Pink colouration on Hammer coral?? What the hell is this?

[warfanax]

When the lights turned on my hammer looks very happy. Extends fully during the day. however, I realized pink spots on the base of hammer as you can see clearly in pictures. what are they?

when I was checking the coral with flash light it closed and showed the skeleton from the sides of its head a little but while taking pictures you can see it turned to normal. ( I guess its skeleton I don't know how a sick, skeleton showing hammer suppose to look like), polyps disappear and I see white canals from sides of its head a little (whatever you call it).

What is this pink colouration? Can it be because of nitrates? My nitrates are around 30-40 (bought a new skimmer and doing water changes)

Can you say that my hammer is healthy overall, by looking at pictures? is there something wrong? (this is how it looks like in the dark but when light are turned on its extended and fluffy)

Also I will be grateful if you tell me if my acro frag is doing ok? I know they need pristine water quality and having high nitrates made me think that it might be dead already. How do you tell if an acro is dead? (its tricolor acro btw)

 

[warfanax]

Nobody?

 

[Psirex]

looks more purple than pink and it maybe just the spread of coralline....

 

[warfanax]

maybe but is it normal fro algae to grow on coral?

 

[JSeymour]

Without a better pictures of both, it's really hard to say. Nitrates being at 30-40 ppm and likely high phosphates as well, I would guess that the pink may be a thin film of cyanobacteria. It looks like your Acropora is still alive, but is starting to show signs of slow tissue necrosis(STN) at the base, or it could be super glue. I know it's not happy with the nutrient levels though. Out of curiosity, what skimmer did you get? Get those nitrates and phosphates down and make sure your calcium, magnesium and alkalinity are in range and you should be ok.

 

[singold]

Check your flow and ALK level

 

[warfanax]

Check your flow and ALK level

My flow is moderate and alkalinity is 9dKH.

 

[cjk76]

I have sponge and coraline growing on my frogpawn and hammer. I would say it looks like a thin film of cyano. Just see where it goes from here.