Is my birds nest coral sick or dying?

[Keith A]

I've had this birds nest coral for a few years now and it hasn't really been looking all that great lately. It's lost a lot of it's color and the points or branches seem to be bending down. Hopefully the picture came througy on this thread.

 

[James404]

No pic that I can see. I consider birdsnest to be somewhat a canary in the coal mine coral. Usually they are the first ones to show signs when something has gone awry in the tank.


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[Keith A]

Oops. Here is the picture (I hope). Its at a place in the tank where it gets a lot of flow (nearly infront of a return from the sump) and is at the top of the tank. If it is sick or dying, what can I do?
View attachment 177537

 

[Keith A]

Repost

 

[Keith A]

More info.

Lighting:

2 150 watt 10,000K MH
2 65 watt 6,700K CF
2 65 watt actinic



The coral is at the top of the tank so its about 1 1/2 - 2 ft from the light.


Parameters:

Calcium 440
Phosphate 0
Nitrates 5-10
KH 11
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
Salinity 1.024-1.025


I just did my weekly 20% waterchange yesterday.

 

[olee]

More info.

Lighting:

2 150 watt 10,000K MH
2 65 watt 6,700K CF
2 65 watt actinic



The coral is at the top of the tank so its about 1 1/2 - 2 ft from the light.


Parameters:

Calcium 440
Phosphate 0
Nitrates 5-10
KH 11
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
Salinity 1.024-1.025


I just did my weekly 20% waterchange yesterday.

you should lower the nitrates to 0.03-0.1 and KH should be 7-8
by the way, i can't see your picture

 

[Keith A]

Sorry about the pisture. I thought it uploaded before.
Here it is.

 

[rad1687]

Too much light? It looks bleached and could be growing downward at the tips in an attempt to distance itself from your light source.

 

[smokenax]

+1 to light and maybe flow ,is it in direct flow?

 

[ange062]

Whats curious to me is that the tank has been running for years, yet there is no coralline algae growth at all on that LR. Could be an indicator of too much light or something else, but your parms don't look bad.

 

[mordinad]

post a full tank shot, your other birdnests in the right hand corner doesn't look too great either.

if your parameters are what they are, then I think your birdnest is just taking a beating from the flow.

Things usually just bleach and die if it's too much light, strange they would try to grow away from the light. I'd drop it down a third of the tank to somewhere with light flow.

 

[fjpod]

I'm thinking too much flow. It should not be right in front of the discharge.

 

[Magician8642]

With MH and sensitive corals like birds nest, i found the best way to acclimate the new ones to my tank is to start them off at the bottom and move it up a bit each week. And the second i start to see part of the skeleton (usually on the top of the coral) turning white, i lower it back down. If the polyps are extending, its probably not flow, but light. However, it the polyps arent out, then it could be both. And yes, Nitrates look high for a coral like that. Do you have a skimmer? keep those waste levels down. Good luck

 

[Keith A]

Thanks for the input. Yes, some of the rock is new base rock that has been cured so there isn't any coraline on some of the rocks. I put those in a few weeks ago. There is another coral in the tank that wasn't looking so great either. I honestly don't remember what it was called but it broke into three pieces so I split it up. It's the other "tree looking" coral at the top of the rocks. I have a Bubble Magus skimmer that I got for Christmas. It is for a tank that is 130-160 gallons and I have a 75 gallon with a light bioload right now. Here are some other pics:

 

[Keith A]

View attachment 177727