Can pineapple sponges bleach a hammer coral?

[The_Skrimp]

hey folks. I have a question about my hammer coral. Over the past couple of weeks one branch on my branching hammer hasn’t been opening fully and it’s starting to turn white. He’s eating just fine when i feed but it’s still declining. I can’t for the life of me figure out what the issue is especially because all of my other coral (including the other branches of this hammer) are doing fine. I did however notice that the dying branch has two pineapple sponges attached to it. Might this be the culprit? Should I remove them or is it likely to be something else?

I recently moved it to a higher light higher flow area to see if that makes a difference. My numbers are:

salinity: 1.025
Alk: 9
PH: 8.1
Nitra: 4
Phos: 0.05
Cal: 430

 

[PicassoClown04]

Hi! I don’t think so about the pineapple sponges. I have a lot of them and they’ve never hurt anything. Are the hammers getting too much/too little light?

 

[The_Skrimp]

I think the branch may have been getting too little light. It was partially shaded. Hopefully it’ll start recovering now that I’ve moved it.

 

[PicassoClown04]

I think the branch may have been getting too little light. It was partially shaded. Hopefully it’ll start recovering now that I’ve moved it.

I think that was the problem. I have a large hammer colony and the shaded heads are pretty bleached out. You should see the hammer recover now that you moved it .