Reefiez
New member
Hey everyone,
I've got a hammer coral (wall variety). It has been in my QT for about a week, and due to my idiocy, 99% of it has turned to white jelly.
Here are some before, and after pictures.
When I got it, the coral was about 8 inches tall. I figured that most of the bottom is just dead coral skeleton, so I took a saw, and took off about bottom 3 inches. Next, I used a toothbrush and brushed off some brown stuff on the coral skeleton, I guessed it might be some diatoms. During this process, I might have brushed a little too close to the polyps and damaged those at the edges. For the past 3 days, they have been hiding, then overnight 80% turned into white jelly.
I've done an emergency iodine dip, hoping the 20% might pull through. Today, only about 1% still has its fluorescence.
I have given up hope on it.
My question is, would this jelly cause any nutrient spike as it dies off? Common sense says yes, all dying things turn into unwanted nutrients. But I've never really seen any topics about this. Is leaving this dying coral in the tank as bad as having a dead fish in the tank?
If the decomposing of this jelly is negligible, I might just leave it in the tank and pray for a miracle that it comes back to life. If it does have a big impact, I will be taking it out.
*The QT does not get fed, just lights + powerheads + carbon, no skimmer.
(on an unrelated note, just sharing a torch coral in the same tank doing insanely well)
I've got a hammer coral (wall variety). It has been in my QT for about a week, and due to my idiocy, 99% of it has turned to white jelly.
Here are some before, and after pictures.
When I got it, the coral was about 8 inches tall. I figured that most of the bottom is just dead coral skeleton, so I took a saw, and took off about bottom 3 inches. Next, I used a toothbrush and brushed off some brown stuff on the coral skeleton, I guessed it might be some diatoms. During this process, I might have brushed a little too close to the polyps and damaged those at the edges. For the past 3 days, they have been hiding, then overnight 80% turned into white jelly.
I've done an emergency iodine dip, hoping the 20% might pull through. Today, only about 1% still has its fluorescence.
I have given up hope on it.
My question is, would this jelly cause any nutrient spike as it dies off? Common sense says yes, all dying things turn into unwanted nutrients. But I've never really seen any topics about this. Is leaving this dying coral in the tank as bad as having a dead fish in the tank?
If the decomposing of this jelly is negligible, I might just leave it in the tank and pray for a miracle that it comes back to life. If it does have a big impact, I will be taking it out.
*The QT does not get fed, just lights + powerheads + carbon, no skimmer.
(on an unrelated note, just sharing a torch coral in the same tank doing insanely well)
