now the other heads are fine. I have the other detached heads alive and somewhat well in a container in my tank. Any help on what to do with the heads and what caused them to detach/ what to do next time if this happens. Thanks

 

[wellrn2002]

Check Alk and Ca. If your alk is to high this can happen. Your tank looks clean. It appears that your t could be an alk. Mishap. I did this once and correcting it is important, but slow corrections.

 

[Saltienewb]

They will bailout for numerous reasons. High flow will do it. I had one bailout due to heavy shading from a torch over it.

Honestly the other heads don’t look great. No flesh band and they are retracted into the skeleton. How long have they been on the frag rack? I would start with having them in a low flow area but check your alk/CA/Mg. Mine do fine with higher nutrients so maybe too low phos/nitrates?

The good news is I had a newer hammer that retracted like this but moving to a lower flow area it recovered over a few weeks

 

[Amber]

Check Alk and Ca. If your alk is to high this can happen. Your tank looks clean. It appears that your t could be an alk. Mishap. I did this once and correcting it is important, but slow corrections.

Hm my ALK is fine and I have 400ppm on calc but i am dosing for it so idk if thats the problem.

 

[Amber]

They will bailout for numerous reasons. High flow will do it. I had one bailout due to heavy shading from a torch over it.

Honestly the other heads don’t look great. No flesh band and they are retracted into the skeleton. How long have they been on the frag rack? I would start with having them in a low flow area but check your alk/CA/Mg. Mine do fine with higher nutrients so maybe too low phos/nitrates?

The good news is I had a newer hammer that retracted like this but moving to a lower flow area it recovered over a few weeks

The head is shrunk in because it was night but in the day they are more out but i guess flow did do it because all my levels are fine. Also it has been of the frag rack for a few months and i was about to detach it but then it started to detach, and would you know what to do with the other heads that detached?

 

[Saltienewb]

I usually just cut off the bailed head skeleton.

The reason is ask about the rack, is that the rack has zero algae or detritus. I don’t usually keep one in all the time but I have the same rack and after a month it has all sorts of stuff on it. Algae/detrtitus/coraline/asterina starfish. Maybe your nutrients are very low. My hammers hate that

 

[Amber]

I usually just cut off the bailed head skeleton.

The reason is ask about the rack, is that the rack has zero algae or detritus. I don’t usually keep one in all the time but I have the same rack and after a month it has all sorts of stuff on it. Algae/detrtitus/coraline/asterina starfish. Maybe your nutrients are very low. My hammers hate that

Hm well i don't test my nutrients only my paramters but i do have kinda high nitrates so idk i will test and see if that is the problem thank special.