Hammer Coral Dying

[croschamb]

Any ideas on why my Hammer and Candy corals all suddenly started to mucus over and die? Everything else in the tank appears to be very healthy including several pieces of SPS.

 

[croschamb]

Re: Hammer Coral Dying

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7910559#post7910559 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by croschamb
Any ideas on why my Hammer and Candy corals all suddenly started to mucus over and die? Everything else in the tank appears to be very healthy including several pieces of SPS.

 

[smac]

Could it have been stung by another coral. My ricordia's brushed up against my trumpets before and they got all mucusy and shredded.

 

[croschamb]

Not in this case. Its positioned well away from any aggressive corals.

 

[Sk8r]

parameters would help.

 

[jessezm]

I saw this happen at an LFS in atlanta once. They had a few HUGE heads of branching hammer in a 120 g tank that had been in there forever. One day they just started to melt. Nothing else in the tank--not even the other euphylias (torch and frogspawn), or caulaustrea were affected--but pretty much all of the hammer, including two completely separate coral heads, melted in a matter of days. They didn't know what had happened.

 

[croschamb]

Made measurements last night -- parameters are: Alkalinity- 4.5; PH a bit low - 8.02; Salinity - 1.023; CA - 350; Magnesium 1000. Nitrate 0.

Setup is VHO lighting; Oceans Motion Squirt for circulation; 40 gallon Refugium Sump.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Your Mg is low. I've seen that happen to people before.

Take it up to about 1350 or so. Wouldn't hurt to bump the Ca too.

Alk is 4.5 meq? I keep mine around 3.4

You are using Instant Ocean?

Aside from that, they can have probs with leathers and chemopathy, I've read.

Water changes would be simple way to help with any/all of the above.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Also, any blastos will be suffering too with Mg that low.

 

[croschamb]

I am daily raising the MG. I thought it was low as well. Several persons have stated that MG alone should not cause the Hammers to die. Xenias, Leathers, Lettuce, mushrooms, echinata, few SPS's all doing well. The Xenia's are rapidly taking over the tank. Could they be a source of the problem?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7923365#post7923365 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by croschamb
The Xenia's are rapidly taking over the tank. Could they be a source of the problem?

More than likely the Xenia is utilizing excess DOC's. S.G. of your water is 1.023? How do you measure it? Why so low?
Do you have a good skimmer? Do you run carbon? What kind of water flow do you have?
Hammers and CC corals send out sweepers at night.

 

[croschamb]

SG, PH measured using American Marine monitors. Recently recalibrated both devices. Historically always kept SG between 1.023 -1.024. Berlin Skimmer & Chemi-Pure for over 10 years.