Hammer coral

[Reeferboy92]

Hey everyone question I have a hammer that comes out looks happy but the color looks like it bleached out or faded. I know my water quality is off but my question is can the color come back?

 

[Mical]

Water quality & testing

 

[motortrendz]

It can and will if you get the chemistry back on par. But itll take a while.

 

[Reeferboy92]

Water quality & testing

I know my phosphate is real high because I have hair algae growing in my main display but for mag and alk and the rest I haven’t tested lately

 

[Hemmdog]

I know my phosphate is real high because I have hair algae growing in my main display but for mag and alk and the rest I haven’t tested lately

You need to test alk more than any other test. Get everything back on track parameter wise, provide good spectrum, the color will come back.

 

[motortrendz]

Looks like you have amonia in the system. That's not good

 

[Reeferboy92]

Looks like you have amonia in the system. That's not good

Amonia is at 0 it’s just the angle of the picture I took

 

[Mical]

How long has the tank been up & running? You might want to invest in better test equipment, API stuff is not the most reliable.

 

[Reefs and Geeks]

Agreed on getting better test kits. Nitrates look pretty high, and IMO the API test kits tend to undershoot nitrates, and over shoot ammonia. I have recently switched some of my test kits to salifert and won't be going back to API for anything. Testing mey be a little more tedious, but accurate and repeatable results are worth it.

May also want to check your alkalinity, calcium and magnesium since you have stony coral. They can suck up the alkalinity and cause the pH to fluctuate.