What's wrong with my hammer coral? Is this brown jelly disease?

[RooftopKorean]

Hello everyone, hope everyone's having a good day. Since yesterday, I noticed my hammer coral wasn't opening up as much as it used to and today I noticed it was the same so, I looked closer with a flashlight and found this brown substance on my coral. I'm wondering if this is brown jelly disease? I know I'd have to put the coral into a quarantine tank first but what do I do after it's in a QT to treat the coral? I've been battling cloudy waters (which has slowly been getting better) after doing almost 50% water change but I don't think that could've affected the coral. I also have two clownfishes and Lastly, Ive also spot fed the coral twice (2 days apart) with BRS reef chili that's about an year old. If anyone could help me explain what's going on with my coral and what I need to do I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

Water parameter -
Ammonia - 0 (Red Sea)
PH - 7.8 (API)
Nitrite - 0 (API)
Nitrate - 10 (API)
Phosphate - 0.05 (Hanna)
dKH - 6.2 (Hanna)
Salinity - 36.8 (Hanna)
Calcium - 576 (Hanna)

 

[Brazilian Reefer]

Don’t look like brown jelly to me, but let’s see what other users say.
IMO, calcium is too high (better between 380-450), which lead us to low alkalinity.
I prefer kH around 7-7.5 or even 8.
Hope the coral gets well soon, my friend.

 

[RooftopKorean]

Don’t look like brown jelly to me, but let’s see what other users say.
IMO, calcium is too high (better between 380-450), which lead us to low alkalinity.
I prefer kH around 7-7.5 or even 8.
Hope the coral gets well soon, my friend.

Thanks for your response! and that's good to know about my calcium. Some other posts tell me to lower calcium, I'd have to let the tank do it's thing but is there any other way I could lower my calcium?
Thanks for the well wishes, I hope your tank continues to be healthy!

 

[Brazilian Reefer]

Thanks for your response! and that's good to know about my calcium. Some other posts tell me to lower calcium, I'd have to let the tank do it's thing but is there any other way I could lower my calcium?
Thanks for the well wishes, I hope your tank continues to be healthy!

What are you dosing in your tank? If you have few corals, maybe there is no need to dose (kH/Ca/Mg etc yet), because still there is no real consumption, only water chages may take care.
I guess you could try a 10-15% (or even 20%) water change to see if the calcium goes down. That's what I would do.
Keep us posted.
Thank you too!

 

[RooftopKorean]

What are you dosing in your tank? If you have few corals, maybe there is no need to dose (kH/Ca/Mg etc yet), because still there is no real consumption, only water chages may take care.
I guess you could try a 10-15% (or even 20%) water change to see if the calcium goes down. That's what I would do.
Keep us posted.
Thank you too!

at the moment, I'm not dosing with anything. I do have coral nutrition I want to try out but I'm trying to beat the cloudy water fully first before I try anything else. It's been two weeks now since my last water change so, It'd be a good time to get the water changed but I'm just worried that would offset the balance and make the water super cloudy again. I'll let it run it's course for a couple days more and continue to observe!

 

[Brazilian Reefer]

at the moment, I'm not dosing with anything. I do have coral nutrition I want to try out but I'm trying to beat the cloudy water fully first before I try anything else. It's been two weeks now since my last water change so, It'd be a good time to get the water changed but I'm just worried that would offset the balance and make the water super cloudy again. I'll let it run it's course for a couple days more and continue to observe!

I understand.
I like to do weekly 10-15% water change here. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Does not look like brown jelly to me, but it does look like a brand new tank? Hammer is a little picky and will struggle in a new tank. Try to keep the parameters as stable as possible.

 

[resortez]

Can you share some background on your system, first setup, how long since nitrogen cycle finished, filtration, light schedule, inhabitants, regiment, etc???? In my personal experience, your PH seems low, 7.8 is approaching a neutral zone in the scale & coral thrive in a higher alkaline environment, numbers above 8.0. I also second Brazilian reefer on you dKh & would also suggest in keeping that parameter above 8. The mento. Of cloudiness is concerning & recommend in figuring out what is the root of that problem. In my experience, cloudiness usually stems from rapid parameter swings that lead to micro fauna die off, the life source of the environment. I would personally start with fixing the cloudiness issue first because it’s an obvious visual problem that is not natural to the environment. Then tackle parameters to more natural numbers & return to trying coral again.

 

[resortez]

Does not look like brown jelly to me, but it does look like a brand new tank? Hammer is a little picky and will struggle in a new tank. Try to keep the parameters as stable as possible.

