Wall Hammer Polyp Bailout

niQo · Feb 14, 2018

My Wall Hammer hasn't been doing great the last couple of weeks (maybe since christmas?). Very little inflation, had a single polyp bailout a few weeks ago. I've been struggling to get my nutrients up for quite a while but finally got it figured out. I assumed things would get better from here. Now yesterday the whole head is started to come out of its skeleton, at this moment it is only about 20% left in its skeleton. The polyps still have colour and don't look like they are dying.

When I was just looking at the Hammer, it seems like it is secreting something into the water. It is not white slime, but something white looking that gets carried away by the current right away. I would describe it as milky.

Now I am mentally prepared that this coral will not make it, but I wonder if it is somehow irritating my other corals with this milky stuff, although today is the first time I've seen it do that and it does not seem to be doing this constantly.

What should my course of action be? I'd hate to just throw it in the garbage, but I am also worried it will float around the tank and kill other coral(s). Could it be releasing harmful chemicals in the tank that are affecting other corals?

Last Saturday I checked my water parameters and this is what I got:
Salinity: 1.026
pH: 8
NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 5 (up from zero since Jan. 31st)
PO4: 0.05

ALK: 7.8
CAL: 425
MAG: 1520

Most of my other corals seem fine, although some have shown less or hardly any polyp extension.

My tank is about 55 gallons of actual H2O, mixed reef with about 10 frags. The sump has a Bubble Magnus 5 Protein skimmer, fuge with Cheato (Kessil H80) and BRS reactor with 1/4 cup of Carbon and Aquaforest Life Bio Fil.

Reefing Madness · Feb 15, 2018

niQo · Feb 15, 2018

This morning the Hammer looks about the same as last night. Still attached but barely...

I would love to hear some advice!

Davy Jones · Feb 15, 2018

I have never tried a wall hammer but it is on my bucket list. with that said, my branching hammers survive anything but 2 things.

First thing you want to look at is flow. Has this changed recently? Too much flow will cause the polyps to rip or tear, allowing the second thing to happen

Second thing, Bacterial infection. usually it is something distinguishable such as brown jelly disease but some times it is more subtle. For the wall hammer, was there tissue that grows over the skeleton? or does it all live within the wall crevice? I ask because i can always tell something isnt right with my hammers when i see the tissue start to recede along the skeleton towards the actual polyp or head in this instance. Many advise against this as it stresses the coral but when i fear bacterial infections I do an iodine dip with seachems version of the product. This is just my method however and i recommend you to research more about it, there are pros and cons as i understand it and it is far from fool proof.

Keep in mind, I am no where close to an expert, and nothing i said will help your coral in its current state other than maybe lowering flow if flow has recently changed.

niQo · Feb 15, 2018

Dirtrider225 said:
I have never tried a wall hammer but it is on my bucket list. with that said, my branching hammers survive anything but 2 things.

First thing you want to look at is flow. Has this changed recently? Too much flow will cause the polyps to rip or tear, allowing the second thing to happen

Second thing, Bacterial infection. usually it is something distinguishable such as brown jelly disease but some times it is more subtle. For the wall hammer, was there tissue that grows over the skeleton? or does it all live within the wall crevice? I ask because i can always tell something isnt right with my hammers when i see the tissue start to recede along the skeleton towards the actual polyp or head in this instance. Many advise against this as it stresses the coral but when i fear bacterial infections I do an iodine dip with seachems version of the product. This is just my method however and i recommend you to research more about it, there are pros and cons as i understand it and it is far from fool proof.

Keep in mind, I am no where close to an expert, and nothing i said will help your coral in its current state other than maybe lowering flow if flow has recently changed.

Thank you for your response!
I've had this coral for almost 3 years and I'll be sad if I lose it!
Concerning flow: I changed my return pump on Jan 1st. The flow increased for sure, but it has been sheltered by the rock work (it has been in the same general area since July). I did dial down my return last week to 33%. A few days later it seemed the coral did better, but it did not last long.
I think the bailout started on Monday after I moved it just ever so slightly. Maybe an inch?

Bacterial infection is a possibility and I wish I had dipped it a while back. I feel like it might be too risky now. To my inexperienced eyes, the coral seemed fine except for not inflating and at night it seemed more deflated than usual. I think it is possible the tissue was receding towards the polyps.

Davy Jones · Feb 15, 2018

I wish you the best of luck, hopefully someone more knowledgeable than myself can help you out. I watched helplessly as my Yuma colonies melted over the course of 3 days and it's not a fun feeling.

nfrench2100 · Feb 15, 2018

@sghera64... maybe you can help out on this one? As I know youve been quite successful in your attempt at Wall Hammer

Good luck man. Wish I could help!

niQo · Feb 15, 2018

Dirtrider225 said:
I wish you the best of luck, hopefully someone more knowledgeable than myself can help you out. I watched helplessly as my Yuma colonies melted over the course of 3 days and it's not a fun feeling.

Thank you! From the research I've done it seems there is not much that can be done, this is my desperate attempt to see if there are any new developments on this.

Zack K · Feb 15, 2018

Unfortunately, it is too late in the process to really save it. Walling Euphyillia can be a challenge. They don’t like change. Especially sudden change. The flow may have ticked it off or a parameter had a swing when you weren’t looking. I just had a torch bail because I tweeted my return nozel.

