Bin Weed Posted November 19, 2004 Share Posted November 19, 2004 I brought the hammer home from the lfs about 1 and a half or two weeks ago. For the past two days there has been a problem... A small peice of the coral seems to be dieing. The flesh that covors the rock is deteriorating and peeling away. The hammers tenticles look like a brown sludge or goop that just lying against the top part of the skeleton. There is nothing near the coral that could sting it. 10 gallon. 96 watt owerquad. i know i have pleanty of flow in the tank I do water changes with distilled water everyweek. Fish: Royal Gramma Parameters. 78 degrees NO2- .05 ppm NO3- .0 ppm Ammonia- .13 ppm Salt- 1.026 (i know this is high. im slowly bringing the lvl down to about 24 or 23). The only thing im suplimenting for now are HBH balance blocks. (if you call them supliments). Anyone have any ideas on what the problem could be? Thanks for reading if you made it this far -Ben Link to comment
raciampa Posted November 19, 2004 Share Posted November 19, 2004 Don't use distilled use RO! It makes a world of difference. Your LFS should sell it for about 49cents a gallon. If you want your own system my uncle sells them aquaticreefsystems.com. Tell him Bobby sent you. Good Luck! Link to comment
Bin Weed Posted November 19, 2004 Author Share Posted November 19, 2004 LFC uses tap... dont start to flame them they know what there doin. I cant get ro anywhere around here. im at college and i dont have a car. ive looked at all the local stores for some ro but no store sells it. I doubt its the distilled water but it could be. I dont have any room the dorm room for a system. Thanks for your input -ben Link to comment
cooldec2686 Posted November 19, 2004 Share Posted November 19, 2004 your nitrite readings are definatly too high and amonia is probably not there, most test kits aren't that accurate. But still check them both. As far as why the coral is dying, it could be the water quality or it could bethat it is getting battered by to muck water flow directly at it and is cutting itself on its skeleton. Link to comment
raciampa Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 Test your distilled water before you mix in the salt; see if that is were your ammonium is coming from. Link to comment
holyherbiness Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 good distilled water has no stuff in it.. you detect ammonia, nitrate. ammonia=death for corals. do the healthy parts exhibit good polyp expansion? or are they all on the run? Link to comment
Bin Weed Posted November 22, 2004 Author Share Posted November 22, 2004 They do exhibit good polyp extension. i noticed another one of these trouble spots now forming. I tested the distilled and it had no ammonia. I still have some investigating to do. The coral is comming home with me to my 38 this thanksgiving and im goin to bring r/o water from back at home Thanks for the help Ben Link to comment
Raddogz Posted November 23, 2004 Share Posted November 23, 2004 Can hammer corals take that much light? I know, I know don't hold that much stock in the watt per gallon thing, but isn't it like 9.6 watts over that 10. I just exchangedone of my failing pc's with a new one, and the hammer just retracted like a bat out of hell. That is one out of two, plus a 175watt over my 50 gallon - not a nano tank. Link to comment
ODOG Posted November 23, 2004 Share Posted November 23, 2004 The potential problem with distilled water isn't that it could contain ammonia...distilled water can be distilled in copper pipes...copper and reefs don't mix. If the tank is cycled properly the ammonia should be zero...how long has your tank been running? You have no nitrate? You haven't cycled the tank. The hammer is a goner. The specific gravity you state 1.026 is fine, doesn't need to come down. Link to comment
melcolm Posted November 23, 2004 Share Posted November 23, 2004 Brown jelly disease...your hammer is doomed. This bacterial infection is usually caused by dead matter rotting. Frag any heads that aren't affected by the diseased areas, and get rid of the dying pieces. Link to comment
Bin Weed Posted November 26, 2004 Author Share Posted November 26, 2004 will this disease spread to the other corals in the tank? And can i scrape (for lack of a better word) the brown jelly off of the skele? The tank is 2 months old. I know the tank has cycled. And incase anyone is wandering i put the coral in a different tank and it looks much better after day one. thanks for everyone help, Ben Link to comment
toomuchnano Posted November 26, 2004 Share Posted November 26, 2004 It seems that hammers, frogspawn, and galaxia are very suseptible to this problem. I have had many run ins with rapid necrosis in areas that have been accidentilly damaged by its own skeleton. Each time I inspected the infected area I almost always found a couple small sharp pieces stuck into the flesh. When treating them I have had success by removing the lodged pieces from the flesh, then on a very regular basis, gently suck up the slime that develops on the area with a turkey baster. Most importantly, keep your water quality as PERFECT as possible and try to isolate it away from other corals. In most cases the infection stopped inside of a week, but with considerable loss. Eventually though it does grow back into the area. In the worst cases, I had to carefully cut the healthiest parts of the coral off....very few have survived this procedure. Good luck, Jacob Link to comment
Bin Weed Posted December 4, 2004 Author Share Posted December 4, 2004 Thanks for all your help. I ended up taking a hacksaw to the coral. I cut it from the bottom, when i was about 3/4 of an inch from the top of the coral i snapped off the remainder of the skeleton. Everything worked great. The coral is doing wonderfuly -ben Link to comment
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