Hammer Coral Tissue Recession

[Nick30G]

Hello all,
I have a 2 headed hammer frag (now 1 head) for several months now. When it was first added, the first few months were great, full extension, all around healthy coral. All a sudden one day one of the Heads started opening up less and less and i noticed tissue on that head was receding slowly but surely. Within about 1 month Almost all the tissue on that head was gone and evidently the head slowly withered away and died. The other head was completely fine, great extension and all its tissue was there. About a month after the 2nd head died, I noticed the first head was starting to lose tissue JUST LIKE THE 2ND HEAD, once again slowly but surely. Now fast forward to today it is not extending like it used to and i would say half the tissue is gone and some of the septa is showing. I dont think its Brown Jelly as i do not see any brown substances on the coral. So to me this comes down to two things, Either a pest or some kind of bacterial infection. I dont think it has anything to do with water parameters as my other corals are doing just fine. I manually dose alk and cal every day as i drop 0.6 dkh per day. I dont see any pests on the corals eating the tissue, so maybe its bacterial? Would several dips in Coral RX help? Im really not sure whats going on with this particular coral.

 

[PapaWhisky]

Do you have any other Euphyllias in your tank, and if so, what is their condition?

 

[Nick30G]

Do you have any other Euphillia's in your tank, and if so, what is their condition?

Yes I have another 3 Headed Hammer, and a 3 headed Frogspawn and they have been doing really well, full extension and new head growing.

 

[PapaWhisky]

Yes I have another 3 Headed Hammer, and a 3 headed Frogspawn and they have been doing really well, full extension and new head growing.

Good, that would most likely eliminate a trace element deficiency if the others are growing. Giving it a dip could not hurt at this point IMO.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Dipping in coral RX or a iodine solution is my go to at first signs of trouble. If your other corals are doing well it may just be fait, sometimes corals don’t survive no matter what you do and absolutely no fault of your own.. You don’t happen to have it in a high flow area do you? My branching hammer doesn’t like to much flow.

 

[Nick30G]

Dipping in coral RX or a iodine solution is my go to at first signs of trouble. If your other corals are doing well it may just be fait, sometimes corals don’t survive no matter what you do and absolutely no fault of your own.. You don’t happen to have it in a high flow area do you? My branching hammer doesn’t like to much flow.

No its in a pretty low area of flow and low light. I guess i will go dip it once or twice and see what happens at this point. My acans, Bubble coral, and Frogspawn and other hammer corals are all doing good though.

 

[ireland425]

Check for electricity leaching had same problem with my hammer and lost a 15 headed torch[emoji35] and some sps before I solved the problem but my frog never seemed to care ended up being my ato switch a 15 dollar part killed a few hundred dollar colonie also have had cheap power heads like maxi jet and heaters in past do same

 

[ireland425]

Check for electricity leaching had same problem with my hammer and lost a 15 headed torch[emoji35] and some sps before I solved the problem but my frog never seemed to care ended up being my ato switch a 15 dollar part killed a few hundred dollar colonie also have had cheap power heads like maxi jet and heaters in past do same

Get a cheap multi meter to check for stray voltage set it on 120 amp setting and put ground in receptical and positive in aquarium if it reads then start unplugging anything in water and testing one by one..... give 30 sec after unplug before u test each

 

[Nick30G]

This particular coral has lost almost all its tissue.. Only about 20% of the tissue remains, but its near the doors of death now, luckily it does not seem to be recessing any further at this point. Would you guys recommend dosing some sort of amino acids at this point like fuel? Ever since i have setup this tank i have had 0 Nitrates... maybe it is starving to death? Would Amino Acids help give a better food source to my corals at 0 nitrates?

 

[Nick30G]

Update:
My other hammer coral that has been thriving is now starting to show tissue recession just like the other hammer.... This does not seem to affect my frogspawn (as of yet who knows). Does anyone seriously know whats going on here?
Alk 8.4 dkh
Cal 435 ppm
Mag 1480 ppm
Phosphate 9 ppb 0.028 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm

Could it be from my alkalinity swing of 0.6 dkh per day? I am currently manually dosing 20ml of BRS 2 part Alk/Cal, but i do have a Doser coming in the mail in a few days. Could it be lack of food/starvation due to the 0 nitrates? I dont attempt to feed my corals anymore because the food will get stolen by my pesky clownfish or my fire shrimp.

 

[dominion813]

I’m also dealing with tissue loss on a friends hammer I took in to try to regain some of its health it’s skeleton is showing I started using brightwells amino to see if that helps any ideas as well much appreciated low flow area as well and my levels are in check