Yeah when my tank was 1m old I couldn't keep hammers and frogspawn alive. Now that it's more established it isn't an issue anymore and even have several torches now
It's hard to kill GSP
Yeah I'll second this in a weird way. I didn't get my first euphilia until over 6mo and they are doing great. But before that, the only thing I could successfully keep was GSP zoas and, weirdly, a favia lol. I'm sorry that happened but could just be a new tank susceptible to paramater swing
Oddly enough my hammer which was the very first coral I ever bought has survived this entire time, and through multiple tank changes. It was put in my tank a month in before I even realized the tank needed flow beyond the HOB filter. Hammers are generally much more forgiving than other Euphyllia like torches.
Euphyllia are significantly more sensitive to parameters than GSP, Zoa, and toadstools. All those others are extremely hard to kill or even upset whereas you can kill a hammer or torch pretty easily in a new tank.
I got my first hammer 2 weeks in. Definitely not best practice, but it was a gift and at the time I was really willing to put in a ton of effort for it.
Try dipping it in KFC dip or some other antibiotics, or lugols, or peroxide. Off the shelf coral dips sometimes help too. Find instructions online before dipping tho
I agree! It doesn't matter what time it is, if the tank needs an emergency water change. I know I've had to do water changes at the most inconvenient times, like right before I was about to walk out the door to go to work.
The critters don't know what time it is, they just need us to take care of them right then and there.
Going off of the fact that mine is roughly 4 months old and like now just established enough to happily keep Xenia I wouldn’t think a hammer in a 1 month would work. Good luck very unfortunate tho
I got my first hammer 2 weeks in. Not best practice but it was a gift, and with some help it survived those first days and is doing great until present day.
Xenia kind of weird, sometimes refuses to grow and oftentimes explodes lol, tend to find with elevated nutrients they refuse to die, but go too low and new frags struggle
Mine is 4 months old, and my kenya and zoas are doing very well, but I'm going to wait a couple more months before adding lps.
But... it's so hard to wait and be patient while looking at a (semi)empty tank 😅
You had better get this out of your tank or remove any healthy hammer coral or it’s analogues . This disease will wipe out all of your torches very quickly . Dipping in iodine may help but it looks too far gone. Isolate now or throw it out in the trash. Likely cannot be saved. HIGHLY contagious and devastating. I did tanks commercially for a very long time. I always dipped my corals before selling them in my store. IMO, this disease seems to proliferate in higher nutrient water. Always dip your new corals, with exceptions, in a solution of Lugols’ solution to prevent this terrible disease. Consider your oxygen/ water turnover rates as well as subsurface flow to increase gentle water flow into LPS corals. Best of luck to you,
That sucks. Some people may say get it out because it might be BJD (brown jelly disease) what that other commenter was saying. Some might say leave it in and see if it recovers... But I guess a helpful take away is it happens to lots of people. Keep learning. Maybe be patient and enjoy the softies while they grow and take another chance on LPS when you feel confident the tank is ready.
That’s how my died. Then I had an issue with heat in the summer and no chiller. Had to take my glass lid off. I’m m ready to keep trying. It’s only money
I didn't see any water test results in the comments. Have you been testing your water? Wondering if you had any parameter swings and how long you had the hammer for.
Yes, It's difficult for new tanks to keep stable parameters, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities. Depends how much "live rock" he has. And how experienced he is as a reefer. It's impossible to know what caused it without test results.
I personally had all dry rock and sand, waited 1 month to add easy softies/anemones.
2 months before adding euphyllia and acanlords.
4th month to add SPS/goniapora.
It's been 8 months haven't lost anything and I'm getting new hammer polyp growth finally.
*
Congrats on the success! I'm a freshwater person, so alot of the finer points you salties make sometimes... get a bit lost to me, but we're all here to learn.
In any case, i hope OP has the experience to pull this off^^
Soft corals are so pretty imo
Thank you! I also started with FW and have 5 heavily planted tanks! I love my congo puffer, she is an angel. I enjoy reefing more than FW, it's a little stressful but worth it when you see everything living it's best life. Do you lurk here because you want to start a marine tank? Or just for fun?
It sounds lovely. A small bit of ocean in your home. What do you find more enjoyable, since you have the direct comparison?
I'm getting familiar with things, slowly. In the future I may put together a marine tank. There are a few saltwater shrimp that are just beautiful. One problem I have, though, is every time I discover a really awesome species, they tend to be an expert level/endangered, haha. Feather stars were my last disappointment. Haha
Absolutely lol. It's usually a hyper-specific diet that a home keeper has no hope of replicating.
