Hammer losing polys

[texasreefgirl]

I recently brought home two hammer corals. It's been a week, and yesterday I noticed that a few polyps have started falling off my rainbow hammer, and it appears slightly deflated. I’ve attached photos with the lights on and off to help highlight the area of concern.

Could too much flow be causing this? I moved the coral to a lower-flow, lower-light area just in case. My frogspawn is doing great, so I’m not sure what might be affecting the hammer.

Tank inhabitants include a cleaner shrimp, two clownfish, a foxface, a coral beauty, a hippo tang, and a powder brown tang.

Alk	8.1
Nitrate HR	8.8
Phosphate	.04
Calcium	390
Magnesium	1520
Ph	7.8

 

[krissiRLT]

Hmm the rest of it looks healthy but that polyps definitely bailing. Did that head get damaged during transport? Could the coral beauty be nipping at it? It could be the flow but I would expect the other heads to be ticked off too.

 

[texasreefgirl]

I don’t think it was damaged, and I haven’t noticed the coral beauty picking at any corals. The only issue I found was that my salinity somehow jumped from 35 to 42, but I got that resolved ASAP. That might’ve been the culprit. I’ll just keep monitoring it to make sure nothing worse happens.

 

[Lavey29]

How old is your tank? Euphyllia can be difficult in new tanks.

 

[krissiRLT]

I don’t think it was damaged, and I haven’t noticed the coral beauty picking at any corals. The only issue I found was that my salinity somehow jumped from 35 to 42, but I got that resolved ASAP. That might’ve been the culprit. I’ll just keep monitoring it to make sure nothing worse happens.

Oh wow that’s a big jump and very high. Were your fish affected??

 

[texasreefgirl]

Oh wow that’s a big jump and very high. Were your fish affected??

They weren’t, thankfully. Not sure how that happened as i have an ato.

 

[texasreefgirl]

How old is your tank? Euphyllia can be difficult in new tanks.

I’ve had my tank for three months now. I started with a frogspawn, and it’s been doing great for weeks. But I added a hammer earlier this week and just noticed it’s losing polyps.

 

[drolmaeye]

They weren’t, thankfully. Not sure how that happened as i have an ato.

Off topic, but any chance you accidentally put saltwater in your ATO reservoir? 35 to 42 ppt (if those numbers are correct) is the kind of big jump that could happen from accidental seawater topoff.

 

[texasreefgirl]

Off topic, but any chance you accidentally put saltwater in your ATO reservoir? 35 to 42 ppt (if those numbers are correct) is the kind of big jump that could happen from accidental seawater topoff.

I thought that at first, but I think what actually happened is that I might have overfilled the tank during my water change.

 

[krissiRLT]

42 is just so high I’d expect fish to visibly struggle. That’s why I’m curious how you’re measuring salinity, I’m wondering if something is off with your instrument.

 

[Lavey29]

I’ve had my tank for three months now. I started with a frogspawn, and it’s been doing great for weeks. But I added a hammer earlier this week and just noticed it’s losing polyps.

3 month tank can be difficult for euphyllia combined with your mentioned salinity issue.

 

[texasreefgirl]

I used a refractometer and calibrated it.

However, my rainbow hammer is still declining. I bought a mint hammer at the same time, and while it’s doing well and hasn’t lost any polyps, the rainbow hammer continues to struggle. Wish I could save it or give it to someone else who can.

 

[Shirak]

What are you using to calibrate your refractometer?

The rainbow hammer losing chunks of flesh is not good. Got damaged or something... I would try dipping. Preferably antibiotic. Iodine with enough to make it look like weak tea. Better yet Cipro.

 

[texasreefgirl]

What are you using to calibrate your refractometer?

The rainbow hammer losing chunks of flesh is not good. Got damaged or something... I would try dipping. Preferably antibiotic. Iodine with enough to make it look like weak tea. Better yet Cipro.

I’m using a Refractometer Calibration Solution from BRS.

Woke up today to another head gone, wonder if the rest will follow. Would Tropic Marin coral clean work?

 

[Lavey29]

Do you see any brown jelly goop in the dead heads? Does it smell foul?

 

[Shirak]

I’m using a Refractometer Calibration Solution from BRS.

Woke up today to another head gone, wonder if the rest will follow. Would Tropic Marin coral clean work?

Well it's iodine based from what I can see online. Never used it but at this point probably can't hurt.

Would recommend you make your own refractometer calibration solution. The commercial stuff is suspect from myself and others. Scroll down to refractometer standard using table salt: https://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.htm

 

[texasreefgirl]

Do you see any brown jelly goop in the dead heads? Does it smell foul?

No brown jelly, came off clean. I have the polyps saved in a container, hoping it’ll recover over time.