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i need to get all the info on hammer corals and the sooner the better.
The most important things are:

-with strong lighting where should the be placed in the tank (top, middle, bottom)

-what do they eat

-ideal water conditions for them

-are they aggresive

-how fast do they grow

thanks a lot !

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pnh

-with strong lighting where should the be placed in the tank (top, middle, bottom)

They aren't really a substrate coral, so anywhere on the rocks that gets enough light. IF under heavy halides they should not be placed immediately near the top. They are a med-high light coral.

what do they eat

I feed cyclopeeze and mysis mixed.

ideal water conditions for them

Clean of nitrates and phosphates, like most stony corals. Most LPS will tolerate a little more organics in the water than say acropora, and less than most softies. That doesn't mean you can skimp on water changes though.

are they aggresive

They can be quite aggressive.

-how fast do they grow

Very slow if you start with a small frag IME. I've had mine for 5 months or so and it started to put out new heads a month or two ago, and is just now deciding to split. But if you have a nice sized colony that's had a chance to settle in with good conditions lots of new heads(which grow pretty slow) will form and old heads will split pretty quickly. That's mainly just because there's more to begin with. The euphylia divisa(branching) are pretty easy to frag and keep in check once they get large, you can just snap pieces off near the base where there's no flesh. The others that form a maze like skeleton can be much more difficult to frag, but are slower growing anyways I think.

Other than that, they are one of my favorite corals because they have nice colors and they sway.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

thanks matty!

my LFS owner (wwho has had many hammer corals and has had salty tanks forover 20 years) told me to put the hammer in strong water current and near the mddle to the top of my LR .

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pnh

I would suggest a moderate water current. If the current is too strong, the coral will not come out fully. IME, the best is an alternating current over these types of corals; hammer, bubble, frogspawn, and torch.

As for aggression, they can an will kill anything they can come into contact with, this include the sweeper tenticles that are 4-5 times as long as the normal tenticles. If they sense another coral too close to them, they will start sweeping out to attack it. Do not place these anywhere near any SPS, or you are almost certain to loose the SPS. I have seen these guys fall over on some corals, and be there only for a few seconds before moved. And the coral they landed on dies over the next day or so. Many times almost instantly.

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There is always a bigger fish...

wow!!

thanks

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pnh