dieing hammer

[jerryc]

I had a hammer that started looking bad thought maybe the location
so i moved it and the next morning it was almost all gone and a green cap next to it was effected with whatever it was.[ I removed the hammer ]
that was Friday and i have changed water 6 gallon a day for the last
3 days. looks like i have got a hand on it as the cap looks no worse
but don't no whit happened as ever thing is OK are close to it

Calcium 380 a little low normally at 400 to 420
ALK 8.6 kh
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
SG 1.022 a little low as i keep it at 1.024

Anyone have some ideal whit happened

[davejnz]

Jerry,can you elaborate on how it happened.Was there a slow recession?was there any jelly like substance on the coral?How long did you have it?

[jerryc]

Dave iv had it about a year went from 2 heads to over 20 and it went
out almost over night and it had some stringy jelly on it and that
at least i thank that was whit was hearting the cap

[davejnz]

If it was a jelly like substance,its probably the dreaded bropwn jelly infection.Its tough to stop,it took me 3 iodine dips while blasting the jelly off with a syringe.Then taking pure Lugols and putting it on the outer margin of healthy tissue.

[jerryc]

I'm glad i went ahead and got it out of the tank iv had coral for
sometime and haven't seen one go so fast.
Don't wont to lose the cap so ill go ahead and give it a dip just in
case

[dsfdbutterfly]

Due to this post I decided to look up brown jelly desease. Never heard of it before. Glad I didn't know about it before. After looking at a few pictures and reading a few articles this stuff is one nasty bug. The thing is I think I had some of it affect my waving hands xenia and didn't know that's what it was. I took a baby nose sucker and sucked off what I could cuz I thought it was algae. I then moved them into direct water flow, the one that doesn't turn off. It took about a week but now the colony is comming back and there are even more than there were before. I just thought that the snails were mowing them over. My question is this. By doing that and not actually treating it with anything have I possibly spread it to anything else? Nothing looks bad so I would say I didn't but how long does it take for this stuff to pop up? I will be examining everything with a fine tooth comb tonight if you know what I mean just trying to see if anyone has a thought on it.

Thanks, Angie

[jerryc]

I just removed the hammer for good not worth taking chance on i can
always get a frag from the same place i got that one.
But the thing that surprised me is the speed it went seamed like
over night i may have just mist seeing it for a day but not longer
as i check ever thing most ever day

[davejnz]

Angie,I think this condition mainly effects LPS corals although i have heard isolated cases with soft corals getting it to.It is HIGHLY contagious but it usually takes the jelly like material to come in contact with another coral for it to spread(this is my own anecdotal evidence)
Jerry,I know what you mean,I bought an 8" diameter Favia sp. from the LFS a few weeks ago.It already had the infection but i have a tendency to buy dieng/sick corals from the LFS to see if i can save them.Half of the colony had already succumbed to the infection.I used my grinder and cut the dead half off.The healthy half had isolated spots with the jelly like substance.OUTSIDE of the tank,I blasted the jelly with a syringe thouroughly and gave it a 1min Lugols dip.I then placed it in my sump.The next day,the jelly was back and spreading fast.I removed the coral from the tank and repeated the syring blasting/removal of jely technique.I then took a small syring w/needle and drew up 5cc of Lugols and then traced a line around the healthy tissue.I put the coral back in the sump but had to leave for the weekend.When i arrived back,the jelly had now spread engulfing about half of the original healthy piece i cut.I repeated the same cleaning/lugols procedure but this time i put the colony in a high flow are opf the tank.It is now finally recovered but out of the original 8'diameter circle shaped colony,I now only have 1/4 of it left.At least i was able to save some though and this whole ordeal taught me alot about this condition.

[davejnz]

pics of coral.First pic is the dead half,there were a few isolated marginal sections of healthy tissue but they succumbed quickly.The next pic WAS the healthy half.