Wall hammer suddenly not opening?

[LittleBee]

I bought this beautiful green and blue wall hammer last Tuesday. So it's been in my tank barely a week. I dipped it and then placed it in the tank on the bottom. It opened up nicely for the first few days and now it's not opening up and the flesh that connects the the skeleton is brownish. Is that flesh normal and I just didn't see it before bc it was fluffed up or is this hammer not doing well? I wanted to come here and ask before I start touching it or moving it around at all.

The hammer right now

And a couple days ago

 

[LittleBee]

Tank specs are

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10
Temp 79
Sg 1.024

Lighting is kessil a350w led

Water changes are done bi weekly.

 

[usmc121581]

Could be brown jelly disease

 

[LittleBee]

Thats what I was thinking but wasn't sure if that's what it looks like.

 

[kurt_n]

Not trying to be a smart aleck, but it actually looks like brown jelly! Not sure if that's what I'm seeing though.

It doesn't look like there's a lot of tissue that goes down the skeleton from the polyps. From my experience, once you start getting tissue recession where the septa (pointy skeleton part at the top) are showing, things go downhill quick. You might not have noticed the recession in the LFS because the polyps were all expanded and hiding that area. They also seem easily damaged if the LFS folks don't package it up well or handle it a little rough.

As long as it's in a low flow area, I'd probably just let it be and try and heal up. Moving any coral around a bunch just stresses it out more. But if you think that stuff is brown jelly, you definitely want to get it out of your display tank. It spreads to other corals pretty easy.

 

[kurt_n]

{edit: removed double post. not sure how that happened...}

 

[LittleBee]

I actually had my lfs special order it for me so I picked it up straight from the store when it got there. When I brought it home I did a lugols dip and then placed it in the sand so idk how it would have gotten brown jelly. Not saying that's not what it is bc it certainly looks like brown jelly. Should I see if I can suck the brown off? Should I do another lugols dip after sucking off the brown stuff?

 

[LittleBee]

So after getting home from work tonight I checked on the hammer to see if it's gotten any worse and indeed the brown goo has started to plague the coral. I decided it work be smart to dip it in a iodine solution called medicoral. It says it's for bacterial infections so figured why not Try it. While it was in the dip I also siphoned off all the brown goo that I could find. Under the goo was exposed skeleton which is never pleasing to see. Where the skeleton is exposed will the hammer flesh grow back? I then placed it back into the tank and within an hour or so it has opened up a bit. More than it has in the past two days. Here's a Picture right after dipping and then about an hr later.

Not a very happy camper after the dip

I think it's feeling a bit relieved of the brown goo.

 

[IamTomm]

What levels are your mag, alk, and calc?

 

[IamTomm]

double post

 

[kurt_n]

Crossing my fingers for you on this one. I haven't had much luck once the tissue receeds that far. I had a wall hammer that was injured like this, and unfortunately the tissue just kept "zippering" around the edge, showing more and more exposed skeleton, even in pristine conditions.

Sounds like you're doing everything you can. Just make sure it's not getting too much flow.

 

[LittleBee]

When I tested my mag, calc and alk a couple days ago it was

Calcium-330
Alk-9.8
Mag-920

Thanks Kurt, I really hope it pulls thru but at this point I am not hopeful. It looked good after the dip last night but this mornin it had white goo on it so I sucked that off but it is very tightly closed. I am so discouraged with my tank lately. I've been having nothing but problems. And it's costing me tons of money, makes me want to cry almost. I have a zoa colony that will only half open for no reason. It's been dipped and checked for parasites and still half closed. My acros are rtning while my montis are growing like crazy! Also I bought three leopard wrasses and two died almost instantly and the one is in the sand still...I think. I am desparatly afraid that this brown jelly will spread to my todds torch also. sorry for te rant but it upsets me and anybody I talk to just laughs at me for beig upset about my fishtank. I'm plans to turn this tank into an Lps tank with a couple sps and rics/zoas. I give up on acros, I pretty much hate them right now. Not worth the hassle to me.

 

[FNDsalt]

When I tested my mag, calc and alk a couple days ago it was

Calcium-330
Alk-9.8
Mag-920

Your Cal. and Mag. seem low. Cal. should be in the 420 range & Mag. you want up around 1250.

