Hammer Coral losing color

[gibby84]

:help: I just got this hammer about 4 days ago, he was shipped across country and it took 2 days. When I first put it in the tank it was high up on some rocks and the second day I noticed the color was fading so I moved it lower in the tank after reading that they like to be on the substrate. I have a 72 G bowfront with 210 watts of power compacts and 800 watts of 10K MH. The coral looks like it may be regaining some of it's original color, but I was hoping someone with experience could tell me why it lost color to begin with and if there is something I can do to help it regain it's color. It is/was metallic green/pink, now some of it is just very pale. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance!
Scott

 

[stang66200]

Do you have high nitrates? This can "upset" corals.

 

[gibby84]

The nitrates are in the 10-20 ppm range, I will be doing a water change of 10 gallons in the next couple of days. The rest of my corals seem to be OK, just the hammer is faded. It still has good extension and looks healthy, just faded. The color seems to be coming back little by little, maybe it was stressed out from the trip across country. I will keep my eye on it and my fingers crossed.
Scott

 

[murph145]

yeah u probably shocked it with the lights
whenever u acclimate a new coral start it low and move it up slowly or else it can get bleached due to expelling its zoanxthelle algaes
should be fine but get ur trates lower

 

[fishieness]

Originally Posted by murph145
yeah u probably shocked it with the lights
whenever u acclimate a new coral start it low and move it up slowly or else it can get bleached due to expelling its zoanxthelle algaes
should be fine but get ur trates lower
i agree. That is probably the problem. EIther cut back on your lighting schedual depending on what you have or move him lower in the tank and slowly move him up.

 

[gibby84]

How long before I should move him back up? And I am waiting for my salt to get here before I can do my water change, it should be here tomorrow then I will do several small (5g) changes until my nitrates are lower.

 

[reefnut]

Give it a few weeks before moving it up... most likely the take it was in before didn't have near the lighting you have, so the slower the better!!
With your lighting, you should always start corals low in your tank... even sps corals. This allows them time to recover from the trip and to get used to your lighting.

 

[gibby84]

Thanks everyone for the help. The hammer is starting to get his color back, slowly. He looks real healthy other than the fading. I got my salt and did a 10 G change yesterday and will do another 10 G change tomorrow in hopes of lowering my nitrates. They dropped some, but still a little over 10 ppm. Does anyone know how often I can do a 10 G change on a 100 G system and still have all the good bacteria I need? I was thinking I could do one probably every other day without any problems until the nitrates are gone. I have about 90lbs live rock and a deep sand bed refugium, I was hoping they would help keep things stable. Someone give me a holler if they think I am messing up.