I have a torch coral that was doing well and growing nicely. I added a hammer coral right next to it a week and a half ago. Now the hammer is thriving, but the torch is suffering. I moved it away. I was under the impresion that these corals would not fight. Could it be that the hammer is dominant in this case? They were positioned pretty close to each other , and a few tentacles touched as they swayed in the current.
-
Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.
hammer killing torch.
- Thread starter David
- Start date
my understanding both hammers and torches will sting other corals near by. I personally have no experience but that it my understanding.
It seems to be common knowledge, that torches, hammer & frogspawn are similar spiecies, and are immune to each other's sting. I was aware that they will sting all other coral species. I'm not questioning wheather or not they sting other corals or not. I already know they do. My question is specifically about the hammer and the torch compatibility.
You are correct that they should be fine near each other. I only have a frogspawn so I have not done too much research on touches and hammers yet but I knew they do sting so I just assumed to keep a space between them.
I found this and the last two comments seem like it would be the other way around (that your hammer should had the issues) - Is it possible to keep Frogspawn, Hammer, and torch together?? - Reef Central Online Community Now I am even more interested in this topic
hopefully he shows improvement
I might have had it in a bit too much flow on it. I have redirected my return pipe, from the sump, that also serves as my power head. The flow around the torch is nice and soft now. It's been moved away from the hammer now. The lighting should be ok. This was my fastest growing coral 2 weeks ago in the same light level. Since the tentacles grew longer, maybe the flow became to much. If it looks worse tomorrow, maybe I'll try a dip.
Torch is improving. I don't think it was the hammer that was causing the problem. It was just too much flow. Now My blasto and lobo don't look too happy. My nitrates have been between 10 & 20 mg/l for the last few weeks. I have been doing a lot of water changes to try to keep them down. My skimmer wasn't doing its job for a while, but I think I got it working again. Do you think that level of nitrates is hurting the corals? Or maybe they don't like all the water changes? I match temp and salinity when I do the changes.
I don't think 10-20 nitrates will aggravate lps, i know sps tanks that have more than double that in nitrates doing just fine. If it swung up quickly though, might have something to do with it. I would slow down with the water changes, keep feeding the tank and see if they improve, also check your alk and calc for swings as well. They can handle a dirty tank, i think they actually prefer it, but too much variation might upset them.
Unfortunate I am still too new to say yes or no about your nitrates hurting your corals. I know my tank was reading nitrates around 50ppm for awhile and the corals I have didn't show any ill affects (that I am aware of). I had someone tell me once (again take it at face value cause I have not done any major research into it) that doing quick water changes prevent the elements for entering the water.