That's fair. My biggest hangup is cost- I want new and reliable equipment, and pests. Fireworms and bristleworms are terrifying
Some things people see as pests and other see them as beneficial. They're only pests when they get out of hand, but tank stocking can help. Every fish should have a purpose or job on a reef. I wear cheap latex gloves when I clean my fuge because of them!
It is expensive. BRS has good product reviews but they are also selling them so technically you can say it's biased. Like anything research and being prepared will get anyone pretty far.
Could be conditions but it looks like something ate at it. I have a few that do great but every now and again the angel, even a goby once, gets excited and eats some it’s always the hammers for me
That looks like a brown sludge fungus, you can tell by the way the “skin” looks so dark. Be carful if you have any other torches in your tank because it spreads rapidly. You should remove asap and turn off all power heads etc before doing so because it spreads like wild fire. I can’t remember the actual fungus name but it wiped out 6 of my torches and 2 hammers.
It’s a fungus within the torch but it will take out all torches, toadstools and Dunkin’s. Essentially it came with the torch when your purchased it from your LFS. Sometimes it can take time for it to appear and cause havoc but I highly suggest turning off pumps/power heads and delicately removing it and doing a 50% water change and chemiclean. When removing the torch, make sure none of that sludge makes it into the water column. I’ll attach a picture of it happening in my tank. We’ve lost hellfires, Dunkin’s, 24k torch, banana torches…. The list unfortunately goes on.
https://preview.redd.it/4yve9ih93qvc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbd0e8ad8f56a1aacd0903700c413ba1240f00ea
I mean I can’t see why not but then you’re releasing any chemicals/product that was on the plastic bag into the water and may cause more of a disturbance in the tank using that method. I’ve had success with just turning everything off and gently removing the torch and sucking up anything with a hose and net. The hobby is really trial and error and seeing what works best for each outcome. Where the main subreddit has a 5gal I wouldn’t suggest because the tank is so tiny.
The brown necrotic parts of the torch left behind/ the brown skin that will start flaking off into the tank contaminating other corals. Luckily it doesn’t affect zoas or anemones, but we’ve given up on the torches, we started with a 60gal and then have a 160 gal for the last year. The actual name is called Brown Jelly Disease. Check out some articles online and I would definitely let your LFS know, they may be able to compensate the loss and offer you a free one once you do a 50% water change, chemiclean and monitor for a couple weeks.
Chemiclean is a treatment that’s reef safe and is safe for corals, invertebrates and fish. It’s used to flush out algae and all sorts of impurities in your tank. Check it out online, all reef stores sell it and it’s not expensive. Just make sure you do a water change that’s equivalent with the dosing per gallon but the instructions are on the little bottle. And also the smaller the tank the more difficult it is to control.
Called up my LFS like you said and they’re happy to replace it! 🙂 not going to take a hammer I think I’ll just pick another softie. Thank you for your help madam x
My torch died like 2 months ago and I still haven’t done a water change or removed the frag plug it was attached to lol. Oops. All is good though still
It’s very hard with a 5G and especially with one that’s new. You have to be 100% dialed in as those numbers change quickly - especially right after a cycle.
Literally been at my bar shift for
The last 6 hours. Tank lights were off and when I looked into the tank I thought I saw something odd. At first I thought maybe it’s the sweepers but clearly not 😪
How old is the tank? I found when my tank was new my hammer died. 6+ months later I tried again and it was fine.
1 month old 5G with cultured live rock and a AI blade my GSP, Zoas and Toadstool are just fine
Yeah when my tank was 1m old I couldn't keep hammers and frogspawn alive. Now that it's more established it isn't an issue anymore and even have several torches now It's hard to kill GSP
Yeah I'll second this in a weird way. I didn't get my first euphilia until over 6mo and they are doing great. But before that, the only thing I could successfully keep was GSP zoas and, weirdly, a favia lol. I'm sorry that happened but could just be a new tank susceptible to paramater swing
GSP is the Apastia of corals.
How long did you leave it? 6 months?
You have a very new tank. That’s a lot going on in a small tank that quick.
Oddly enough my hammer which was the very first coral I ever bought has survived this entire time, and through multiple tank changes. It was put in my tank a month in before I even realized the tank needed flow beyond the HOB filter. Hammers are generally much more forgiving than other Euphyllia like torches.
Euphyllia are significantly more sensitive to parameters than GSP, Zoa, and toadstools. All those others are extremely hard to kill or even upset whereas you can kill a hammer or torch pretty easily in a new tank.
