Hammer coral receding

[Sharkbait19]

Hi,
Last month I bought a very large green hammer colony. Since then, it’s tissue has been slowly receding and losing its green color at a concerning rate. My torch coral has done this when unhappy but never to this extreme. It also excretes waste every five minutes, either as white powdery stuff or brown poop. Not sure if this is a normal rate for a coral, and if it is affecting the way it looks right now. At night, it is fully receding, to the point where almost its entire skeleton is visible. It doesn’t simply shrink a little like my torch does. It disappears completely.
I plan on doing a water change tomorrow, so maybe that will help. Here is a pic of it when I got it and a pic of it now. (Just a quick note: the first pic is when it first entered the tank so technically not even it at its fullest, but it’s the closest I could find)

Can I get some advise? My clowns have been out of the tank for a while but ever since they left, my torch coral is doing better but the hammer is doing worse. It’s on the sandbed out of direct flow, and gets direct light on the right side and a bit of shade on the left. I did move it an inch over two weeks ago to give it more light, but it wasn’t exactly thriving then either. There is a pistol shrimp that lives between it and the rock behind it, but I really can’t see that being a cause of this...
I haven’t tested parameters yet, but will when I do a water change tomorrow.
I’m at a loss here. I replaced my elegance coral with this hammer, having the thought that this would be hardier. Am I wrong?

 

[AcroNem]

Parameters will help, are there any fish in the system? Are you feeding your corals?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Parameters will help, are there any fish in the system? Are you feeding your corals?

I’ll post them as soon as I can. Fish have been in QT after velvet, but are going back in about a month. I do not feed my corals, though intend to someday (my mushroom corals sorta hate me).

 

[Sharkbait19]

I should also mention that I don’t think posting params will be of too much help, as all I currently have is API and it’s terrible inaccurate, but I’ll do it anyway. I can maybe get to the LFS this weekend or at some point, and get water tested there.

 

[Hydrored]

What lights are you running? The fact that where its getting more light is worse that the less light may be a sign of over exposure. Age of tank? Also not having any fish can cause nutrients to bottom out

we really need parameters to help, I would move it the the edge of the tank with lower PAR to recover until you can provide the results

In my experience wall hammers are much harder to keep happy than branching

 

[Sharkbait19]

What lights are you running? The fact that where its getting more light is worse that the less light may be a sign of over exposure. Age of tank? Also not having any fish can cause nutrients to bottom out

we really need parameters to help, I would move it the the edge of the tank with lower PAR to recover until you can provide the results

In my experience wall hammers are much harder to keep happy than branching

It is in stock fluval evo lighting, and the tank is six months old. I’ll add some form of nutrients and also will test params (though I can imagine everything will read zero because it’s API)

I shoulda gotten their branching frogspawn instead.....

 

[Sharkbait19]

Here is the torch just to give some indication on how it is doing and where it is placed. I’ve had the torch for a little over four months.

 

[saltybees]

Looks like it’s doing better on the shaded side, I’d try and hide it more..try turning it around and stick it under that ledge more

 

[Sharkbait19]

This is a pic of the bad part of the hammer. To be quite honest it’s been a bit receded since day one, maybe I should move it under more shade, and if it still gets worse dip it in iodine??

 

[saltybees]

This is a pic of the bad part of the hammer. To be quite honest it’s been a bit receded since day one, maybe I should dip it in iodine??

It looks fine, unless theres brown jelly around the “bad” part I would just get it shaded a bit more with a low medium flow and make sure your parems are good. Could’ve just been an injury when it was fragged

 

[Sharkbait19]

Some close-ups of the receded part. Cant tell if it is stress-related or the start of something really bad...

 

[Hydrored]

Some close-ups of the receded part. Cant tell if it is stress-related or the start of something really bad...

Did you move it to a more shaded part of the tank?

 

[csamsock]

Hi,
Last month I bought a very large green hammer colony. Since then, it’s tissue has been slowly receding and losing its green color at a concerning rate. My torch coral has done this when unhappy but never to this extreme. It also excretes waste every five minutes, either as white powdery stuff or brown poop. Not sure if this is a normal rate for a coral, and if it is affecting the way it looks right now. At night, it is fully receding, to the point where almost its entire skeleton is visible. It doesn’t simply shrink a little like my torch does. It disappears completely.
I plan on doing a water change tomorrow, so maybe that will help. Here is a pic of it when I got it and a pic of it now. (Just a quick note: the first pic is when it first entered the tank so technically not even it at its fullest, but it’s the closest I could find)

Can I get some advise? My clowns have been out of the tank for a while but ever since they left, my torch coral is doing better but the hammer is doing worse. It’s on the sandbed out of direct flow, and gets direct light on the right side and a bit of shade on the left. I did move it an inch over two weeks ago to give it more light, but it wasn’t exactly thriving then either. There is a pistol shrimp that lives between it and the rock behind it, but I really can’t see that being a cause of this...
I haven’t tested parameters yet, but will when I do a water change tomorrow.
I’m at a loss here. I replaced my elegance coral with this hammer, having the thought that this would be hardier. Am I wrong?

Do you actively skim? What is your iodine level--usually if a coral is not fully opening its due to lack of iodine.

 

[Jekyl]

Is there a powerhead blowing sand on it? Any other ideas will require parameters

 

[Sharkbait19]

Do you actively skim? What is your iodine level--usually if a coral is not fully opening its due to lack of iodine.

I don't have an iodine test kit--I was told iodine levels aren't completely necessary to maintain compared to others...

 

[Sharkbait19]

i'm just a little curious-- What does the very start of BJD look like? There are some tiny brown specks surrounding the receded area and I'm slightly concerned. I am going to use a turkey baster and see if it comes off or is normal....

I'll test the water (oops, forgot to yesterday), but don't think they'll be helpful, as all API readings always come out at zero (when it's definitely not) or some whacky high number.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Oh....****.
It has Brown Jelly Disease.

 

[Shirak]

Oh....****.
It has Brown Jelly Disease.

ugh :<<

There's more and more evidence it's a bacteria.
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/exper...iotic-treatments-for-brown-jelly-disease.791/

 

[Shirak]

maybe you can get some cipro fast.. Some reefers have also done a series of dips in peroxide and I think witchhazel? Might try searching for that too.

 

[Sharkbait19]

After a thorough cleaning and addition of carbon, the hammer is looking much better today!