Can't Grow Birdsnest/Stylophora

[Jackwkahn]

Birds and Stylos are some of my favorite corals but they just wont fare in my tank. I've tried several different pieces of rainbow stylo, purple stylo, ponape bird, bird of paradise, ORA green, and others and they all just waste away. This occurs next to happy and growing Acroporas, euphyllias, acans, zoas etc. Digitatas also don't fare too well in my system but I have had some luck with encrusting montiporas.

I try to keep Alk between 7-8 and calcium between 450-500. Temp stays around 80 with a cooling fan and salinity was at 1.024 when I checked two days ago (made sure it was calibrated). For lighting I have a white and blue chinese LED unit and two t5 bulbs (ATI coral plus and blue plus). I thought that I was throwing to much light at the corals but even the frags that I placed at the bottom of the tank wasted away like the others. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am puzzled because everyone tells me that birdsnest corals are very hardy and crazy fast growers. thanks

 

[shih87]

Birdnest become one of the most fast growing SPS in my tank since I enhanced my water current with four Tunze pump plus 45 degree light from top. However, I am using Zeovit, so not sure my experience suited for you.


2012.10.18 (Nikon Coolpix AW100)

2013.02.25 (Nikon Coolpix AW100)

2013.05.19 (Nikon Coolpix AW100)

 

[animalkingdom]

my birdsnest are each a little different. It used to be pink and yellow pointys were the fastest of growers while some of the others were slower. Now my yellow is still fast, but the pink has slowed way down and even has some die off near the base. The pink is getting heavily encroached upon by a blue monti and I think it is blocking flow/stinging. The green stylo has always been a superb grower no matter what I throw at it but seriatoporas sometimes go through phases for me. Some of the blunt tip thin branches are fairly quick as well. Purple stylo started slow but has recently taken off. I wish I knew what caused these variation so will be following along to your post. During all this acros and montis seem to have consistent growth rates.

 

[Patrick Cox]

...However, I am using Zeovit, so not sure my experience suited for you...

Which products are you dosing? Thanks.

 

[shih87]

Which products are you dosing? Thanks.

Well, a lot

My manual dosing products

My auto GHL dosing products

Sorry for some Chinese wordings.

However, Zeovit SPG is the one help birdnest significantly, it keep even bottom part red and bright, I think!?

 

[tdb320reef]

.

.

MIE I had three issues with Bn and Stylo's


1. Not enough light
2. Not enough nutrients
3. Dosing pump when nuts and dosed 13 Oz of MB7 over night. All Stylos and Poofy type birds nest started to STN from the bases. A water-change, wet-skimming and fragging off the dead part with super gule solved the issues. So the theory is perhaps too much of a bacteria source.

 

[purge43]

This has the potential to be a very long thread of who can grow xyz and who cant grow xyz and so on.... heres my 2 cents..I have all the corals you describe as wasting away except the rainbow stylo. In my tank these are the outstanding performers and dominate. My purple stylo is about 4 or 5 months away from reaching the surface of the water. In my case I cant kill them...My immediate thought when I first read the op was not of something you had done or not done, but of the source water. My source water is from a northeast river coming from the old coal mines and steel towns of pennsylvania, heavy in oxides and iron. What is your water source? springs?.. Id ask around your area and see if other reefers have difficulty with these varieties before changing chemistry.

 

[Jackwkahn]

Hmm that's a good point. Ill look around

 

[LoJack]

This has the potential to be a very long thread of who can grow xyz and who cant grow xyz and so on.... heres my 2 cents..I have all the corals you describe as wasting away except the rainbow stylo. In my tank these are the outstanding performers and dominate. My purple stylo is about 4 or 5 months away from reaching the surface of the water. In my case I cant kill them...My immediate thought when I first read the op was not of something you had done or not done, but of the source water. My source water is from a northeast river coming from the old coal mines and steel towns of pennsylvania, heavy in oxides and iron. What is your water source? springs?.. Id ask around your area and see if other reefers have difficulty with these varieties before changing chemistry.

