hammer dying

[mncspradlin]

Hello, small problem.
Last week my diamond goby sifted too much sand and I had an avalanche of rock. Unfortunately my hammer coral landed face down in the sand for a couple hours before I noticed. Now I am losing the coral from one end. It is a long piece of coral appx 4 inches long. I have about 3/4 of skelleton on one end showing.
Does anyone know how to stop the progression of loss. first I only lost the tip and every day it seems to lose a little more.
Thanks

 

[melosu58]

First thing I would do is do a good size water change to make sure water params are Ok. Do you see any damage to the fleshy part?

 

[lando]

Is this an encrusting or a branching hammer? The good news is that if you loose one head, the others may still be okay. You can siply frag off the dead one. It is possible that some of the sustrate could have gotton stuck in the coral causing irritation. Give it some time. Watch for brown jelly infection. As mentioned, do a water change and post parameters. It may also be a good idea to start running some fresh carbon or chemi-pure.

 

[mncspradlin]

already changed all the carbon, all parameters are normal, it is an encrusting hammer so I will lose the whole thing if I can't stop it. Yes I have brown jelly like slime on the damaged end. How do I stop it? I lose about 1/8 inch daily now. I've lost about 1/4 of the 4 inch piece already. Please help.

 

[lando]

You can try to brake off the infected portion. Brown jelly will spread rapidly and there is not a lot that can be done. As a last ditch effort, you can try a Lugol's Solution dip. Kent a bottle of Kent's Lugol's iodine solution and follow the directions for a treatment. It has variying dgreess of success

 

[melosu58]

I agree I had some success with the Iodine dip but I used kent`s

 

[seaham358]

Any way to get a pic? It may be just dying tissue that is brown and not an infection. Like the others said you can frag off the dying part. If you do cut it off make sure you cut some of the good tissue off also.