Second this as well. Euphyllia are extremely sensitive to minor swings in parameters, especially alkalinity

 

[RooftopKorean]

Does not look like brown jelly to me, but it does look like a brand new tank? Hammer is a little picky and will struggle in a new tank. Try to keep the parameters as stable as possible.

Yeah, my tank's on the new side. It's coming up on 2 and a half months in a couple days. That makes sense, the only thing I can think of is because my ATO's broken, the water level's been at the minimum for a little bit now which probably made the salinity go up and made my coral struggle. I'll have to work on replacing my ATO and keeping the water at a good level manually.

 

[RooftopKorean]

Looking a bit worse today, I only started to keep my water level at a good level since yesterday. I'm guessing as long as I keep everything super stable, the coral might bounce back. Would you guys recommend adding coral nutrition at this time to assist the coral come back?

 

[crabgrass]

I would vote on parameter swings. I had a couple of hammers in a 20g and it was constant rolller coaster. Prob a mix of nutrients, and salinity changes.

I put them (and a bunch of other eupplhyllia), into a 100g and tried to keep parameters steady and they look amazing.

Best thing to do is figure out how to put a check on a new parameters. N and P in a brand new tank will fluctuate a lot. And in a new - new tank, it’s probably best to not fight it outside of water changes. Alk, temp, salinity are no brainers though. And if P is getting too high, you could use GFO in a newer tank sparingly.

My parameter-
Salinity - 35
N and P are slightly higher than yours (but semi-roller coaster.. new tank with 85% dry rock)
Alk - 8.3
Calcium - 420-ish
Temp - 78.3

I feed the corals once a week and the fish 5 times a day (much heavier than I did in the 20g). Big CuC as well

 

[RooftopKorean]

Can you share some background on your system, first setup, how long since nitrogen cycle finished, filtration, light schedule, inhabitants, regiment, etc???? In my personal experience, your PH seems low, 7.8 is approaching a neutral zone in the scale & coral thrive in a higher alkaline environment, numbers above 8.0. I also second Brazilian reefer on you dKh & would also suggest in keeping that parameter above 8. The mento. Of cloudiness is concerning & recommend in figuring out what is the root of that problem. In my experience, cloudiness usually stems from rapid parameter swings that lead to micro fauna die off, the life source of the environment. I would personally start with fixing the cloudiness issue first because it’s an obvious visual problem that is not natural to the environment. Then tackle parameters to more natural numbers & return to trying coral again.

Thanks for the deep insight, My tank's a Innovative marine 40 Long, I have a Bean animal style overflow that goes to a Innovative marine RFS 22 Sump. In that sump, it contains two media cups with a 4 x 8 POLYBIO polyfilter pad on top. One media cup has Fluval biomax biological material remover(500g) and cotton balls from NUVO purity pack, and the other cup contains charcoal pouches with a GFO pouch and cotton balls and a aquamax fc80 skimmer. I have two Xstream powerheads, a helio 200 watt heater, a might jet return pump, and two AI prime 16's for lights. My rocks are all dry rock and the sand is two bags of carib sea special grade Arag-alive reef sand and one bag of fiji pink arag alive reef sand. The nitrogen cycle finished around Janurary and since then everything's been stable all until I did a huge water change (close to 50%) and since then things have become challenging. I'm using Nano Karen's light settings under AI primes signature settings. I have two clown fishes nad one coral who I feed everyday at 11am and 7pm (excluding the coral). I've been feeding them nutridiet shrimp flakes probiotics formula but think I've been feeding them a bit too much so am trying to cut down on how much I give them. I've only spot fed my coral twice two days apart and last feeding was 4 days ago now. I do 25% water changes every two weeks. That's really all I can think of. So, it sounds like I need to raise my PH and dKh and yeah, I've heard UV lights help with cloudiness (though it doesn't get to the root of the issue) so, I'm currently saving for one from BRS. Thanks for the info, it's a huge help to me!

 

[RooftopKorean]

I would vote on parameter swings. I had a couple of hammers in a 20g and it was constant rolller coaster. Prob a mix of nutrients, and salinity changes.

I put them (and a bunch of other eupplhyllia), into a 100g and tried to keep parameters steady and they look amazing.

Best thing to do is figure out how to put a check on a new parameters. N and P in a brand new tank will fluctuate a lot. And in a new - new tank, it’s probably best to not fight it outside of water changes. Alk, temp, salinity are no brainers though. And if P is getting too high, you could use GFO in a newer tank sparingly.

