Hammer Coral Help

[djm]

I’ve had a branching hammer coral for around 9 months and it’s been doing really well. Earlier today it was fully extended and happy. This evening I’ve looked and it is very shrunken and looks like a brown ballon coming from its mouth. Never seen it do this before.

what could this be?

 

[T-J]

Looks like it's expelling waste (pooping).

 

[jassermd]

Agree... it's expelling zooxanthellae.
That said, the algae on the skeleton is likely irritating the coral. You may want to brush that off and try some H2O2 to get that cleared up.

 

[polyppal]

 

[djm]

Agree... it's expelling zooxanthellae.
That said, the algae on the skeleton is likely irritating the coral. You may want to brush that off and try some H2O2 to get that cleared up.

Yes I’ve have a bit of a hair algae outbreak recently.

 

[djm]

Looks like it's expelling waste (pooping).

Thanks, not seen it like expelling that much waste before. Was worried it was BJD

 

[polyppal]

Mine get puffy like that when phosphates are a little too high as well

 

[djm]

My hammer coral never seemed to recover after expelling the waste. It remains shrunken and yesterday appeared that a couple of the polyps were turning black. Below is a picture of it today.

parameters are as follows;
salinity 1.025sg
Nitrates 3.85
Phosphates 0.10
Calcium 455
PH 8
Ammonia and Nitrites both 0

any advice would be really appreciated.

thanks in advance