Hammer coral receding

Receding in three places. This looks pretty damn bad to me. I don't think its BJD. I don't know what to do. Suggestions, please.

Ammonia/nitrite 0
nitrate 20
PH 8.2

 

whats your calcium/mag/salinity at? maybe they are low. you have enough light for that coral? t5s? MH? PCs?
could something be eating it at night? hope you save it in time.. its a nice coral.

also can you spot feed it? plankton?

 

Yea, that doesn't look good at all. The only thing that I can suggest is try to give it an iodine dip using lugol's solution. It may help, but it can also stress the coral out more. However, if the receding tissue continues, it will most likely kill the coral anyways.

 

Yes, I have enough light for it, 200 watts of t-5. I don't have a test for mag or cal. Salinity is 1.023 reading from my hydrometer lol. I plan on getting the API reef test that tests for cal and phosphate tomorrow. I need a refractometer as well. Next purchase.

About something eating it at night.. I uhh. haven't seen anything touch it since I put it in. Not even my clowns, which I Was a litttle saddenned by.

 

I thought the dip was for BJD?

 

Is it in too high of a flow area of your tank?

 

you definitly need to know where your cal is at. I use kalkwasser mix and liquid kent calcium to dose my tank. if you dont do water changes every 2 weeks, probly low on calcium. may your lfs will test for free today.?

 

To make a skeleton, it will use Calcium. However, it can also use Magnesium, and Strontium interchangeably with the Calcium. The other element that is required for calcification is Carbon. That's why your alkalinity (degrees of CARBONate hardness) level is more important than your Calcium level. There's no other stand-ins for that element.

 

It's not just for that. I use it as a general anti-biotic when I first get an lps frag. Just b/c there's no brown jelly doesn't mean that it's not a bacterial infection.