Tank Journal Archive

[Mattres]

Over the past month I noticed a small patch in one of my hammers was receding. It was very slow at first but has since moved very fast.
I lost two heads and had hoped it was isolated to them as there was no connecting tissue but has since spread to other heads on the same coral.
Have searched as much as I can to find a cause but can't pinpoint anything that would be causing it.
Parameters have been as stable as I can keep them without a doser.
The tanks consuming 2dKH a day and I'm dosing manually morning and night.
Alk 9.12
Calc 440
Mag 1300

If anyone's got any ideas or has seen it before any help would be appreciated! Would hate to lose this coral but think there's no saving it at the moment.

 

[MagicJ]

I don't have much to offer unfortunately :(

I don't necessarily consider hammers an 'easy' coral, especially long term, as they can look perfect for ages and them go downhill quickly.

What are your nitrate and phosphate readings?

 

[Mattres]

I don't have much to offer unfortunately :(

I don't necessarily consider hammers an 'easy' coral, especially long term, as they can look perfect for ages and them go downhill quickly.

What are your nitrate and phosphate readings?

Nitrates were undertectable on a salifert test kit and Phospate 0.00 on a Hanna but I just saw the regent is 2 months out of date..

That's pretty much what's happened, happy and growing and now dieing. Funny it still has full extension it's just the flesh is literally peeling off.
I'm gonna have to pull it out the tank tomorrow as im worried it could spread to my other hammers. Pity as I liked the colour. Gonna try save some of the tiny pups coming off it, hopefully they'll survive on a frag plug.

 

[MagicJ]

Gonna try save some of the tiny pups coming off it, hopefully they'll survive on a frag plug.

Worth a try - good luck.

Corals can't get up and walk to a different place if they aren't happy - their only option is for the polyps to bail out and maybe settle somewhere better, although, in our tanks, that generally leads to their demise.

Have you changed anything recently? Added any other corals?

 

[Buddy]

Do you use carbon at all? I had an issue with a particular brand of carbon that almost wiped out all of my LPS.
My Hammers receded in sections exactly like your picture.

 

[Mattres]

Worth a try - good luck.

Have you changed anything recently? Added any other corals?

Thanks
Yea well said, the only thing I can think of is it was growing close to the glass and the two heads where it started were having to change direction quite sharply.

Added a monti that's actually starting to go south to, strange it was showing good growth and improved colour since putting in but last two weeks has gone quite pale, think it's bleaching.
Pretty frustrating at the moment.
Nothing has changed in the tank, I keep things quite simple.

Do u think the Alk is swinging to much? If it consumes 2dKH a day and I'm dosing twice a day im dosing 1dKH over an hour period twice a day.

Do you use carbon at all? I had an issue with a particular brand of carbon that almost wiped out all of my LPS.
My Hammers receded in sections exactly like your picture.

I probably haven't used carbon for a over a year, never saw benefits in my current tank.
Interesting yours did exactly the same thing, I haven't found examples of what's happned anywhere on the web. So was struggling to know what I was "battling" or doing wrong.

 

[Franklin Dattein]

@Mattres
This alk swing is definitely not good and could cause STN. Recommended is a maximum of 0.5dKH/day.
Do you have any acros? They are generally the first ones to acuse alk swing, by burning their tips.

Also, it doesn't look like polyp bailout. At least in my experience, bailout happens without STN.

At this stage, fragging is a good idea as it is unlikely the STN will stop. Flow is another important thing to keep in check with hammers, it can't be forcing the tissue against the skeleton.

In addition, do you run a LNS or ULNS? Provided that your NO3/PO4 are zero and your alk consumption is 2dKH(on the high side), I am assuming your are running a ULNS and the tank is heavily stocked.
If that is the case, there is a chance your tank is depleted of protein and Aminoacids dosing is likely to promote tissue growth.

Furtheremore, at 2dKH/day it is about time to automate the dosing scheme. On the same token, at a such high consumption there is a chance alkalinity is not being consumed and is actually precipitating. The link below explains how that happens: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/

 

[Mattres]

Thanks for info @Franklin Dattein
Yea my monti seems to be getting worse. Perhaps that's from the Alk swings as well.
Problem is I can't dose slower cos I'm not at home, have orderd a doser from Sewatec 7 weeks ago but it's yet to arrive.. Should have just bought local.

I haven't got heaps of corals but they are quite large, one hammer has close to 30 heads now and it's only a 20gallon tank. So I guess it could be heavily stocked.

I'm not intentionally running a ULNS but nutrients are quite low. Although I get rather fast algae growth on the glass, have to clean every second day at the least so nutrients must be there.

I have aminos from 100% reef safe I can start to dose.

Thanks for the link, I'll read when I get home.