Thanks for your response, now that I think about it, I didn't have a heater for the new salt water during my last water change and I know I poured it slowly into the sump but the temperature still fluctuated quite a bit and I wouldn't be surprised if that caused all of these issues. I should've known better and just went out and bought a heater but lesson learned. Do you have any tips on raising the PH? My PH is too low at 7.8 as I've learned it should be above 8.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looking a bit worse today, I only started to keep my water level at a good level since yesterday. I'm guessing as long as I keep everything super stable, the coral might bounce back. Would you guys recommend adding coral nutrition at this time to assist the coral come back?

Not a good beginner coral. They dont thrive well with chemistry changes, even water changes can upset them.
Hammers are intolerant to major swings in water quality, and sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water especially if any tap water was added. Calcium and alk are important parameters that will affect their growth and this coral will start to die off if calcium levels are too low which should be about 400 ppm.
Basically, avoid bright light and water flow and dark lighting. Bright lights cause bleaching and low lighting will cause them to shrink and starve. Maintain moderate light for their photosynthesis and keep it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
I suspect your Po4 and Nitrates are elevated and may be causing this

 

[crabgrass]

Thanks for your response, now that I think about it, I didn't have a heater for the new salt water during my last water change and I know I poured it slowly into the sump but the temperature still fluctuated quite a bit and I wouldn't be surprised if that caused all of these issues. I should've known better and just went out and bought a heater but lesson learned. Do you have any tips on raising the PH? My PH is too low at 7.8 as I've learned it should be above 8.

I did the same in my 20g and would lead to mega temp swings. Everything lived, but was not happy .

Getting your Alk up will help ph. If you have a fuge with a light, than can help too. Mine is 8-8.2. I am experimenting with a co2 scrubber to help keep it more even at night.

 

[FernBluffReef]

Thanks for your response! and that's good to know about my calcium. Some other posts tell me to lower calcium, I'd have to let the tank do it's thing but is there any other way I could lower my calcium?
Thanks for the well wishes, I hope your tank continues to be healthy!

I’d ask if you are confident in the Calcium reading. Keeping in mind, The Hanna checker is very sensitive - more sensitive then other tests.

Suggest. Make sure you’re using vapor distilled water that has no additives. Don’t trust/use your RO/DI water in the test as calcium often gets passed thru the filters and the result is an erroneously high reading (or at least check first to see if your RO/DI is having an affect on the test). For example, when I tried using my RO the checker maxed out at 600 even though my TDS reads 0. I’m now using vapor distilled and have on order some lab grade distilled as again the test is very sensitive.

Also be careful even a tiny tiny partial drop extra tank water will also get you a high reading.

Did I say the test was sensitive. It’s great and I’m very happy with mine but you have to be very precise

 

[aggrofish]

Your calcium is high because you alkalinity is so low. The cloudy water is probably a bacterial bloom. Uv will clear it. I’d take everything out of the sump (GFo etc) and let your tank balance out. Don’t address issues before they’re actual issues. You don’t want to be running GFO with PO4 at .05 that’s asking for trouble IMO. Unfortunately there’s almost no tissue on that hammer and it’s receding. At that point it’s often too late

 

[RooftopKorean]

Not a good beginner coral. They dont thrive well with chemistry changes, even water changes can upset them.
Hammers are intolerant to major swings in water quality, and sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water especially if any tap water was added. Calcium and alk are important parameters that will affect their growth and this coral will start to die off if calcium levels are too low which should be about 400 ppm.
Basically, avoid bright light and water flow and dark lighting. Bright lights cause bleaching and low lighting will cause them to shrink and starve. Maintain moderate light for their photosynthesis and keep it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
I suspect your Po4 and Nitrates are elevated and may be causing this

That's what I get for impulse buying corals. It was this green hammer coral and a purple/pink torch coral. $150 down the drain but ironically the green hammer coral survived a harsh dipping (my first time) whereas the torch did not so I thought this guy was a tank. Thanks for the tip, I'll try to keep it at a moderate light location with decent flow. I'm going to remove the polypad filter and add some coral nutrients tonight.

 

[RooftopKorean]

I did the same in my 20g and would lead to mega temp swings. Everything lived, but was not happy .

Getting your Alk up will help ph. If you have a fuge with a light, than can help too. Mine is 8-8.2. I am experimenting with a co2 scrubber to help keep it more even at night.

dang, smaller tanks really are much harder than larger tanks. I unfortunately don't have a fuge but I do believe I have some nutrients from aquaforest that I could add to help with getting my alk up. Quick question, do you run your scrubber with your skimmer? how do you have you sump setup?