Heads on Large Hammers dying... Help Needed

[JoshHill83]

So I have a couple large hammers, one with about 120 heads, and one with about 40 heads. The smaller one is from the larger. Just a few days ago I had one head die off of the large hammer. tonight, I can see 3 or 4 dead heads. Nothing crazy has happened that I can tell. dKh is 8, magnesium is 1400 and calc is right at 460 and system has been stable for about 2 years. I am running AI Hydra 52s on the tank. Just not sure what to do here as I don't want to lose my favorite corals. The only thing that I have done new in the past month is add a 24W UV sterilizer about a week ago and I'm wondering if this could be having any kind of impact on this.

A little more tank info: 90 gallon mixed reef, Cad lights 1220 skimmer, dosing Mag, alk and calc on a daily basis with a dosing pump.

 

[Haddonisreef]

Sometimes Lps will die off w a brown jelly, not sure but I think the infection can spread to other heads. I'd do water change to see if u can get ahead of the problem. Hope this helps

 

[Andrew_bram]

I would consider an iodine dip with lugals. 40 drops per gallon of tank water if i remember correctly.

 

[Skrappy]

Was there a reason you added the UV sterilizer? (if it aint broke dont fix it)

 

[JoshHill83]

Had some ick show up on my tang and it doesn't seem to be getting any better and can't seem to get the fish out without destroying the reef. I know tangs are notorious for this, and I have about 15 other fish in there with no signs of ick. Would you recommend shutting down the sterilizer?

 

[Skrappy]

the UV probably isn't the cause of ur hammer troubles, but if it was the only thing u changed then it could be something related to it. however, if you remove it at this point you may loose the battle with ick. I don't personally know for sure, as i have never used UV on my tank. What I can say from experience, my hammer has randomly had a head die and then 5 or so tiny baby heads popped up from around the base of that head. I would just keep doin ur normal routine and watch for brown jelly. Also maybe clean your powerhead if you havent lately, i have had things wilt when my powerhead needs cleaned out.

 

[JoshHill83]

So it looks like it's brown jelly. I had a few more heads dead this morning, and a head on a frogspawn a few feet away. Did a 15% water change and changed carbon and GFO. Any other suggestions?

 

[Skrappy]

remove the visible brown jelly with a siphon and soft brush, try to keep it out of the water column as best u can, it does spread. you could also attempt to frag off good pieces and discard the infected chunks. unfortunately when i was reading about brown jelly many months ago i didn't find too many success stories in treating for it.
I have not had to deal with it myself, these are just things i remember reading when i was looking into it. You may also try searching for "brown jelly" in this forums search bar for suggestions, I do remember seeing a few other threads where people here have had it.

 

[jda123]

Salinity is the #1 issue with LPS. What is yours? Are you sure that your measuring method is accurate?

 

[Sophie1213]

I haven't had any experience with the jelly, but occasionally when my tang gets a hint of ich feeding garlic removes it. So if you do have to take the light off you can try feeding a little garlic into the food

 

[Andrew_bram]

An iodine dip. Brown jelly is a sign of infection.

 

[beginragnarok]

I am fairly new to salt water and had issues with coral growth until testing for and eliminating stray voltage. Now my Acro and other LPS/SPS colonies have at least quadrupled growthrates. Have you tested for this recently. A piece of once properly insulated equipment could be causing a leakage. Just an idea.

I also like the idea of an iodine dip. Sorry to hear of your troubles.

-Zach

 

[SynDen]

An iodine dip. Brown jelly is a sign of infection.

+1 this and/or fragging off good pieces are you best bet

 

[JoshHill83]

Salinity was at 1.022, I have increased to 1.024 and things are starting to look better. Thank you everyone for your help. I've done a few water changes in the few days and have siphoned off all the jelly. Lost about 8 heads between all my LPS, but the VAST majority is looking great. As far as the tang and ich, I am well aware that as a scaleless fish that they are prone to ich (and prone to ich in general). Just was hoping the UV would help. Thanks everyone for you help it support. I greatly appreciate it.

 

[jda123]

You going all the way up to natural sea water at 1.026? It will help even more IMO.

 

[JoshHill83]

Yeah I'm up to 1.025 today, just trying to do things slowly.

 

[jda123]

Slow is good. Next, test the alk and calcium - no need until you get to 1.026 since those will raise with the salinity.

Euphyllia is a great litmus for a reef. They suffer quickly when params are off, but don't usually die at first.

Next, get some high quality pellets (New Life Spectrum or New Era) and soak them in garlic for a few minutes before you feed. This will really help the tang (along with the NSW parameters). Stop the extra garlic a few weeks after the fish look good - the extra might not be good for them and there is already a bit in the food.