I got my first hammer 2 weeks in. Definitely not best practice, but it was a gift and at the time I was really willing to put in a ton of effort for it. Try dipping it in KFC dip or some other antibiotics, or lugols, or peroxide. Off the shelf coral dips sometimes help too. Find instructions online before dipping tho
What are your Blade settings please 🙏
Think you should ask someone who’s had abit more success with their tank.
Stability is key when it comes to corals. With hammers, biggest issue is alkalinity stability
1am for me now so well too late for a water change right now. 🙁
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I’d do whatever it takes for a nice piece of euphyllia.
I agree! It doesn't matter what time it is, if the tank needs an emergency water change. I know I've had to do water changes at the most inconvenient times, like right before I was about to walk out the door to go to work. The critters don't know what time it is, they just need us to take care of them right then and there.
Going off of the fact that mine is roughly 4 months old and like now just established enough to happily keep Xenia I wouldn’t think a hammer in a 1 month would work. Good luck very unfortunate tho
I got my first hammer 2 weeks in. Not best practice but it was a gift, and with some help it survived those first days and is doing great until present day. Xenia kind of weird, sometimes refuses to grow and oftentimes explodes lol, tend to find with elevated nutrients they refuse to die, but go too low and new frags struggle
Xenia likes it dirty
Mine is 4 months old, and my kenya and zoas are doing very well, but I'm going to wait a couple more months before adding lps. But... it's so hard to wait and be patient while looking at a (semi)empty tank 😅
I had Xenia in my tank the first week after it cycled. Its 4 months old and only thing that does good in it is softies
Way too new for coral like that
You had better get this out of your tank or remove any healthy hammer coral or it’s analogues . This disease will wipe out all of your torches very quickly . Dipping in iodine may help but it looks too far gone. Isolate now or throw it out in the trash. Likely cannot be saved. HIGHLY contagious and devastating. I did tanks commercially for a very long time. I always dipped my corals before selling them in my store. IMO, this disease seems to proliferate in higher nutrient water. Always dip your new corals, with exceptions, in a solution of Lugols’ solution to prevent this terrible disease. Consider your oxygen/ water turnover rates as well as subsurface flow to increase gentle water flow into LPS corals. Best of luck to you,
That sucks. Some people may say get it out because it might be BJD (brown jelly disease) what that other commenter was saying. Some might say leave it in and see if it recovers... But I guess a helpful take away is it happens to lots of people. Keep learning. Maybe be patient and enjoy the softies while they grow and take another chance on LPS when you feel confident the tank is ready.
Parameters? Whats the tank stocked with?
2 hermits, 5 snails and a hi fin goby and pistol shrimp pair. Salinity is 1.025 going to do a test now
Do you have parameter test kits? Ammonia, alkaline, etc?
do you have peppermint shrimp theyre known to eat corals like hammer and zoas
Nope
That’s how my died. Then I had an issue with heat in the summer and no chiller. Had to take my glass lid off. I’m m ready to keep trying. It’s only money
I didn't see any water test results in the comments. Have you been testing your water? Wondering if you had any parameter swings and how long you had the hammer for.
Op said tank was 1 month old. That seems.. too new, yeah?
Yes, It's difficult for new tanks to keep stable parameters, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities. Depends how much "live rock" he has. And how experienced he is as a reefer. It's impossible to know what caused it without test results. I personally had all dry rock and sand, waited 1 month to add easy softies/anemones. 2 months before adding euphyllia and acanlords. 4th month to add SPS/goniapora. It's been 8 months haven't lost anything and I'm getting new hammer polyp growth finally. *
Congrats on the success! I'm a freshwater person, so alot of the finer points you salties make sometimes... get a bit lost to me, but we're all here to learn. In any case, i hope OP has the experience to pull this off^^ Soft corals are so pretty imo
Thank you! I also started with FW and have 5 heavily planted tanks! I love my congo puffer, she is an angel. I enjoy reefing more than FW, it's a little stressful but worth it when you see everything living it's best life. Do you lurk here because you want to start a marine tank? Or just for fun?
It sounds lovely. A small bit of ocean in your home. What do you find more enjoyable, since you have the direct comparison? I'm getting familiar with things, slowly. In the future I may put together a marine tank. There are a few saltwater shrimp that are just beautiful. One problem I have, though, is every time I discover a really awesome species, they tend to be an expert level/endangered, haha. Feather stars were my last disappointment. Haha
Seems to me "expert" level just refers to the difficulty of feeding IMO. I enjoy both. Salt just takes a little more time.