This is a very unique perspective. If you are using RO/DI should it matter?

I am however in the same boat as the OP. Green birdsnest looks great, but hasn't changed shape or size in almost a year (great color and polyp extension, just zero growth) My Birds of Paradise grows fairly fast and has phenomenal color, and I've never been able to keep the pink alive long enough for me to tell what its growth would be like.

Meanwhile, I as well have very successful SPS colonies through out the tank. But Birdsnest and Plating Monti's elude me for some reason.

 

[purge43]

I have no education or training to substantiate my statement, but from my reading and experience I dont believe everybodys water is the same no mater how many times its put thru a membrane and resin, just my shared thoughts in hope to assist in finding an answer before op starts changing chemistry needlessly; by process of elimination. gl op

 

[MHG]

Funny, those are the only two things in my tank that grew at the normal rate.... All the other stuff has been over a year and is still frags....

 

[waterman78]

After reading your replies, I would first look at the placement of the corals - assuring that the water flow in that area is adequate and lighting is sufficient....next would be what are you feeding your tank and the fish you have. Could it be your SG or salt mix? Are you skimming all the nutrients out of the water column? Running GFO or Carbon?

So many factors that could lead to why you are unable to successfully grow this species of coral.

Good luck and keep us all posted on your progress.



Larry

 

[Jackwkahn]

After reading your replies, I would first look at the placement of the corals - assuring that the water flow in that area is adequate and lighting is sufficient....next would be what are you feeding your tank and the fish you have. Could it be your SG or salt mix? Are you skimming all the nutrients out of the water column? Running GFO or Carbon?

So many factors that could lead to why you are unable to successfully grow this species of coral.

Good luck and keep us all posted on your progress.



Larry

I wet skim on a barebottom tank and run GFO but LPS and Soft corals do very well, I feed frozen mysis shrimp daily. In the tank (40 breeder) is 2 lyretail anthias, 1 kole tang, 2 ocellaris clowns, 2 chromis, 1 ywg. Nitrates stay around 5 and I dont test po4 because i dont have problems with algae and Acros have good color. SG is 1.024 when I checked last week and I use red sea coral pro salt mix

 

[rovster]

Where are you getting the corals from? How do you light acclimate? I have 3 species of bn in my tank and they are currently the fastest growers. I started mine in the sand for a month and did not mount until i observed growth. Thats what i do with most sps. Hope you figure it out, they are very nice corals. I love my bop

 

[waterman78]

How old is your system? I'm thinking that the maturity of the system may play a role in the corals health.

 

[Jackwkahn]

How old is your system? I'm thinking that the maturity of the system may play a role in the corals health.

The system is about 14 months old but it was my first tank and Its been through a lot. Id say its been hospitable for stony corals for around 6 months

 

[glennr1978]

Ime, getting good healthy frags is very important. I have a hard time getting frags to recover if they aren't in good shape when I get them. I've had many take up to a year to really do anything at all. However, if he frags I get are in good shape when they enter my tank they tend to stay that way and flourish.

 

[Palting]

IMO, when you can grow certain SPS but not others, it's usually not about chemistry. It would be more about local factors and how they affect the particular coral. Chemistry is uniform all across your tank, but flow and light are not.

Stylos in particular have been a challenge for me. They would do fine on the substrate during light acclimation, but would bleach and STN as I moved them up. It finally dawned on my that the stylos I was getting liked lower light levels.

My pink birdsnest, OTOH, is sitting about 6" from the top, directly under an MH light and directly in front of a return nozzle. And loving it!

 

[Jackwkahn]

Update: I picked a healthy mini colony of ORA blue polyp birdsnest. after a week or so it began to decline in the similar manner to all of the other birds. having been fed up, I begain testing and dosing alk daily, keeping it between 8-8.5. I may have not realized before but the alk would otherwise fall to around 7 without this diligence. Since this regimen the birdsnest has stopped declining and has began to encrust. Crossing my fingers and putting in an order for a pair of BRS dosers as kalk is obviously not doing the trick for alk