What happened to my Hammer?

[oimate84]

Just recently I lost a hammer coral and im shock why I lost it. I hear that a hammer coral can be an indicater of water quality, but all my 25 other corals are thriving, just this one died. And it was expanded fully a couple of days before it died. Has anyone else had bad luck with just there hammer coral dying. First a couple of polyps from the hammer coral started to "melt", then 3 days later most polyps were gone and the skeleton was bleached. My lighting and water parameters are as follows:

Dual 175watt 10k halides
Dual 65 watt PC actinics

Nitrates: No detectable levels
Calcium: 450
Alk: 5 Dkh
Ammonia:0

 

[liquid]

What's your salinity and temperature? FWIW, your alkalinity is kinda low. Most people shoot for a dKH of 8-10.

Shane

 

[oimate84]

Salinity at 1.024 and Temp. doesnt get past 83. Usually fluctuates from 78-82 everyday.

 

[mountainbiker619]

Are you adding any additives?
I had the same prob, could not keep hammers, could keep frogspans, torches and all..but not hammers. Found the problem to be a certain additive I was using.

 

[Fastmarc]

Sounds like your hammer could be the victim of a 'brown jelly' infection. I recently lost half of a hammer (Euphyllia ancora) to such an infection. I took aggressive actions and was able to save it.

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, next time that happens frag it immediately.
Jim

 

[oimate84]

Fastmarc, looks like the "brown jelly" infection was the cause of my hammer dying. Just read up on it in Bornemans book and it seems like thats the cause.

MountainBkr, I recently started adding iodine to the tank, might be a factor, who knows but i stopped dosing as of today...ohh well ill try again on a euphillya in the future...