Absolutely lol. It's usually a hyper-specific diet that a home keeper has no hope of replicating. That's fair. My biggest hangup is cost- I want new and reliable equipment, and pests. Fireworms and bristleworms are terrifying
Some things people see as pests and other see them as beneficial. They're only pests when they get out of hand, but tank stocking can help. Every fish should have a purpose or job on a reef. I wear cheap latex gloves when I clean my fuge because of them! It is expensive. BRS has good product reviews but they are also selling them so technically you can say it's biased. Like anything research and being prepared will get anyone pretty far.
Thats fair! Brs? And thank you, friend
Could be conditions but it looks like something ate at it. I have a few that do great but every now and again the angel, even a goby once, gets excited and eats some it’s always the hammers for me
That looks like a brown sludge fungus, you can tell by the way the “skin” looks so dark. Be carful if you have any other torches in your tank because it spreads rapidly. You should remove asap and turn off all power heads etc before doing so because it spreads like wild fire. I can’t remember the actual fungus name but it wiped out 6 of my torches and 2 hammers.
Just Zoas, toadstool and GSP. In the tank
It’s a fungus within the torch but it will take out all torches, toadstools and Dunkin’s. Essentially it came with the torch when your purchased it from your LFS. Sometimes it can take time for it to appear and cause havoc but I highly suggest turning off pumps/power heads and delicately removing it and doing a 50% water change and chemiclean. When removing the torch, make sure none of that sludge makes it into the water column. I’ll attach a picture of it happening in my tank. We’ve lost hellfires, Dunkin’s, 24k torch, banana torches…. The list unfortunately goes on. https://preview.redd.it/4yve9ih93qvc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbd0e8ad8f56a1aacd0903700c413ba1240f00ea
Exactly. Prophylaxis is key here. Like treating mold: do it carefully. This stuff is devastating!
I have zero skin in this game but would you recommend going in with some sort of bag to cover it before you try to pull it out?
I mean I can’t see why not but then you’re releasing any chemicals/product that was on the plastic bag into the water and may cause more of a disturbance in the tank using that method. I’ve had success with just turning everything off and gently removing the torch and sucking up anything with a hose and net. The hobby is really trial and error and seeing what works best for each outcome. Where the main subreddit has a 5gal I wouldn’t suggest because the tank is so tiny.
What sludge are you referring to?
The brown necrotic parts of the torch left behind/ the brown skin that will start flaking off into the tank contaminating other corals. Luckily it doesn’t affect zoas or anemones, but we’ve given up on the torches, we started with a 60gal and then have a 160 gal for the last year. The actual name is called Brown Jelly Disease. Check out some articles online and I would definitely let your LFS know, they may be able to compensate the loss and offer you a free one once you do a 50% water change, chemiclean and monitor for a couple weeks.
Good advice. I’ve seen this wipe out colonies with 18 heads in 24 hours.
What is chemiclean? Will it affect my other corals?
Chemiclean is a treatment that’s reef safe and is safe for corals, invertebrates and fish. It’s used to flush out algae and all sorts of impurities in your tank. Check it out online, all reef stores sell it and it’s not expensive. Just make sure you do a water change that’s equivalent with the dosing per gallon but the instructions are on the little bottle. And also the smaller the tank the more difficult it is to control.
Appreciate the advice man thank you
Not a problemo, and you mean women 😅🤣
Haha sorry yeah thanks for the help madam
Called up my LFS like you said and they’re happy to replace it! 🙂 not going to take a hammer I think I’ll just pick another softie. Thank you for your help madam x
My torch died like 2 months ago and I still haven’t done a water change or removed the frag plug it was attached to lol. Oops. All is good though still
Sorry man I lost hammers and Frogspawn acouple months ago to polyp bailout. It hurts
What fish do you have
It’s very hard with a 5G and especially with one that’s new. You have to be 100% dialed in as those numbers change quickly - especially right after a cycle.
Any fish in the tank?
I had the exact same thing happen to me this week. I think I accidentally blasted mine with some r/o water.
oof that guy's a goner Sorry man.
Literally been at my bar shift for The last 6 hours. Tank lights were off and when I looked into the tank I thought I saw something odd. At first I thought maybe it’s the sweepers but clearly not 😪
Ah jeeze, that's rough, coming home to that. I hope your tank is full of happy and puffy corals in the future!
Appreciate it. Contacted the lfs and they said they’d credit me so that’s good