Birds nest sps questions

[jsdancer]

I have a few questions on why I can't seem to keep birds nest sps any more.
A little history first......I had a gorgeous ORA green birds nest that grew and grew. I had a bonape birds nest and another purple body birds nest that did the same grew and grew.
What was the success? I was dosing 2 part solutions. Water parimeters were fine except nitrates were always around 20 to 25ppm.

A year ago I changed to a ca reactor and from that point on I can't seem to keep these guys?!

At first I thought that it was an alk spike? So I watched out and made sure that the alk stayed as steady as possible.

Mg has always been a problem for me with keeping it between 1300-1500. Its normal range in my tank 1200 to 1220.
Could this be it?

Lately I have seen an increase in CA counsumption and what used to be CA at around 440 to 460 is now at 400 to 410?
Could this be it? Not enough CA?

I don't have any pest that I can see of, what else can it be?
Temp is a constant 78
Phos is now at 0 since using Ecobak week 6
Nitrates are keeping at .02 to .05 with salifert test kit

Could it be that these guys need less clean water?

All of your input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jsdancer]

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[mutateddogbone]

probably the ecobak if i had to take a guess. maybe cleared up your water column and changed PAR of light penetration. any way you go, birdsnests are very sensitive to change and usually are the canary in the coal mine to say for peoples tanks as a sign of health. you might try to drop it down lower, they seem to be happier in lower light for me

 

[jsdancer]

probably the ecobak if i had to take a guess. maybe cleared up your water column and changed PAR of light penetration. any way you go, birdsnests are very sensitive to change and usually are the canary in the coal mine to say for peoples tanks as a sign of health. you might try to drop it down lower, they seem to be happier in lower light for me

I did just that with my frag of bonape birds nest. Lets see what happens!
Thanks mutatedogbone!

 

[bogg]

potassium ime along with some fresh live rock I had the same problem b4 but now I'm successful with birdsnest

 

[jsdancer]

potassium ime along with some fresh live rock I had the same problem b4 but now I'm successful with birdsnest

Were you low in potassium?

 

[Ralph ATL]

I've only been able to keep them for the last year and a half.........the other 4 years monti's and acros were generally fine.........They can be soooo easy, yet, in certain tanks, impossible.

 

[allsps40]

I have never had a problem with birds nests. Very easy imo. I grew 2 small frags in soft ball sized colonies in a little over a year. I traded one for frags and still have the other. I just got a pink birds nest. It went brown for a few weeks and is now a pale pink and getting darker.