Hammer coral losing some color and turning white

[Aidanburkhardt]

I have a hammer/frogspawn hybrid that’s been doing great in my tank for about a month, but I noticed last night that some of the polyps have white splotches on them instead of the nice color it had before. It still opens up nice not receding or melting either just losing color, and I even have a 3 headed hammer colony on the opposite side of it doing great as well. I’ve read that the white splotches can be caused by both too much light and too little and that spot feeding it could help get its color back. Should I be concerned with this or is it a minor fix, and what’s the best way to feed my hammer to keep it nice and healthy?

[Aidanburkhardt]

You can see it here at the bottom 

[Xj reefing]

My torch is doing the same thing. The people that helped me said it is normally cause by stress of different lighting

[Aidanburkhardt]

19 minutes ago, Xj reefing said:

My torch is doing the same thing. The people that helped me said it is normally cause by stress of different lighting

Idk I’ve had it for a month and a half now tho and it looked like this about a month or so after I put it in my tank

[mcarroll]

Please tell us about all of your water test results and anything else interesting about the tank.  We will be especially interested in the test results for phosphates.

[Aidanburkhardt]

On 2/6/2021 at 11:00 PM, mcarroll said:

Please tell us about all of your water test results and anything else interesting about the tank.  We will be especially interested in the test results for phosphates.

Ph: 8.2
Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

calcium: 420 ppm

Alkalinity: 71.6 ppm

Phosphate: 0 ppm 

I didn’t have calcium alkalinity or phosphate so I had to go grab those but initially to me it looks like my alkalinity is low or I tested it wrong could that be the issue? I did just do a water change two days ago so that may have reset what was causing this initially as well

[Aidanburkhardt]

On 2/6/2021 at 11:00 PM, mcarroll said:

Please tell us about all of your water test results and anything else interesting about the tank.  We will be especially interested in the test results for phosphates.

I’ll also say tho that my other corals and stocking are doing phenomenal including a three headed hammer on the opposite side of the tank, a birds nest, lepto, clam, anemone, zoas, Galexia 

[mcarroll]

13 hours ago, Aidanburkhardt said:

Nitrate: 0

Phosphate: 0 ppm 

These are roots of the problem for certain.

 

13 hours ago, Aidanburkhardt said:

Alkalinity: 71.6 ppm

What are you using to test alkalinity that's giving you ppm?  Is it intended for saltwater?

 

If you still think you may have tested alkalinity incorrectly, re-run the test 3 times on the same water sample and compare the three results for variation.  If you get pretty much the same result all three times, then you know you're doing the test correctly.

 

I suspect there is a problem with that number.  (Though maybe not with your testing process.)

 

13 hours ago, Aidanburkhardt said:

I’ll also say tho that my other corals and stocking are doing phenomenal including a three headed hammer on the opposite side of the tank, a birds nest, lepto, clam, anemone, zoas, Galexia 

That may not continue to be the case – there are at least three potential problems evident so far.  Zero on phosphates is a major problem, and it doesn't sound like you have any doubt about that test.

 

If your alkalinity really is 71 ppm (3 dKH) then you could be looking at a catastrophic collapse.

 

Zero on nitrates is less of a problem, but will prevent many things in the tank from growing, and your tank from maturing....and corals from healing.

 

Water changes are going to work against you right now, so try to avoid them until things normalize.

[Aidanburkhardt]

6 hours ago, mcarroll said:

These are roots of the problem for certain.

 

What are you using to test alkalinity that's giving you ppm?  Is it intended for saltwater?

 

If you still think you may have tested alkalinity incorrectly, re-run the test 3 times on the same water sample and compare the three results for variation.  If you get pretty much the same result all three times, then you know you're doing the test correctly.

 

I suspect there is a problem with that number.  (Though maybe not with your testing process.)

 

That may not continue to be the case – there are at least three potential problems evident so far.  Zero on phosphates is a major problem, and it doesn't sound like you have any doubt about that test.

 

If your alkalinity really is 71 ppm (3 dKH) then you could be looking at a catastrophic collapse.

 

Zero on nitrates is less of a problem, but will prevent many things in the tank from growing, and your tank from maturing....and corals from healing.

 

Water changes are going to work against you right now, so try to avoid them until things normalize.

I’m using an api saltwater test kit and the api reef master one as that was what wa a immediately available so it’s hard to give an exact number as it’s a range for the color it is and can look very similar it is possible my phosphate was closer to .025 but still seems as tho those things are all low and may be causing the issue, I’ll redo those tests again just to make sure and post the results in a few minutes but as of right now if they are correct what would you recommend to raise nitrate phosphate and alkalinity? Less water changes, more feeding, some dosing? 

