Help Hammers melting

[Thell]

Hi everyone, I could use some help and any advise would be appreciated. I recently had one of my hammers melt and die after we caught hermit crabs digging in it. It eventually turned brown and rotted in a matter of a day or 2.Since then 2 of my other Hammers have been looking bad. In the past month I have added 2 Leather Umbrella Corals and a meteor shower frag. any ideas?? is it possible the crabs didn't kill it and its chem warfare or something else?

Coralife biocube 29gal stock lighting with the 4 additional LED strips
.I have zoas,xenias,star polyps, torches and hammers along with the newly added stuff..

for fish I have 2 clowns and a chromis
inverts Fireshrimp, strawberry crab, 2 scarlet hermits, emerald crab, 10 blue legged hermits,15 Astria snails, 10 nassarius snails, an uknown zoa covered clam, feather duster worm and a seastar

water levels....(using mostly api tests)
Ammonia 0
DKH 8
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
PH 8.1
phosphate 0
Magnesium 1320
Calcium 360
Iodine .06
Salinity 1.025
Temp 80
I have added a sealab 28 block to bring up calcium and things are staying the same

 

[heathlindner25]

No cursing on Reef Central bud

 

[heathlindner25]

I was trying to help you before Brian came

 

[Thell]

I didn't realize I had even did that or it was a problem...Thanks

 

[heathlindner25]

I didn't realize I had even did that or it was a problem...Thanks

No problem, have you researched brown jelly disease?

 

[Thell]

I have and it kinda looks like that could have been what was wrong with the first, but the other 2(1 is pictured) have stayed the same for a few days and possibly improved and have had no jelly substance at all

 

[heathlindner25]

What test kits are you using? If your no3 & po4 are truly that low that could be a Cause, the leathers could also be a cause in such a small system. Sometimes certain tanks won't grow certain Coral.... also very frustrating.
Welcome to the wonderful world of reefkeeping.
I have a system that does great with frogspawn & Hammer but a torch won't stay alive to save my life

 

[Thell]

Api kits for most part and seachem on iodine and nyos for mag

 

[heathlindner25]

Api kits for most part and seachem on iodine and nyos for mag

This Hobbies about keeping water ,not Coral or fish. I would invest in some low range test kits for nitrate and phosphate, alkalinity and calcium too. It's really hard to diagnose anything when you're guessing on water chemistry

 

[Dkuhlmann]

The best treatment for brown jelly disease is a series of iodine dips. Here is a link about treating bacterial infections in corals. It's still hit or miss with saving them, a lot depends on how soon you catch the BJD. Good luck!

http://www.athiel.com/lib/bacterial.html

 

[Thell]

Thanks for the link It was very informative, the 2 surviving corals are stabilizing and are a little better, I moved them further away from my large umbrella leather (that will be gone shortly to another tank) ... Thell

 

[ethuman]

I have recently had an issue with my LPS also retracting and it turned out the API test kit for nitrates was the problem. I was registering 0 with my test kit so I decided to take a sample to the LFS and they registered 40!!!! Before I did this I lost a torch and a hammer is hanging on for dear life right now. Maybe get a second test kit to see if that could be an issue, just a suggestion. Good Luck