Polyp bailout and brown jelly?

[Diveks]

So it’s been awhile since i got some new lps after going after sps, although i wanted to get some movement in my newest build (5 months old). Well i got a frogspawn thats not doing so well now (not sure if its just in my tank or in the guys tank too). It was a little suspicious when i asked for photos for other corals he gave them but for this one he just assured me they are all the same, i didn't have to pick one and it would have at least 4 heads. Well that might have been a mistake since it came in with some kind of brown film on the edge of the skeletons (when receding) i saw them when i was dipping them.

Well honestly i haven't been paying attention to my frogspawn enough in the other tank and how they should be looking. So i just shrugged off the brown stuff and put it in my tank.
Water chemistry:
Dkh 7.2 (raising it up slowly)
Calcium 457
Magnesium 1350
Phos 0.04-0.07
Ph 8.2
Nitrate 25 (raised up from a bit of a die-off of cuc)

Day one the frogspawn puffed up quite a bit (not fully), day two the heads started to puff up less, day three the heads receded more and more, Day four the heads that are smaller started to do a polyp bailout and i see polyps everywhere on the sand bed, today all of the heads look very bad.

Photos:
Yesterday (blue light make the brown stuff hard to see but its between the polyps and on the heads)

Today

Do i take them out ASAP to not kill my torches or are they a gonner?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Very hard to see under heavy blue light
To start with, get this coral off the sand bed

 

[Diveks]

Very hard to see under heavy blue light
To start with, get this coral off the sand bed

Its 4 inches off the sand bed guess its too low? I started it off low so it didn’t bleach from the high lights and to acclimate it to my very strong since it came from a low light situation. I started it off a bit higher but it was not happy and started puffing up after i lowered it a bit.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Its 4 inches off the sand bed guess its too low? I started it off low so it didn’t bleach from the high lights and to acclimate it to my very strong since it came from a low light situation.

A few things about hammer which will help you :
Like most other coral species, Euphyllia requires Stable tank conditions, and is intolerant to major swings in water quality, and is sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water. Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right.
This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. Fast currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps (and getting an infection). Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks. Reduce white light intensity and get it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.
The hammer coral is considered to be an aggressive coral species that will attack its neighbors with sweeper tentacles. These are stinging nematocysts (similar to the sting of an anemone) on the end of a specialized polyp that can extend several inches away from the body of the coral. The sweeper tentacles pack a punch and will chemically burn any neighboring corals.
Hammer corals are more subdued eaters who would benefit from the occasional feeding of a meaty marine food like mysis and brine shrimp.

 

[Diveks]

A few things about hammer which will help you :
Like most other coral species, Euphyllia requires Stable tank conditions, and is intolerant to major swings in water quality, and is sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water. Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right.
This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. Fast currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps (and getting an infection). Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks. Reduce white light intensity and get it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.
The hammer coral is considered to be an aggressive coral species that will attack its neighbors with sweeper tentacles. These are stinging nematocysts (similar to the sting of an anemone) on the end of a specialized polyp that can extend several inches away from the body of the coral. The sweeper tentacles pack a punch and will chemically burn any neighboring corals.
Hammer corals are more subdued eaters who would benefit from the occasional feeding of a meaty marine food like mysis and brine shrimp.

Thanks, its at the same height with a torch although on the other side of a rock so they get the same light (its the drop of a dropoff tank). As torches like more flow its near the powehead and seems happy now (it came in without the brown stuff). The frogspawn get less flow but it still rocks the polyps back and forth. Heres some pics from lights out.

It came in already with all this

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks, its at the same height with a torch although on the other side of a rock so they get the same light (its the drop of a dropoff tank). As torches like more flow its near the powehead and seems happy now (it came in without the brown stuff). The frogspawn get less flow but it still rocks the polyps back and forth. Heres some pics from lights out.

Moderate light and flow very important. I run heavier in Blue.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Euphyllia can be tricky sometimes, but I suspect the low alk is part of the problem. Also, as has already been mentioned, placement on the sand bed isn't necessarily "too low" with regard to lighting, just risky due to sand irritating the polyps. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Shirak]

Looks like loose shrinking pulling away tissue from the skeleton not bjd. Some major recession going on there... don't know if you can turn it around but maybe. The low alk is not helping the situation.

