Birdsnest Growth Biocube 29 Stock Lights (add your own SPS growth pics/dates/specs!)

[DenverBC29]

I have a Biocube 29 with the stock PC lighting (at least until I upgrade to LED once the bulbs come up for replacement) and after 8 years in Reefkeeping, I wanted to try my hand at some SPS, so I picked up a Birdsnest frag in October and decided to take a few photos to track the growth. 11 days lapsed between pics, I'll upload more as I take them.

PLEASE ADD YOUR SPS GROWTH PICS/DATES/SPECS!

My specs:
Tank - Biocube 29, chaeto in 2nd chamber, filter floss on top of drip tray, biocube skimmer running wet & cup overflows into a 1 gallon jug in the stand, Rio 800 Powerhead, Rio 8 HF return. (many upgrades planned, taking my time)
Params - CA 420, Alk 10, PH 8.1, Temp 79 degrees (very stable) Undetectable - phosphates, Nitrates, Ammonia, etc
Drip Alk during the day and Kalk at night. Feed enriched brine, frozen rotifers, frozen phytoplankton, and Brightwell's Zooplanktos. (recently started a Tigger pod culture)

10/24/11 (sorry, main light just turned off)

11/05/11

 

[rodneyri]

 

[Thle009]

Very impressive. Especially for PC lighting. I can't seem to get my to color up. My tyree birdnest color just fine, but not the pink birdnest.

 

[DenverBC29]

Rodney, awesome pics/growth! Can you tell us a little about your setup?

 

[rodneyri]

This birdsnest has gone through an evolution of lighting where it started under a giesemann infinity 2x250w mh + 4T5HO, then moved to an ATI PM 8x54w for just over a month and I really hated the look of the T5 so now its been under a Vertex Illumina LED for 4 months.

Ive been growing this for about 2 1/2 years, with trimming to keep it down to size, its now about 8" sized ball, really like the shape it grew to.

during this time the coral has gone through two tanks and a holding tank in my kitchen and still kicking along!

Im actually doing a test now and growing a frag from this completely under the LED to see how things go.

 

[adamp377]

rodney are you feeding or supplementing it?

 

[rodneyri]

Simple setup with skimmer and cal reactor in the sump with rowaphos and carbon.

No dosing or additives, i feed pellets for the fish in the morning and a cube of spirilina brine shrimp + cyclopeeze in the evening.

 

[Piper27]

Here is my growth pic of my birds of paradise. Started as a frag maybe a year ago, and in the new tank its taking off pretty good.

8/20/11

10/20/11

 

[AquamanSE]

ORA Green-I started off documenting but left a huge gap there......about 7 months. I have fragged quite a bit but only so I can clean the glass/just keep spinning it around.

 

[KSzegi]

September 2010 -

October 2011 - in center - after multiple trimmings! Hard to get a feel for the true size but it is probably 10" in diameter now!

 

[lapoolboy]

Your birdnest looks great! I have one of my own arriving tomorrow. Do they have a big central stalk or what? How do I attach it to a rock?

 

[KSzegi]

Thanks, I've really enjoyed it and have been amazed at how quickly it grows!

No, they really don't have much of a central 'stalk' and they don't encrust either. Mine is actually just sitting on the rock on its bottom branches right now. Originally it was on a frag disk that I had glued to a point on a rock .... it grew so tall I had to move it down lower in the tank and its lower branches had grown down so it no longer sits on the original frag plug. I will be transfering this tank to a larger one soon and at that point I will probably frag off all of the lower branches and try glueing it to a rock again.

Yours will probably be coming on sometime of frag plug or rock ..... just glue it wherever you want it and give it lots of room to grow!! Good luck with yours and post pics when you get it!

 

[karsseboom]

I can't believe you have an sps under power compacts...what's ever works

 

[DenverBC29]

@ karsseboom... I wanted to see what would happen if mounted high enough in the tank. Most people's opinion was that it would survive, but not grow. I will put up another pic soon to show that it is indeed growing. With that being said, I believe Birdsnest to be one of the easier SPS to grow/keep alive? Correct?

 

[justhaag]

thats some impressive growth!! i just bought a birdsnest and i hope mine grows as fast as your guys's did!

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

Very nice and impressive folk's, thanks for sharing!

 

[rovster]

I had a monti and pocci under PCs in my biocube and they grew fine.....I imagine birds nest would be the same. After upgrading to LED, everything just grows faster. Just my observation.