Hammer coral dying

[bearman88]

Hello - typically my hammer coral have been super healthy and hardy. Last month, I lost about a 4" wall hammer - which I thought was due to lack of flow. It died in about 1 week.

Then last week I lost this branching hammer's 4 heads as you can see in the photo. Now it looks like the 5th head is dying, see blue arrow.

sg: 1.025
temp: 78.3
nitrate: 16.1
phosphate: .02
alk: 7.8 - been a little low trying to get back up to stable 8.4
calcium: has been dipping some to 380 2 weeks ago - need to retest today (all other coral seem fine)


Any ideas on what I can do here? There are many vermitid snails on it but they've been there forever and shouldn't be killing it this aggressively. Thank you.

 

[VintageReefer]

Is the white spot skeleton or is it bleached/dying polyps?

 

[Dburr1014]

Is the white spot skeleton or is it bleached/dying polyps?

Looks like the mouth spilling the menstrile filaments.

How long have you been at 0.02 po4?
Lights?
Flow?

 

[VintageReefer]

Looks like the mouth spilling the menstrile filaments.

How long have you been at 0.02 po4?
Lights?
Flow?

If that’s true, and I didn’t consider this before you mentioned it, then the hammer is severely ticked off. Hammers will release sweepers, not filaments, a a first line of defense and offense

 

[bearman88]

Looks like the mouth spilling the menstrile filaments.

How long have you been at 0.02 po4?
Lights?
Flow?

My phosphate and nitrate have been a bit of a roller coaster over the past few months - but I've finally got them as stable and 'right' as they have ever been. But I am facing a bad bubble algae outbreak right now. I am running phosguard in a reactor. I really want an algae scrubber.

Flow seems fine - just a nice swaying of the colony - not too rough, maybe could increase slightly.

Phosphate log:

 

[bearman88]

Here are some more pics as the lights come on. Also attached is lighting schedule. I did increase the overall intensity of schedule back in April from about 25% average power to what you see here.

 

[Dburr1014]

Dropping po4 from 0.22 to 0.02 is tough on coral. It aligns with losing heads.
Why did it spike?
How much phosgaurd are you using? How often did you change it?

I could be wrong no doubt.
Maybe more people will chime in.

 

[VintageReefer]

I had a spike and went from .34 to .02 in 6 days with no ill effects.

I suspect something is physically wrong so the the hammer or physically irritating it.

Any fish or inverts showing a lot of attention/interest in or near it ?

 

[bearman88]

I had a spike and went from .34 to .02 in 6 days with no ill effects.

I suspect something is physically wrong so the the hammer or physically irritating it.

Any fish or inverts showing a lot of attention/interest in or near it ?

Nah fish leaving it alone. Another possible culprit is I accidentally hit one or two heads while trying to kill some vermitid snails with the turkey baster. Could hitting one head cause a chain reaction to multiple heads?

 

[bearman88]

Dropping po4 from 0.22 to 0.02 is tough on coral. It aligns with losing heads.
Why did it spike?
How much phosgaurd are you using? How often did you change it?

I could be wrong no doubt.
Maybe more people will chime in.

I have to look back but it may have spiked when I removed a lot of bubble algae? Seems like maybe it was storing/buffering PO4? Which worries me when I go to remove the (lots) of new bubble growth. I have 7 emerald crabs arriving today to help get it under control + manual removal lol. My long term solution is PO4 control with phosguard and/or algae scrubber.

I have been using about 1 cup of phosguard changed out every month, or when I noticed the PO rising.

 

[bearman88]

Update this afternoon: the blue circled head seems to look healthy for now. The mouth is slightly enlarged but not alarming looking.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello - typically my hammer coral have been super healthy and hardy. Last month, I lost about a 4" wall hammer - which I thought was due to lack of flow. It died in about 1 week.

Then last week I lost this branching hammer's 4 heads as you can see in the photo. Now it looks like the 5th head is dying, see blue arrow.

sg: 1.025
temp: 78.3
nitrate: 16.1
phosphate: .02
alk: 7.8 - been a little low trying to get back up to stable 8.4
calcium: has been dipping some to 380 2 weeks ago - need to retest today (all other coral seem fine)


Any ideas on what I can do here? There are many vermitid snails on it but they've been there forever and shouldn't be killing it this aggressively. Thank you.

This is polyp bail;out and while I have seen regrowth after months, it is slim. Causes are too much light, very high phosphates, mainly high flow and low calcium levels

 

[bearman88]

This is polyp bail;out and while I have seen regrowth after months, it is slim. Causes are too much light, very high phosphates, mainly high flow and low calcium levels

Thank you and everyone for the replies. We'll see where it goes. This morning, before lights came on, I noticed the same blue circled head's mouth was 'white' again/turned out etc.

Hopefully at least one head of the entire colony will make it.