 

[Diveks]

Euphyllia can be tricky sometimes, but I suspect the low alk is part of the problem. Also, as has already been mentioned, placement on the sand bed isn't necessarily "too low" with regard to lighting, just risky due to sand irritating the polyps. Good luck and keep us posted!

Im slowly raising it up really slowly not to bother the sps. My previous salt bucket had low alk so that is the cause of that. Ah, i see the sand. I thought it would be okay while it adjusted to the light as i see some people put them directly on the sand.

Looks like loose shrinking pulling away tissue from the skeleton not bjd. Some major recession going on there... don't know if you can turn it around but maybe. The low alk is not helping the situation.

Ohh i see, one of the heads came in really bad shape and never opened up and all of them already had all the brown stuff coming off of the head. The seller not wanting to send Pics might be a red flag. My mistake on that part. Ill try moving it upwards a bit, but as i know no sand gets there, unless i do a mistake in the water change. When would it be too much for it to come back? Not really wanting polyps all over the tank if its not going to make it. For now ill try my best to help it out

 

[Shirak]

Im slowly raising it up really slowly not to bother the sps. My previous salt bucket had low alk so that is the cause of that. Ah, i see the sand. I thought it would be okay while it adjusted to the light as i see some people put them directly on the sand.

Ohh i see, one of the heads came in really bad shape and never opened up and all of them already had all the brown stuff coming off of the head. The seller not wanting to send Pics might be a red flag. My mistake on that part. Ill try moving it upwards a bit, but as i know no sand gets there, unless i do a mistake in the water change. When would it be too much for it to come back? Not really wanting polyps all over the tank if its not going to make it. For now ill try my best to help it out

You mentioned it's in a low flow location with gently waving polyps. That would be my main concern as the tissue is loose around the outside of the skeleton. Lots of patience.. and keep a really close eye on it. When they are in a bad state like this it could turn into bjd pretty quickly. It should be evident fairly quickly if the tissue recession continues or halts and it stabilizes.

 

[Diveks]

You mentioned it's in a low flow location with gently waving polyps. That would be my main concern as the tissue is loose around the outside of the skeleton. Lots of patience.. and keep a really close eye on it. When they are in a bad state like this it could turn into bjd pretty quickly. It should be evident fairly quickly if the tissue recession continues or halts and it stabilizes.

Oh sorry didn't mean to make it sound like it’s in low flow. Its in moderate flow but lower than where my torch is at. One of the heads look better today but the others are already loosing a lot of polyps. I might have to frag that one if all the others die off.

 

[Diveks]

Update: they are recovering well and none of the heads have died off. The next day after i turned my biopellet reactor offline it perked up and started recovering.

 

[Shirak]

Update: they are recovering well and none of the heads have died off. The next day after i turned my biopellet reactor offline it perked up and started recovering.

Have you checked nitrate and phosphate again and alk? Can try a little target feeding too.

 

[Diveks]

Have you checked nitrate and phosphate again and alk? Can try a little target feeding too.

the nitrate and phosphate climed up a bit as i had to leave for a week and had someone else feeding the tank although i did a water change to get it back down. i just started running a chaeto reactor to help a bit with the phosphate and nitrate too. the alk is now at 8.9, the testkit i had before was flawed and the reagent didn't give a deep colour but really really faint. after buying some replacement reagents i finally got a deep colour which i can diferenciate.

 

[Shirak]

the nitrate and phosphate climed up a bit as i had to leave for a week and had someone else feeding the tank although i did a water change to get it back down. i just started running a chaeto reactor to help a bit with the phosphate and nitrate too. the alk is now at 8.9, the testkit i had before was flawed and the reagent didn't give a deep colour but really really faint. after buying some replacement reagents i finally got a deep colour which i can diferenciate.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. I was running 15-20 nitrate and .2-.3 phosphate for a while and my Euphyllia were fine. My frogspawn seem a little pale now that I have my nutrient numbers down. I would worry more about keeping things stable.

 

[Diveks]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. I was running 15-20 nitrate and .2-.3 phosphate for a while and my Euphyllia were fine. My frogspawn seem a little pale now that I have my nutrient numbers down. I would worry more about keeping things stable.

i agree as ive seen what chasing numbers did to my sps too, i noticed a bit of higher nutrient was better for them than just fluctuations. i will be trying to keep the numbers stable.