Bleached Birdnest

[djneedledamage]

One of my corals got bleached during moving a couple weeks ago. It is a birdsnest that I have had for years. The body is white and the polyps are a bright blue. I moved it to the bottom of my tank. What can I do to get the color back. Are there any dips that work? Should I feed it?

 

[jackinfobo]

I would say deffinatly feed it, I have a birdsnets right now that did the same thing. IMO I would say to feed it, make sure it gets enough light, proper water chemistry, and time. It should eventually color back up.

 

[djneedledamage]

There are some detritus sticking to it that I think might start killing some of the polyps. I should of replaced the substrate. I have been using filter socks nonstop and can't get rid of these particles.

 

[jackinfobo]

What I did with mine when this happened is I turned out my lights, pulled up my birdsnest and lightly with my fingers brush off any algae and detritus that was on the birdsnest because this blocks light from getting to the polyps and therefore slowly starving the birdsnest. I would not replace the substrate because that would be taking any bacteria that has established and throwing it away. I would just move the coral off of and away from the substrate. I also had a problem with algae and detritus on my sand bed and it took me about 7 months of weekly water changes and changing carbon weekly to solve this problem. Just be patient and keep up with your maintence and evenything should turn out fine for your substrate.