Damage on green hammer!!

[nm reef]

My show size green hammer has begun to recede at one end...it had some slimmy stuff where it was recedeing...I moved it to a new location with a little more current in hope that it will reverse its decline...not sure what is causing the problem...until 2 days ago it was in the best of health...pics of it are available...everything else in the system is fine...calcium stable @450ppm...alkalinity stable @3.5meg/l...all other paramiters stable and no problems...sure would hate to loose this coral...any help or suggestions would be appreciated

 

[fish head]

I had the same problem 2X. The recession continued all the way across. It resulted when the hammer tipped onver onto the sand.
The first torch coral eventually died. The second time it happened and the recession was at 60% loss, I realized I was going to eventually loose the whole piece. So I took a hack saw and cut the dead part off.
That was 5 months ago. Today the hammer is thriving again.

 

[nm reef]

Thank you for the reply fishhead...I certainly hope it does not take the entire piece. This morning it appears to be stable. Maybe the light cleaning/removeal of damaged tissue combined with relocation to a new place in the reef helped. I am beginning to think it may be RTN...or possibly damage from a frogspawn that was approximately 8" away.
Not that it matters much...but sometimes I wonder why items I post recieve so little response......maybe its time to move on.........

 

[big dave]

Because torch+some hammer corals are branching, if one branch gets infected by a bacteria or is damaged you do not need to sacrafice the entire piece because, as fish head said, you can cut off the damaged pieces. This is also a way to propagate these types of corals by breaking off a branch and placing it somewhere else in your aquarium. Just my 2 cents-Big Dave

 

[mal]

You can also try a dip in some medication. I use kent tech D when I cut 'shrooms and I've used it one other time on on a fragged toadstool stump that looked funny. The shrooms did well and the toadstool recovered. It is an anti-bacterial / infection dip. The instructions are on the bottle, and it is cake to use. Is it a brown slime like gunk on the coral?

 

[diatom]

NM~ if it looks like all is lost you may try an iodine dip. Iodine can be very dangerous to use, but as a last ditch effort it can be very affective.
Let me know if that's the road you decide to take and I'll give you any info that you need.

 

[nm reef]

After checking and doing additional research it looks like RTN.....yes tissue is becoming brown and rather slimmy...looks like surgury(cut away the damaged area ) followed with a dip in lyguls iodine solution...also was told to cover the cut area with super glue to prevent infection...looks like this is the course I'll take....and hope for the best....
much thanks to those that responded

 

[mal]

Let us know how the surgery and recovery goes. The slime goo can happen to any corals. It would be nice to know someone who has sucess on treating / dealing with it, so everyone else can benifit from your trials. If that makes sense. I have heard you can cover fresh cut exoskeleton with superglue and / or some kind of epoxy to seal out possible new infections and speed healing. Good luck!

 

[nm reef]

Surgury is done...cut away approximately 2 thirds of the skeleton...covered the exposed cut with epoxey and gave the patient a quick iodine dip...its now been close to 24 hours since operation was done and the hammer coral looks stable...at least there is no sign of continued decline...but it is way smaller.......

 

[diatom]

NM~
Glad to hear that everything sounds like it went well. Hope it continues to improve.

 

[mal]

Ditto. Let us know how things go.
Paging Dr. NM reef.....Dr. NM reef to the OR tank.