Should I just ditch what is left of this hammer-coral?

[RioReefr]

(See attached photos).

This "used-to-be" a healthy 30+-bud colony, then one by one each head started dying.

So, I split a healthy part off and divided them into 3 different areas in the tank. #1 part completely died off, #2 part has thrived and doing fine, the other #3 part was doing well but now almost completely dead.

I am almost convinced it is some "pest" that is just going around feasting like like virus. Anyway, should I just let it die completely or remove it from the tank? At this point there are only 2 healthy buds on it.

BTW, all my other corals are doing great and my water parameters are good. This has been an on-going event for several months now (with no idea why things will look good then a bud will shrivel up and die).

 

[mcgyvr]

Its still alive at this point...

 

[CSmooth2009]

I would keep it until there was literally nothing left at this point


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[daviesp007]

My hammerhead did this while I was letting my tank run fallow after an ich outbreak. I (stupidly) wasn't keeping an eye on the nitrate levels in the display tank, as all my fish were in the QT being treated with copper. Hammerheads don't like nitrates at all, and I thought I had lost mine. Once I got the nitrates back under control, it grew back to its former glory. I now keep my nitrates to undetectable levels with carbon dosing.

If your nitrates are good, I'm not sure what this could be.

 

[CSmooth2009]

What's ur flow... I have had the same issue with a hammer a while back and the high flow will slowly start ripping the flesh off ur coral


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[sde1500]

Keep it. Have you tried any sort of dip? Do you run carbon?

 

[RioReefr]

Keep it. Have you tried any sort of dip? Do you run carbon?

I have tried everything:

I have lighted scrubbed the faint amount of algae on the branches
I have dipped in an iodine solution
I have dipped in low hydrogen peroxide solution
I have used MatrixCarbon
I have used NoPox

What's strange, the first photo in my above post is from the same colony and the current state of this part. It is elevated and stuck in a porous rock, and I would say it get more flow than the dying part which is down on the sand-bed.

This has been on-going problem for me for at least 4 months.

I used to have a peppermint shrimp (until I got a Flame Hawkfish) who had gotten eaten. I am only speculating, but my big hammer colony was thriving until my shrimp died. I don't know, I am thinking there were some tiny pests that were getting eaten by the shrimp and then after he died then they were able to attack the hammer coral.

One thing I have read that I have yet to try and soaking the coral in a high salinity solution (1.030 +). Pests don't like the high salinity and will scurry (so some have speculated).
I might try that or go the 2-3 minutes of dipping a diluted hydrogen peroxide.

There are only 2 healthy buds left on this branch so I have already accepted there are going to die in the near future.

I am open to any suggestions.

 

[Fourstars]

I'm always amazed of the ability of a coral to make a comeback!

 

[NO3]

I'm always amazed of the ability of a coral to make a comeback!

I once bought a Jason Fox chalice and the thing died except for this tiny tiny flake about 1mm round. I took that 1mm flake and refraged it on a disc and put in a deep shadow. Took about a year but that 1mm flake grew back out to be about 3in round.

Sooooooo. You never know. As long as you see color. It may have a 1% chance. Pitch it in the garbage...you'll never know what could have been.

 

[mndfreeze]

I had a dendro come back from a completely dead skeleton that was in an LFS tank. I purchased it as a seeder rock for a new 14G tank since I started with dry rock. It not only survived a month long nasty cycle, but I was also a super noob with his first reef tank and no idea *** I was doing.

It never made it past 2 larger polyps, but it survived the entire time my tank did, about a year or so, before I upgraded to a 40B custom for my mantis and passed the tank and rock off to a friend.

 

[alton]

Frag the remaining head from the rest of the skeleton and place in a different part of the tank

 

[slief]

My hammerhead did this while I was letting my tank run fallow after an ich outbreak. I (stupidly) wasn't keeping an eye on the nitrate levels in the display tank, as all my fish were in the QT being treated with copper. Hammerheads don't like nitrates at all, and I thought I had lost mine. Once I got the nitrates back under control, it grew back to its former glory. I now keep my nitrates to undetectable levels with carbon dosing.

If your nitrates are good, I'm not sure what this could be.

Hammers don’t have issues with nitrates in my experience. I keep my nitrates relatively high at .25 and my Wall and Branching Hammers thrive and have for many years. They key however is to have your No3 and Po4 in balance. If you have high nitrates and low Po4, that can be an issue because the system will be out of balance.

That said, wall hammers can be a bit testy. Flow, lighting etc need to good for them to thrive. I’ve found they like moderately intense lighting, medium flow and they do need some nutrients in the water as a food source.

 

[Uncle99]

I would dip in iodide (not iodine) solution, based on manufactures reccomendations for amount and time, rinse, and hope.
Reminds me of infection....

 

[RioReefr]

I have read through these posts and they would all be good advice, except I have a thriving hammer (see attached) in the same tank that was taken from the same colony.
If there was something disagreeable to the water parameters, I would expect this not to look too good.

I am leaning towards the "pest" idea.

 

[alton]

The only remaining question is "was this frag/colony close to the water return pipe from the sump as compared to the other colony that is doing fine? If so then you may either dosed something or added FW to the sump too fast. I had this happen with bio pellets in a reactor in my sump, my euphyllia didn't like it and started losing heads. Threw the reactor out and fragged the remaining heads. The first picture is when I set up the tank, the second is a more recent photo that shows plenty of euphyllia and I have probably sold 20+ two headed frags to boot.

 

[RioReefr]

The only remaining question is "was this frag/colony close to the water return pipe from the sump as compared to the other colony that is doing fine? .

I have an all-in-one tank, so currently no sump. Honestly, the "doing-fine" colony is closer to the return pump then the "not-doing-fine" colony.
I only use Seachem products -- Phosphagen, MatrixCarbon, MatrixRock and Reef Fusion 2-Part.
I had used a small dose ( 0.2 mL) of NoPox on a daily basis, but stopped doing that a couple of months ago.
I use Red Sea Salt mix at 1.025 (tested with a refractometer).

For a little while, I was using a highly diluted solution (5g per 10 Liters) of kalkwasser in my ATO. But, I stopped doing that.

I try to keep the following parameters:

Salinity: 1.024 - 1.025
79 degrees
pH 8.3
dKh: 8-8.5
Ca: 420-450
Mg: for some reason, the Red Sea Tester always measures high (1300-1400).