Birdsnest trouble

[Vice333]

I'm not sure what it is, but I cannot keep birdsnest coral alive. I bought another frag a few weeks ago, kept it in the sand bed for about 2 weeks to light acclimate, then moved it up about a foot in the tank. In the last week or so, it has lost tissue at the base and is losing more everytime I look at it. In the sand bed it looked good. The tank is 4 years old.

Tank specs,
90 gal corner tank
280 gal basement sump (about 150 gal is the fuge with live rock and macro)
400 watt MH about 12 inches off the water
I have a lot of flow coming off the return, and an MP-40
PH 8.2
Alk 7
Phosphates 0
SG 1.026
Nitrates 0
Calcium 480
Mag 1360

This birdnest went south pretty quick. I popped it off the frag plug and glued it to a rock that is about a foot under the surface in a turbulent flow area. I have no idea what the problem is, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[alten78]

Do you have other coral in the tank that are doing ok or is this the only piece?

 

[Vice333]

I have a bunch of soft corals that are growing very well, Xenia, frogspawn, leathers, mushrooms, lots of zoa's ect. I also have a monti that looks as if it's doing ok. I got that at the same time as the birdnest

 

[jgalen0025]

Stripping the water with carbon and gfo?

 

[Vice333]

I have a carbon reactor that I just started a few weeks ago, but I have about half of the recommended dose for my water volume

 

[k4ndyk1ng]

How big is the frag, the big ones do don't too well due to flow patterns. On the topic of flow, how much do you have? If it is a pink one it loves flow!

 

[Vice333]

The frag is small, about 3 one inch stalks off of then base, and flow is from a powerful return and an mp-40

 

[swk]

What salt are you using? Just curious

 

[Vice333]

Coral pro salt

 

[Vice333]

So nobody has any ideas? I thought birdnest were hardier corals

 

[Ratpack]

Try pulling the carbon and GFO altogether. I have a birdsnest and without carbon, it was very bushy looking from all the polyp extension and growing like a weed. I added a bag of Chemipure this week to pull some of the phosphates down as I was getting a bit of algae growth and the birdsnest reacted to it. Almost looked like it went on a diet and thinned down. I knw that isn't true, but it didn't look as good. So I pulled the Chemipure out last night. We will see if it goes back to it's full self. The the Chemipure I used was under rated for my tank, not a full dose.

 

[toothman]

If your phosphates and nitrates are truly 0 that would equal death. My tank does best when phosphate is .01 to .03 varies by feeding and nitrates are less than 2 more than 0. My 400 watt halides are 6 inches off tank and work great, for me 20 k are best, have no problem putting acros as high as possible. Par in tank is 500 to 400. If you are using 10k your par would be much more. If you are interested in seeing my tank pm me you live about 45 min away.

 

[myaerica]

Birdsnest is the one of the if not the easiest sps to keep alive with half way stable parameters. You must be having huge alk swings for birdsnest noy to survive.

 

[swk]

So nobody has any ideas? I thought birdnest were hardier corals

Did you get my pm?

They're extremely sensitive to alk swings. What are you using to maintain parameters?

 

[alten78]

Ive had several birdsnests over the years in many different spots, the ones that never did well are the ones that had too much of a direct flow onto them. Happened everytime, blow the skin off of the branches only to be followed by algae of some sort on the branches.

this is my old tank before its crash, its hard to see but there is a 'birds of paradise' in the upper middle-right that was in direct flow with said tissue issues, meanwhile, the two below it (indirect flow) would frag themselves by getting too large.



Maybe too much direct flow? Its worth the thought