Let's see your Hammer Corals

[Cubman777]

[MarineGirl411]

Cub beautiful hammer.

[55semireef]

Keep the pics coming. Nice pics Cub.

[MarineGirl411]

Cub has the Hammer stung any of your other corals that are near it? Looks pretty close to me.

[MarineGirl411]

I'd like to see some more hammers. =) I actually just bought a branching turquoise Hammer. Hopefully it looks the same color when I get it. So bump:: =) More hammers

[WendyMc]

Sweet! Where'd you get it from? Do you have any pics?

[ubas]

I just posted a bunch of growth pics of my hammer on the reef discussion forum. Here's the abridged version:

Oct 2004 (just after purchase):


Feb 2007:



Partly closed so you can see the heads - Sept 2006:



Link to more pics:
Hammer Growth

[55semireef]

Wow those pictures were amazing. Why does your Hammer grow that fast? I can't get mine to grow at all. Mine is a wall hammer though. Maybe wall hammers are slower growers? I have no idea.

[ubas]

Originally posted by 55semireef
Wow those pictures were amazing. Why does your Hammer grow that fast? I can't get mine to grow at all. Mine is a wall hammer though. Maybe wall hammers are slower growers? I have no idea.

I have no idea really either. I had a year or so after I first got serious about reefing where I saw great growth all around. Since then, several of my corals have hit some rough patches due to moving houses, prolonged power outages, topoff mishaps, and a few oops-moments. But the hammer just seems to keep chugging away. I've just always kept it low in the tank, and I try to give it enough flow so that it has some movement, but isn't getting blasted. I occassionally target feed with whatever happens to be in the baster, but not with any regularity whatsoever.

[MarineGirl411]

nice hammer. I hope mine fills out like that. I just don't like the look of the branches. Did you attach it to a rock or substrate? If the rock, what did you use to keep him in place? Beautiful. Love it.

[ubas]

Originally posted by MarineGirl411
nice hammer. I hope mine fills out like that. I just don't like the look of the branches. Did you attach it to a rock or substrate? If the rock, what did you use to keep him in place? Beautiful. Love it.

The hammer came on the y-shaped piece of branch rock in the first picture. I just leaned or wedged it against other rocks and it grew the way it did. For a while I used zip ties, but the shape of the base usually makes it fairly easy to position securely just using friction. When the polyps are fully extended you don't really see the branches.

[55semireef]

ubastid, if you don't mind, do you have any full tank shots?

[ubas]

Originally posted by 55semireef
ubastid, if you don't mind, do you have any full tank shots?

It's under reconstruction right now (had an "oops" moment) - thread with pics here

[55semireef]

Originally posted by ubastid
It's under reconstruction right now (had an "oops" moment) - thread with pics here

What kind of lights are your running?

[ubas]

I had 4x 54W T5 on the 55G, with another pair on the way for the 90. Let's not hijack this thread though - if you want to know more come on over to the other one

[55semireef]

Originally posted by ubastid
I had 4x 54W T5 on the 55G, with another pair on the way for the 90. Let's not hijack this thread though - if you want to know more come on over to the other one

Hijack my thread?

I was actually wondering what type of lighting you had because I was wondering if your lighting had anything to do with your immense hammer coral growth.

[ubas]

Originally posted by 55semireef
Hijack my thread?

I was actually wondering what type of lighting you had because I was wondering if your lighting had anything to do with your immense hammer coral growth.

Touché

[55semireef]

Originally posted by ubastid
Touché

[MarineGirl411]

Hi,
Maybe I will place my braches closer together as well using some rocks. Will this affect it's growth at all? Did you place yours in the substrate or on rocks? Also if you placed it on a rock, did you use IC-Ce (can't remember how to spell it) to attach it to a rock? I'd like to know how people attach these hammers and if they do better in a sandbed vs. rock. TY Beautiful Hammers everyone.

[Thurge]

I used two part epoxy to attach my first Euphillia to a flat rock then placed it where I wanted it. Others I have just wedged in place (the only draw back is if you pick it up you will never get it back the same way). I even have one small purple tip frogspawn frag that had a tiny tip of skeleton exposed so I had to superglue it to a frag rock. Its pretty tolerant of how you attach it somehere.

My pink and green Hammer I got rescently I debated fragging the heads together to make a more cohesive coral, but in the end deciede to let them all grow together over time.

[theop]

Here's mine:

[55semireef]

Very nice theop.

[theop]

Thanks. I originally placed this coral about half-way up. It really didn't like the light from my 150W MH bulb. Once I moved it to the bottom of the tank it really started to expand and grow.

[55semireef]

ARe you getting any more/less flow at the bottom of the tank?

[theop]

Less. It was closer to a Seio pump output before.

I guess it could have had too much flow and not too much light. I just noticed that when it was higher it was more pale (pink instead of purple) and didn't open up all the way...