Green Hammer Coral Dieing Solid Branch?

[smaier6]

Hello,
I hope someone on the community can help and tell me what is going on with my Green Hammer Coral which I purchased 3 weeks ago. When I purchased this coral it was not reseeding.

After I put the hammer into my tank it immediately began to reseed on one of the solid branches which is on the right. I have provided a picture of this occurence. I was told once the branch has reseeding all the way to take a chisel and cut it off which I did. It stop the reseeding from going to the other branches until this weekend. Now the branch closest to the cut is now reseeding as well and I have supplied pictures of this.

Could it be spiders? I do have 2 large peppermint shrimps to control aiptaisa.

Water perameters:
Nitrate 15ppm
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Salinity 1.023
Cal 450
PH 8.0
Phos .03
Running Carbon on hanging skimmer
Water changes weekly at 5 - 7 gallons

Tank is mature over a year old

Please use this link to see the 3 pictures I have posted in my gallery. I hope the pictures help with the diagnosis

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showgallery.php?ppuser=153291&cat=500&thumb=1

 

[FishAreFriends2]

Any brown slime visible on that thing
If so you got brown jelly disease

 

[smaier6]

FisherAreFriends,
I thank you for the quick reply. I have just uploaded another picture to my gallery showing the side of the hammer. Please review and let me know if that is good skin or the brown jelly disease?

 

[Lockhartia]

What kind of flow is hitting this coral? LPS can be torn/injured easily if they get buffeted by a lot of flow. I lost a head of my frogspawn when my powerhead's suction cups let go and it tipped, blowing directly on the coral.

Also, what kind of acclimation process did you use when you introduced the coral into your tank? Perhaps it could have had a bit of a shock.

I do an iodine dip (I use Seachem's Coral Disinfectant) on everything I get. It's good as a preventative measure, but can also be great at killing possible infections. Look closely around the area where the coral is receeding, do you see any snails or bugs or anything at all?

Peppermints may play a hand in irritating the coral. Have you seen them near it at all? I'm afraid of them and won't put them in my tank (mostly because I'm terrified something will happen to my healthy 1.5yr old indo elegance!) Sometimes they will pick at the dying tissue, but may not be the cause of the problem.

What's your water temp? Any big fluxuations recently as the warmer weather approaches? How about anything you may have changed lately? Carbon? What kind of lighting are you running?

Good luck!

 

[smaier6]

I have the hammer in a low flow zone.

water 75 -78 running a chiller

MH 150W 8 hours a day

Will Lewgal Iodine be the same as Seachem's?

I was told that corals do not need acclimation only fish and inverts I guess that is wrong?

 

[Lockhartia]

Absolutely coral needs acclimation! I would definately give a big frownie face to whoever told you they don't! Corals can shock just as easily as fish/inverts to new tank conditions!

The lugol's should be fine. I would remove the coral from your tank and mix a little of the iodine with water from the tank in a separate bowl. Let it sit in there for a few minutes before putting it back in. Keep an eye in the bowl and see if you see any little creatures drop off the coral.

What kind of lighting was the hammer being kept at the LFS you bought it from? If it was a lower level of light, the change to the 150watt halide could also do some damage. I recently upgraded my 55ga from PC's to MH's and for the first week I only let the lights run for 2hrs. After that, I raised it an hour every week until I hit 6hrs. Boy were my corals ANGRY the first two weeks!

Hope that helps!

 

[smaier6]

Thanks for the information. I did the Iodine freshwater dip for about 5 minutes but I did not see any creatures come out of the branch. I will monitor it tomorrow and see if it is doing better and provide an update.