Birds nest coral - tips turning white

[05StangGuy]

I bought a green birds nest coral with purple polyps a couple weeks ago from LiveAquaria and the tips are turning white. It started out at just the very tips of the branches, but now it's getting worse.

My water parameters are all ok, except for I just realized my salinity is a bit low. It's at 31.6 ppt and I'm planing to slowly get it up to around 35. It's been very stable at around 31 since I started the tank (just started trying to raise it), so it wasn't a large swing that caused the problem. I just finally realized that 31 was too low for a reef tank. I'm running Radion Pro Gen 3's and have plenty of flow from Vortech pumps (running 2 mp40s at 20% in the back and 2 mp10s running 50% reef crest random in the front. I know I probably over-bought in the pumps, but I wanted to have room to grow). It's not directly in the flow or anything, so it isn't likely too much flow. Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates were all zero last time I checked and the tank has been stable since last April while I've slowly added more corals. Ive had very good luck with so far with LPS, 3 different montipora, and one of my acropora (the other one has very little PE, but not sure if that's related) and I've got dosing pumps keeping the calcium around 420 and alkalinity around 9 dKh. The Mg is around 1350. I've never measured phosphate, but I've been told that it's hard to measure since algae usually eats it right away anyway. I keep the temp between 79.5 and 80.5 with an Apex Neptune controller and pH swings from 8.2 to 8.4 every day.

Any ideas what the problem is? Could it be because of the low salinity?

Thanks in advance for the help!!
-Jeromy

 

[undertai]

Its suppose to do that, as it grows

 

[Reef Bass]

Could it be new growth? Are the white areas where there used to be color? Or are the branches longer now where there is white?

 

[degibson84]

They look like growth tips to me. As Stoney corals grow they start out white until the "skin" colors up

 

[05StangGuy]

I suppose it could be new growth... When I compare the two pictures I uploaded, it does look like the branches are longer in the one with more white (the one with less white was from shortly after I received it). At first it looked like the green flesh was shrinking/receding, but now I'm not so sure. It just seems strange that the white parts are much bigger now than when I got it. Could it be that it's just growing much faster under my lighting? If so, then this thing is going to grow like a weed...

 

[spsfreak25]

Its def new growth. Dont worry about it to much

 

[Gmerek2]

its growth. i have a lot of different birdsnest

 

[05StangGuy]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the help!

 

[CommsTech]

Definitely new growth! good work.

 

[05StangGuy]

Hello again. My birds nest is still growing, but the tips are still white. I can see some color on the underside, but the tops are still white. Also, this coral is supposed to be green with purple polyps. It lost its color shortly after I got it and is generally purplish/brownish now. I know it means I'm not getting enough light if it turns brown, but it usually also means it's too much light when it's bleaching. This coral seems to be doing both, so I'm at a loss, especially since all my other corals are doing fine (see above for other corals). Could this be a phosphate problem? Should I move it further down to get less light? Any ideas?

 

[05StangGuy]

Btw, it's from LiveAquaria and it's supposed to look like this:

 

[05StangGuy]

Nobody has any ideas? I'm stumped at the moment. All of my other corals are doing great except this one...

 

[outssider]

I would try moving it down...tips look awfully white

 

[fishresponse]

+1 on new growth. I would move it down a bit. If it's turning brown that would be a phosphate issue. Colors will change depending on light and your alkalinity level.