What's happening to my hammer?

[dnprall]

Was a happy hammer this morning. Came home this evening and now it looks like it does in the attached picture and the video ( ). It has some white material come out of the hammer and you can see the skeleton through the "mouth". Water parameters as attached as well.

Only new thing was that I added a scarlet leg and blue knuckle hermit crab, a ninja star snail, and a trochus snail yesterday.

I've had this hammer since the tank was started in December 2023 and it's always seemed to be happy. My other hammer, torches, and octospawn appear normal.

 

[fishguy242]

Hi, how is it today ? look for any signs of BJD, if present ,carefully remove not to risk other coral, WIWD...

 

[Rennurdoar]

I'd also suggest, since your Mag is in the 1200s to bring it up closer to 1500. Our Torches and hammers dislike anything under 1420 in our experience.

Hopefully it turns around for you!

 

[Chris Nano Reef]

If it were my tank I would remove that coral and watch all the rest for any signs of the same. If it’s bjd it can spread. Turn off your flow first and remove the infected coral slowly and as carefully as you can.

Can you see any brown slime jelly like stuff on that hammer?

 

[dnprall]

If it were my tank I would remove that coral and watch all the rest for any signs of the same. If it’s bjd it can spread. Turn off your flow first and remove the infected coral slowly and as carefully as you can.

Can you see any brown slime jelly like stuff on that hammer?

Oh it’s dead. I took it out. No clue what happened. I don’t see any brown slime jelly anywhere on it or any other coral.

I'd also suggest, since your Mag is in the 1200s to bring it up closer to 1500. Our Torches and hammers dislike anything under 1420 in our experience.

Hopefully it turns around for you!

@Rennurdoar I have been trying to increase the magnesium over the last 7-10 days. I have AFR going daily (4.8 mL) and I've dosed Red Sea Magnesium Foundation ( 75 mL each time) twice with the last time yesterday.

I'm a little apprehensive on how to dose the magnesium. According the chart on the bottle, if I want a magnesium level of 1350, I need to add about 180 mL (!) (system with sump is 53 gallons). Seems like a lot so I only did 75 mL. I've been cautious of following instructions on bottles to a "T" (I did in with NeoNitro and the nitrate sky rocketed).

When I go to the Red Sea website and go through the wizard to see how much to supplement daily ( https://g1.redseafish.com/myrecipe/ ), it suggests 2-3 mL DAILY. I understand this is for a stable magnesium level.

And from what I have read before, testing magnesium daily may not be the best option and that one should check less often to get a true picture of the tank, so to speak.

Maybe I should do like 50 mL of magnesium daily for 3-4 days and then recheck? Would that be reasonable?

I'm going to do a 5 gallon water change today as well. I use the blue bucket Red Sea Salt.

**NINJA EDIT**: My wife reminded me that about 1 week ago, I was blowing off Cyano with a turkey baster and I accidentally sucked up a few tentacles. They didn't tear off but got beat up. Maybe that was enough stress for it to die.