whats wrong with my hammer?

[althea2you]

iver the week it has slowly started looking like this now its emitting this brown stuff from it... is it dying? should i let it stay in there even though that brown stuff is coming out? what do i do? thanks for any info

[Woodstock]

Please post all water parameters (ph, temp, alkalinity, calcium, salinity, etc), lighting, and flow types.

"Brown stuff" coming out of the mouths means it is expelling its zooanthellae. A stress response to a sudden change in water parameters, lighting, flow, etc.

"Brown stuff" slothing off of its tissue along with tissue death may be 'brown jelly' disease. A very contagious and fast spreading baterial infection.

[vdituri]

Kind of looks like mine did when I made the mistake of scrubbing hair algae off the LR inside the tank. Dramatically changed the PH and stressed everybody out. By the way, not a good way to remove hair algae.

Check all parameters.
Anything else change recently in the tank?

[althea2you]

yeah my PH has been off.. i dont know why... everything else is good. calcium a smidge high last month but got that under control (by a smidge i mean 500) but my ph has been off and i used a buffer for it and after that it wasnt the same. today i got home and it was slothing off tentacles... any ideas why my PH wont balance? why should i have to use a buffer i dont feel thats very natural... everyting was doing very well till this month... nothing has died... wait... i have used joes juice and then i added a peppermint shrimp.. but have not seen him since i put him in.. its a 28g, not very many places to hide for that long. do you think he could have died? do you think maybe it was the joes juice?

[hma]

Hello Sarah,

measures please the following values. PH, Alc. and CA, It looks like a displacement of the calcium ions. But without exact values no help is possible.

Is PH and Alc to low and CA ist high, it is an CA ione displacement

[BigAl07]

That looks like Brown Jelly to me... is it (or did it) progress quickly?

If so, it only last a few hours and the coral dissolves.... try a FW dip if it's fast giong.. you may be able to save a couple of heads

[althea2you]

Originally Posted by BigAl07

That looks like Brown Jelly to me... is it (or did it) progress quickly?

If so, it only last a few hours and the coral dissolves.... try a FW dip if it's fast giong.. you may be able to save a couple of heads

it did prgress fast and it was all threee head yesterday afternoon...2 days to go to 3 heads... little pieces were falling off... :UGH! so i removed it.. gosh i loved tat thing it was great!!!! so full and beautifl... and all of a sudden.. :P sounfortunatly i have to fix my tank before anything else goes in it and hopefully nothing else needs to be removed.... somehting with my PH, i think i need to do a water change today, i think the PH is too high now... 8.6? i used the buffer...(hate that) and thats just a guess its so hard to tell in my house. i dont have all my testing stuff yet so i always got to the LFS. Im going today and ill get all the numbers. darn it... it was GREAT till that damn Joe's Juice... it got rid of my apitasia.. but i dont think it was the greatest addative into the tank, cause all of a sudden.. that happened

[ninjataco777]

my hammer did this when i first put it in the tank. then i moved it to a slightly higher flow and it perked up.

[althea2you]

Originally Posted by Woodstock

Please post all water parameters (ph, temp, alkalinity, calcium, salinity, etc), lighting, and flow types.

"Brown stuff" coming out of the mouths means it is expelling its zooanthellae. A stress response to a sudden change in water parameters, lighting, flow, etc.

"Brown stuff" slothing off of its tissue along with tissue death may be 'brown jelly' disease. A very contagious and fast spreading baterial infection.

ok... param's

PH- 8.2
calcium- 400
nitrates-0-5
nitrites- 0
Carbonate hardness- 10
Ammonia- 0
Salinity- 1.025

thats what the tests were as of today...

flow was less than desirable because my husband wanted to try this hydor flow thing, where it spins 360 degrees. i removed that today and put the one we had back on because it was working just fine .. so dont fix what "aint" broke..

my lighting is 150watt/14K HQI

its only a 28g NANO

[althea2you]

Originally Posted by hma

Hello Sarah,

measures please the following values. PH, Alc. and CA, It looks like a displacement of the calcium ions. But without exact values no help is possible.

Is PH and Alc to low and CA ist high, it is an CA ione displacement

the calcium was at 500 last month, now at 400... i had a clacium block in there that was supposed to add when needed kinda thing and 500 seemed like it went up too high...so i took it out... now its 400.. :P think a drastic drop in calc was the issue?

[althea2you]

Originally Posted by ninjataco777

my hammer did this when i first put it in the tank. then i moved it to a slightly higher flow and it perked up.

i have had this hammer for about 4 months... been great the whole time.. it was an all of a sudden thing

[framerguy]

Sorry about your hammer, and I wish I could help you Sarah. Those params look spot on to me.

[Woodstock]

Those measurements look okay.

Never add any supplement without knowing what it will impact.
The PH buffer you used to increase the ph also increased the alkalinity. Fast sharp swings of temp, salinity, alkalinity and PH are very stressful to the tank's inhabitants. Any additions if needed should be added very, very slowly and testings before and after each addition should be performed.
Low PH can be caused by many different things.
Never use a "PH buffer" without testing your alkalinity first since they will increase it.
Any PH between 7.9 - 8.3 is fine. Don't worry about keeping an exact 8.2 ph reading.
Usually, the best method to fix most issues is to perform a large water change and clean all sponges, filters, etc.

[hma]

Originally Posted by althea2you

the calcium was at 500 last month, now at 400... i had a clacium block in there that was supposed to add when needed kinda thing and 500 seemed like it went up too high...so i took it out... now its 400.. :P think a drastic drop in calc was the issue?

Yes this can absolutely be the reason! Every change in the values calzium, magnesium, alkalinity and PH should be carried out very slowly and about many days distributed. If one changes the values too drastically or too fast it can come, too among the rest, to Brown Jelly.

I would wash up , as before already recommended, the hammer under fresh water and afterwards for some minutes in osmosis water bathe. Unfortunately, one can do nothing else.

[althea2you]

ok... so how do you recommend doing the buffer... it says 1 tbsp per 20 gallons. Should i put the whole buffer in at once? like maybe in the water change water... or add little bits, like half 1 week and half the next week? because my PH got low, like 7.7...and i dont understand why? my params have always been pretty good except for the PH.. been decent, but it fluctuates alot, thats why i bought the buffer. it got down to 7.7. with it being only a 28g nano.. will it fluctuate more than a larger tank would?

also.. the use of a calcium block(a pyramid shaped thing)... suggested or not?

tia... i really appreciate it!