Brown Jelly w/ Hammer Coral - How to treat?

[Techy-Mechy]

I think that my hammer coral may have brown jelly disease. It sits adjacent to a SPS (acropora) coral which contracted the disease about 2 months ago. I removed the infected parts of the acropora, however, I feel that the tentacles of the hammer coral may have touched the acropora and transmitted it. Initially, a small portion (about 1.25" in diameter) of the hammer coral died about 1 month ago. I just tried to feed the coral and keep it in good water movement. Everything has looked fine for the past three weeks, however, after the last cleaning, I touched the coral and I may have slightly injurred it, causing the brown jelly to come back with a vengence. The coral looks to have a stringy substance (mucus looking stringy stuff) and the flesh seems to be going fairly fast on this guy.

How do you cure this disease w/ LPS corals? Please be very specific. I am told that fresh water dips could be helpful, but I don't know how long they need to be dipped nor do I know how critical it is to have the same pH, temperature, etc. My well water has a pH about 7.0 - how do you raise the pH to ~ 8.2?

Please help with this problem.

Thanks,

Dave

[Alice]

Dave; sorry your coral is ailing. See these two threads:
http://www.thereeftank.com/ubbcgi/ul...c&f=1&t=002615
http://www.thereeftank.com/ubbcgi/ul...c&f=1&t=002540


Hope this helps!

~Alice

[Powrplay]

Sounds like (excuse my spelling) Protozoans are on a rampage. If you look at that brown jelly under a microscope you will notice hundreds of microscopic (what I call) "maggots", eating away on it's victims zooxanthallae. Dipping the coral/s in the above Iodine solution seem to work fast without harming the coral. However, if in your case of inaccessability to iodine, a fw dip might help. Shut off all your pumps temporarily and try to siphon out as much of the brown jelly as possilble. I used a turkey baster to do just that. Then removing the coral by placing a container with a lid big enough to fit the infected animal and placing it inside the container and closing the lid. This will remove most of the protozoans infesting the coral and preventing it from returning in your tank. I'm not saying this will elliminate all the protozoans but, you've just removed a concentrated amount. HTH

[Techy-Mechy]

Alice and Powerplay,

Thanks for the advice. I'll go to the local drug store and get some Iodine tomorrow. Tonight, I dipped the coral for 1 min in fresh water (RODI - as per Delbreek and Sprung, Vol 1). I'll see how things are going tomorrow, and I may dip in Iodine if it isn't getting better. The coral is fairly stressed with the FW dip and it is sliming some. I sure hope he gets better.

I'll keep this thread informed on the progress.

Thanks again,

Dave