Truely hope the hammer comes around. like kurt_n said, just keep it in it's low flow area and try not to move it. Hopefully removing the dead tissue will help it heal.

I've never kept them personally, but I have read that acros need pristine water conditions compared to other SPS's. I didn't see a phosphate test done, but that might be a good place to start for finding out why they aren't doing well compared to the monti.

 

[kurt_n]

I doubt the decline of this coral had anything to do with you. Doesn't look like it ever had much tissue on the skeleton below the polyps before it got to you. That's kind of one strike against it. It probably got jostled around during shipment to the LFS and you're just now seeing the damage. That's one of the problems I've found when special ordering something like you did... it doesn't have time to sit in a LFS tank and have shipping damage become apparent.

As long as the brown jelly doesn't come back, I'm not sure if I'd be siphoning stuff off it. The "white goo" might have just been it trying to repair itself. Best thing going is if you have a hospital tank you can move it to. That way if the brown jelly is still there, it won't infect anything else.

While I don't think it has anything to do with the damage, your calcium is really low. I'd almost think you've got a bad test kit, except for the fact that your magnesium levels are low also... and right about where one would expect them to be if your calcium was around 300. What salt are you using? What are the calcium levels of the freshly made up salt water? As FNDsalt mentioned, you really need your calcium to be up over 400. If your freshly made saltwater calcium levels are up over 400, then you might want to start thinking about 2-part dosing (or something equivalent) to keep your calcium/alk levels up between water changes.

 

[LittleBee]

Sorry I forgot include the phosphate test which read 0. The brown goo seems to have come back again. I cleaned up the house and worked on other things all day and then came back to check on the Hammer and the brown is back. Unfortunatly I don't have a hospital tank to put it into, wish I did. I think you are right about the damage already being done. I just wish it was t so gosh darn expensive! Idk if I should keep siphoning it off, seems like the more I mess with it the more it will decline but also if I don't do anything it's going to die.

I use instant ocean salt. When I tested freshly made saltwater all the parameters were
Calc-360
Alk-15
Mag-760

That is after mixing Up the saltbucket to get it evenly distributed. I don't think the test kit is bad bc I just bought it. It's the red sea lab grade test kit.

I do believe acros need pristine water and even then they are a pain in the butt to keep alive. I think I'm giving up on them, too much effort for me to enjoy them sadly. I like Lps more anyways. I guess I am just having bad luck...still can't figure out why the zoas won't open all the way..on the other hand my acans, Duncan's,open Brian's, ricordias and maxi mini nem look awesome!!

 

[TheKman]

Well I hope your little guy survives, it's definitely a beauty

 

[IamTomm]

Your mag and calcium are low. And since nothing else is wrong its most likely the cause of the tissue recceding. I would start working on getting the parameters a little healthier. If not for the hammer I would do it for the health of the whole system.

 

[LittleBee]

Wouldn't the tissue on my branching hammer and also my todos torch also be having problems also if that's the cause. I think it was damaged to begin with. So I have to get a System? I didnt really want to be gettin into dosing and all. I want my tank to be pretty simple but still have nice corals. If I'm not heavy on the sps corals then the calc and mag doesn't really matter too much does it?

 

[Realposition]

I've had two torches get brown jelly before and they were both after they took some damage in shipment. I hate to say it but I think it's a goner and I would remove it from the tank with the flow off as to not spread it.

 

[IamTomm]

If you are using instant ocean switch to reef crystals(once you use up the rest the salt you have). Reef crystals if better for a reef tanks(corals and fish) Instant ocean is better for a fish only tank. Instant ocean has lower (and less consistency) parameters. Reef crystals will keep parameters a little high without dosing. Basically get the orange box not the purple. haha

Also I would start dosing Part A & Part B. Part A is calcium and some magnesium, Part B is alkaline. I use brightwell products, you should use what brand you thinks best. But Worry more about part A at the moment. Cause thats whats low in your tank.

Its not that difficult to dose. Just follow the directions on the bottle. And Test after dosing. Do it over a period of time and you will figure what your system is using and how often you need to dose. Its easier than it sounds.