Birdsnest in the shade?

[JeF4y]

I'm at a bit of a loss here. I brought home a colony of birdsnest from a guy who was breaking down his tank. I had previous experience with birdsnest which was successful high up under CF lighting in my first tank. It later mysteriously died rather quickly after months of good growth high up under T5 lighting.

This piece, I placed on the substrate. 24" down with strong T5 lighting about 7" above the waterline (combined distance from light of around 31"). I watched it bleach like MAD and start dropping polyps.

Figuring that it was getting too much light, I moved it to the shade, under a rock, and it is absolutely THRIVING there. All the color came back in about 3 weeks, the polyp extension is great, etc.

My question here is why/how is this succeeding?!? It is getting almost no light, and is growing well and looking great.

I'd like to get more birdsnest, but if I'm going to have to stuff it in caves in the tank, forget it. I'll find something else.

Anyone else experience this?

 

[Anemone0524]

I have an a green birdsnest that was getting bleached too close to the T-5's. I moved it about half way down in the tank and it seems to be doing better.

 

[oneradtek202]

my green birdsnest does great in the shade. i have MH, but ive seen what t-5's can do to a healthy sps colony

 

[jd474]

my green birdsnest does great in the shade. i have MH, but ive seen what t-5's can do to a healthy sps colony

+1. They frequently turn pale/bleach under high light, esp. if not acclimating slowly.

 

[vegita51]

The bottom shaded part of my lokani grows like mad where the top that receives all the light hardly grows at all. Maybe the same thing with birdsnest?

 

[JeF4y]

I guess for now I will leave it in the shade.

For the most part I have LPS and a few softies in the tank, all of which are in the lower 1/2 of the tank or protected by a touch of shade. My issue is that I have a ton of high space that I can't do anything with right now as the lighting is too intense (ATI PM 8x24). I have a lot of flat space about 4" under water that I have 2 SPS pieces (not exactly sure what they are, they were given to me) on and they seem to be doing quite well. I'd just like to put more up there including different varieties of birds nest, but I'm guessing the acclimation up the tank will be a slow one unless I get something that has been in pretty intense light to begin with...