Wall Hammer Help

Ok so this might not be real urgent as its been going on for a couple weeks, but I am really concerned about my wall hammer. I purchased it almost 2 months ago from a lfs who is known to get most of their stuff from the wild and not captive grown. It was so big and clunky I accidentally fragged it when trying to place it and dipped it in an iodine solution to prevent infection. Took a couple weeks but it eventually opened up fully and looked amazing again. Would close at night and open in the morning every day for the next month or so.

Fast forward to today, its been a couple of weeks and it does not seem happy. It no longer opens all the way and it seems to open very unevenly. I have observed it very closely for signs of trouble and it seems to have some tissue recession going on, mainly on the area where it looks like it was originally fragged off of a mother colony. I do not see any parasites or anything crawling on or eating the tissue. The polyps themselves look very healthy and plump, they just dont expand all the way out. I have also seen a couple brown strands every now and them string off and get sucked into the current and filtration. Nothing huge, looks like a poop almost, and does not cover the coral and is only once in awhile so Im hoping/thinking its not brown jelly.

Parameters have been fairly stable over the past few months and are as follows
SG 1.025-1.026 (refractometer)
pH 7.8-8.0 (API)
kH 8-10 (API and RedSea)
CA 390-420 (RedSea)
Mag 1540-1600 (RedSea)
Nitrates 0 (API and RedSea)
Phos .03- .13 (Hanna Checker)
Coral is only under a dual bulb T5HO unit with API bulbs and the flow is fairly moderate. No other corals are showing any signs of problems including a wall frogspawn, 2 branching frogspawns, and a branching hammer. Closest coral is the frogspawn about 6-8inches away. No signs of fish picking on the coral

Of course pictures to help, 1st is a month or so ago fully opened followed by a few closeups from this morning minutes after lights went out. This is not how the corals looks all day, jsut at night and when lights first go on, but it gives you the best look at the skeleton. Last picture is a couple hours after the lights were on, still not fully opened but you can see how it opens very unevenly and keeps the polyps sucked in by the area of tissue recession.

 

I am afraid to do much as I do not want to stress the coral further and cause it to die, but am afraid doing nothing will also just lead to a slow death.

What do you guys think?

 

my purple hammer reacts to pH changes when they happen.

API pH test kit isn't really a test IMO. Its color scale mine as well just be multiple choice. I'd advise getting a better pH test (like a pH pen they sell at pool stores).

Probably not the issue, but something to look at.

My primary guess here would be too much flow.

 

So would moving it to a low flow area help the tissue regrow? I have been tempted to move it but am afraid of stressing it an tipping it over the edge. The flow is no stronger on it than on my other frogspawns and they have shown to problems.

 

coral preference can vary specimen to specimen. these aren't technical specs but life forms; you know what I mean?

could be it was used to something else at the LFS, in the wild, whatever and it's different now.

It may, eventually, acclimate to its current flow. Maybe not.

You don't necessarily have to move it. You could adjust a PH (powerhead) or move something else to redirect flow...

Moving it will help the tissue regrow IF that ist he problem... sometimes it is just trial and error. It may be your pH or some other param this individual doesn't like...

 

I hope its not pH because I can not keep a stable pH above 8.0 for some reason. Ive tried playing with the powerheas but then it screws up flow in other areas of the tank lol. I have lps and sps all over and placed most of them in their areas because of how the flow was so messing with that might make everyone else ticked off.

Good point about each specimen being different between even same species, hadnt really though about that

 

man, i keep a sps/lps mix too. you are absolutely right. it is an incredible challenge to get the flow "just so" in that type tank. I totally understand.

one thing I did to help was use an air pump to "see" the flow.

 

Nice Idea!!!! I always jsut hoped and watched the corals closely for movement to guess the flow. I might have to use that tip

 

I would get it out of the sand and wedge it into the rock work. I had wall hammer for years and found lower flow worked best.
Also how old are you bulbs? you could be loosing PAR

 

Bulbs are 3-4months old. I do agree maybe lower flow would be best but why rockwork over sandbed?

What do you guys think from the pictures? Is it bad? Should I dip it or jsut move it? Any chance it will make a good recovery it is it gong to eventually waste away?