Pink hammer maybe bleaching?

[KingSyn]

Hi, I’ve had this hammer about 8-9 months started from a 4 head frag and is about 9-10 heads now. I’ve recently noticed the top heads are starting to become lighter in color (maybe bleaching)? None of my other corals seem to be affected and it seems be only the top heads which leads to believe is the light.

I’m running Hydra 32 at recommended BRS settings / position. I did buy the lights used and they had a diffuser on them and I used them that way for a few months. My sister lent me her PAR meter and noticed they were really holding back my lights so I removed them and got way more light out of them. This was about 3-4 weeks ago.

The hammer is on the bottom of the tank is getting around 80-90 par so not a lot, and the flesh band looks nice and healthy. I even asked the guy who I got them from if he noticed higher par bleaching of the tops and he said his didn’t change like that.

Any recommendations on what I should do? I can’t really move the hammer lower and rock works doesn’t really have any shady areas?

Here are the params-
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0
Phosphate - 0.08
Magnesium - 1350
Alkalinity - 7.3

Thanks for any help, and sorry for wall of text!

 

[blaxsun]

Is it possible that it's not getting enough light/PAR?

 

[Uncle99]

Phosphate good, nitrate bad at 0ppm.
Will starve, and not just the hammer in time.

Alk is low from my perspective at 7 ish….

I run 10.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

You mean the PAR on your hammer is 80-90 and you want to reduce it more? I don't think you should do that, if anything I would say maybe more. And how is the flow?

 

[KingSyn]

Phosphate good, nitrate bad at 0ppm.
Will starve, and not just the hammer in time.

Alk is low from my perspective at 7 ish….

I run 10.

Yeah I turned off my skimmer, I think between the roller mat and the skimmer it’s taking all the nutrients out

 

[jda]

There are other ways that coral get nitrogen than from nitrate... and many cannot even use nitrate at all while those that do need to expend a ton of energy converting it back to a usable form. If you are feeding your fish well, then there is not much chance that you are nitrogen deficient. Feeding more is the first step. Nitrogen is not food - you are not starving anything if it is low. At worst, just new growth will not happen, but the host can recycle nitrogen to maintain where it is currently at.

What PAR did you get? LPS can handle a lot, although they do not need a lot. Edit: see the 80-90 PAR number. I would raise it up if you can... slowly.

I keep my alk under 7. 7.3 is fine as long as it is stable.

Have you changed water lately? This could be a trace thing if you have not.

I strongly suggest that you turn your skimmer back on even if you only use it for gas exchange. It is too valuable for this, IMO.

 

[soreefed]

There are other ways that coral get nitrogen than from nitrate... and many cannot even use nitrate at all while those that do need to expend a ton of energy converting it back to a usable form. If you are feeding your fish well, then there is not much chance that you are nitrogen deficient. Feeding more is the first step. Nitrogen is not food - you are not starving anything if it is low. At worst, just new growth will not happen, but the host can recycle nitrogen to maintain where it is currently at.

What PAR did you get? LPS can handle a lot, although they do not need a lot. Edit: see the 80-90 PAR number. I would raise it up if you can... slowly.

I keep my alk under 7. 7.3 is fine as long as it is stable.

Have you changed water lately? This could be a trace thing if you have not.

I strongly suggest that you turn your skimmer back on even if you only use it for gas exchange. It is too valuable for this, IMO.

That’s interesting. I had some corals and specifically a hammer losing color at 0 nitrates. It became more transparent and it had less solid color. After dosing for a month or two the colors exploded on most my corals and the hammer really turned opaque and deeply colored. I also started dosing phos at this time so could have just been the phosphate increase

 

[jda]

You can have zero nitrate and be nitrogen deficient. You can also have zero nitrates and have plenty of nitrogen. If you have a good amount of fish and are feeding them well, then there is very little change that anybody is nitrogen deficient.

If people cut back on feeding to lower nitrate, then this could lead to a nitrogen deficiency.

 

[soreefed]

You can have zero nitrate and be nitrogen deficient. You can also have zero nitrates and have plenty of nitrogen. If you have a good amount of fish and are feeding them well, then there is very little change that anybody is nitrogen deficient.

If people cut back on feeding to lower nitrate, then this could lead to a nitrogen deficiency.

How would one determine they were nitrogen deficient if 0ppm of nitrate does not indicate a deficiency?

 

[jda]

You don't know. Having nitrate does not mean that you have enough available nitrogen either. Some corals cannot use it and most others have to convert it back to ammonia/ammonium which can cost them between 30-70% extra energy (nobody knows for sure), but not all corals are healthy enough to put out this expenditure in the vein of having a meal at the end of 26.2 miles where some can do it and some cannot. Ammonia/ammonium is the preferred source for most things to get nitrogen.

The only way that you really can know is if nitrate is rising. This is not good for long.

The deeper places in the rock and sand have anaerobic bacteria that turns no3 into N gas and completes the nitrogen cycle. This process does leave behind a trace of nitrate. In my tanks I usually have about .1 nitrate. I feed a ton and export a ton, so I have not been worried for a long time.

 

[KingSyn]

You don't know. Having nitrate does not mean that you have enough available nitrogen either. Some corals cannot use it and most others have to convert it back to ammonia/ammonium which can cost them between 30-70% extra energy (nobody knows for sure), but not all corals are healthy enough to put out this expenditure in the vein of having a meal at the end of 26.2 miles where some can do it and some cannot. Ammonia/ammonium is the preferred source for most things to get nitrogen.

The only way that you really can know is if nitrate is rising. This is not good for long.

The deeper places in the rock and sand have anaerobic bacteria that turns no3 into N gas and completes the nitrogen cycle. This process does leave behind a trace of nitrate. In my tanks I usually have about .1 nitrate. I feed a ton and export a ton, so I have not been worried for a long time.

Thank you, I’ll turn the skimmer back on and just start to feed heavier and bring the nitrates up.

 

[jda]

Even if the nitrates do not come up, your corals are getting nitrogen from the ammonia/ammonium.