[mcarroll]

Most saltwater alkalinity test kits measure in dKH....so be sure you have the right model.  Then double check by re-testing to see if you did it right and if you get about the same test result.

 

NeoPhos or Flourish Phosphate are probably the two most common phosphate additive you're likely to find.  👍

[Aidanburkhardt]

3 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

Most saltwater alkalinity test kits measure in dKH....so be sure you have the right model.  Then double check by re-testing to see if you did it right and if you get about the same test result.

 

NeoPhos or Flourish Phosphate are probably the two most common phosphate additive you're likely to find.  👍

The test I have you convert the drops into dkh or ppm KH so I just wasn’t sure which one to give but I’m doing the tests again right now for nitrate phosphate and alkalinity 

[Aidanburkhardt]

35 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

Most saltwater alkalinity test kits measure in dKH....so be sure you have the right model.  Then double check by re-testing to see if you did it right and if you get about the same test result.

 

NeoPhos or Flourish Phosphate are probably the two most common phosphate additive you're likely to find.  👍

Looks like my nitrates are still 0 but my phosphate on the second look do appear to be .25 ppm which still may be low and also I did mess up the alkalinity test which is at 10 dkh

[mcarroll]

Hard to tell how close to zero or 0.25 that test is unfortunately....one way for you to get at least a better sense of it is to hold a sample of plain tank water in a second vial up next to your test.  With an A-B comparison to look at you'll have a much better shot of discerning the shade of that color.

 

At least in the pic on my end it doesn't look yellowish, like 0 ppm though.

On 2/6/2021 at 11:00 PM, mcarroll said:

anything else interesting about the tank

How are you filtering this tank or otherwise "cleaning" the water?

 

Any carbon dosing or "extra" filtration or cleaning of any kind going on?

[Aidanburkhardt]

16 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Hard to tell how close to zero or 0.25 that test is unfortunately....one way for you to get at least a better sense of it is to hold a sample of plain tank water in a second vial up next to your test.  With an A-B comparison to look at you'll have a much better shot of discerning the shade of that color.

 

At least in the pic on my end it doesn't look yellowish, like 0 ppm though.

How are you filtering this tank or otherwise "cleaning" the water?

 

Any carbon dosing or "extra" filtration or cleaning of any kind going on?

Yeah I agree looks like it’s got a slight tint of green so id say close to .25 ppm. No special filtration going on, protein skimmer, couple sponges and a filter sock, I was using a uv sterilizer as well but the bulb burnt out so I’m just waiting on the replacement to come in 

[Aidanburkhardt]

On 2/9/2021 at 9:45 PM, mcarroll said:

Hard to tell how close to zero or 0.25 that test is unfortunately....one way for you to get at least a better sense of it is to hold a sample of plain tank water in a second vial up next to your test.  With an A-B comparison to look at you'll have a much better shot of discerning the shade of that color.

 

At least in the pic on my end it doesn't look yellowish, like 0 ppm though.

How are you filtering this tank or otherwise "cleaning" the water?

 

Any carbon dosing or "extra" filtration or cleaning of any kind going on?

 

On 2/10/2021 at 1:49 PM, Aidanburkhardt said:

Yeah I agree looks like it’s got a slight tint of green so id say close to .25 ppm. No special filtration going on, protein skimmer, couple sponges and a filter sock, I was using a uv sterilizer as well but the bulb burnt out so I’m just waiting on the replacement to come in 

Any ideas?

[mcarroll]

On 2/10/2021 at 1:49 PM, Aidanburkhardt said:

Yeah I agree looks like it’s got a slight tint of green so id say close to .25 ppm. No special filtration going on, protein skimmer, couple sponges and a filter sock, I was using a uv sterilizer as well but the bulb burnt out so I’m just waiting on the replacement to come in 

Still wonder about the alkalinity.

 

The readings you got before seem wrong.  

 

But if they are correct (which seems doubtful) then that is definitely your problem.

[Aidanburkhardt]

On 2/14/2021 at 7:42 PM, mcarroll said:

Still wonder about the alkalinity.

 

The readings you got before seem wrong.  

 

But if they are correct (which seems doubtful) then that is definitely your problem.

Yeah they were wrong the first time I misread the directions it’s actually 10dkh

[mcarroll]

How is the coral looking now?

[Aidanburkhardt]

17 hours ago, mcarroll said:

How is the coral looking now?

it’s receded a bit around the edge of its wall, around where most of the white patchy polyps were, but the middle part still has good color and extends