Pongo · Feb 15, 2018

When my tank was young I had a small neon green wall hammer with polyp bailout.
Within a week it was gone.

I searched but could not come up with any specific treatment to stop its death.

niQo · Feb 15, 2018

Zack Klabunde said:
Unfortunately, it is too late in the process to really save it. Walling Euphyillia can be a challenge. They don’t like change. Especially sudden change. The flow may have ticked it off or a parameter had a swing when you weren’t looking. I just had a torch bail because I tweeted my return nozel.

Wow, that's crazy!
Thanks for the comment. I'll guess I'll just leave it for now. Is it possible it is secreting anything that is irritating other corals?

Pongo said:
When my tank was young I had a small neon green wall hammer with polyp bailout.
Within a week it was gone.

I searched but could not come up with any specific treatment to stop its death.

That's very unfortunately, I guess I'll be in the same boat soon

Zack K · Feb 15, 2018

I’m not sure about the white substance. My only guess could be semen as it is already last ditching efforts by bailing, Why not give it the best chance.

niQo · Feb 15, 2018

Zack Klabunde said:
I’m not sure about the white substance. My only guess could be semen as it is already last ditching efforts by bailing, Why not give it the best chance.

A "going out of business sale"

Makes sense...

Pongo · Feb 16, 2018

As a last ditch effort I would try either a dip in Lugol's or erythromycin bath.
If it is going to die, the effort wound not be futile.

Best of luck.
Let us know how it turns out.

sghera64 · Feb 16, 2018

Pongo said:
As a last ditch effort I would try either a dip in Lugol's or erythromycin bath.
If it is going to die, the effort wound not be futile.

Best of luck.
Let us know how it turns out.

+1 on Logul's

My experience with wall hammers is that they are quite tolerant of many changes (lighting, pH, nutrients even flow). You can see my videos of my fragging them with hammer and chisel. I then dip in Logul's.

I have had Wall hammers close up in one segment and the rest of the specimen does fine. Cause in my case was something got into that segment (polyp from another LPS or irritated by bubble tipped anemone).

Question: do you have any other euphyllia species in the system (torch coral, frogspawn, etc.)? If so, are their polyps less extended than normal?

If Logul's does not slow down the bail-out, or if you are really desperate, frag the coral. Cut into the good parts to separate them from the troubled part. Make sure you cut into the good tissue so that the part you keep has only good tissue. I.e. you have to cut so that the dying piece you discard also contains a few millimeters of good polyps. Then dip the frags in Logul's for a couple of minutes.

Here is a link to how rough I can be with fragging to help you get comfortable doing it. [LINK].

niQo · Feb 16, 2018

sghera64 said:
+1 on Logul's

My experience with wall hammers is that they are quite tolerant of many changes (lighting, pH, nutrients even flow). You can see my videos of my fragging them with hammer and chisel. I then dip in Logul's.

I have had Wall hammers close up in one segment and the rest of the specimen does fine. Cause in my case was something got into that segment (polyp from another LPS or irritated by bubble tipped anemone).

Question: do you have any other euphyllia species in the system (torch coral, frogspawn, etc.)? If so, are their polyps less extended than normal?

If Logul's does not slow down the bail-out, or if you are really desperate, frag the coral. Cut into the good parts to separate them from the troubled part. Make sure you cut into the good tissue so that the part you keep has only good tissue. I.e. you have to cut so that the dying piece you discard also contains a few millimeters of good polyps. Then dip the frags in Logul's for a couple of minutes.

Here is a link to how rough I can be with fragging to help you get comfortable doing it. [LINK].

Interesting, mine has also been very tolerant of some tank abuse about a year ago, while I was building my new system. So I am quite shocked the way it is behaving right now. At this time, the polyps all look fine (although some not inflated at all, but other that are outside of the skeleton inflated quite a bit today), but the head is 90% removed from its skeleton and barely holding on. Should I cut off the part that is all hanging outside of the skeleton? What should I do with the other (cut off) tissue? Discard it?

I have no other Euphyllia species in my system, but some of my other corals (cyphastrea, closed brain) aren't super impressed either. I do have a Bubble Tip decently close to the hammer, but have never seem them touch.

Thanks for the reply. Currently I am worried that the moment I take it out of the tank for a dip it will completely let go... I wish I had done this at the beginning of the week.

sghera64 · Feb 17, 2018

niQo said:
Interesting, mine has also been very tolerant of some tank abuse about a year ago, while I was building my new system. So I am quite shocked the way it is behaving right now. At this time, the polyps all look fine (although some not inflated at all, but other that are outside of the skeleton inflated quite a bit today), but the head is 90% removed from its skeleton and barely holding on. Should I cut off the part that is all hanging outside of the skeleton? What should I do with the other (cut off) tissue? Discard it?

I have no other Euphyllia species in my system, but some of my other corals (cyphastrea, closed brain) aren't super impressed either. I do have a Bubble Tip decently close to the hammer, but have never seem them touch.

Thanks for the reply. Currently I am worried that the moment I take it out of the tank for a dip it will completely let go... I wish I had done this at the beginning of the week.

Can you attach a couple of photos from different angles? I can then draw on them where I would make cuts. Depending on size, I might have a way to do a dip without it having to be removed from the water.

niQo · Feb 17, 2018

sghera64 said:
Can you attach a couple of photos from different angles? I can then draw on them where I would make cuts. Depending on size, I might have a way to do a dip without it having to be removed from the water.