Pink and Green Birds nest colors

I

iamscuba

New member
I have always had trouble with green birds nest turning white. Pink has done ok. Here are pics of them side by side. They are located in the middle of a tall 180 tank using 4) 80w HO ATI bulbs. 1.025 sal, 420 Ca, 11 Kh, 8.4 Ph, 1300 Mg, 78 f. Any ideas? Tank has been up for 2 years. uploadfromtaptalk1429373695994.jpg
 
How long have they been in the tank? How long did you acclimate? In my experience with birds nests is they are very sensitive to changes in alkalinity. I always dripped mine linger than any other coral and that usually worked. Just the change from store to your tank could be enough. Where I get my coral from thwy have a dkh of 8 and I have a dkh of 10. Killed 3 before I figured out why.
 
Start them in lower light and acclimate slowly. The non pink ones seem to bleach easily.

The big gnarly yellowish one on the upper right I bought 2 years ago as a green with purple polyps. It grows like crazy but getting the green has always been difficult. Only when a branch grows into a more shaded area does it really turn a nice green.

5hLJUg.jpg


Here was the beast back when I had my 40 gallon.
lrir.jpg


Here was the picture from Live Aquaria
CF - Purple Polyp Green Birdsnest Coral - Aquacultured CCGC 30 Day
p-40202-purple-polyp.jpg


So, long story short, if this is familiar to you then you probably have the same birdsnest. :D
 
probably, I had the same with a pink skin/blue polyp nest doing great at top of tank, and a green polyp one bleached out even though it was in slightly less light, I moved it to the bottom of the tank on one side and it seems to have stopped the bleaching but there isnt much left on it so I am not holding much hope....the pink does great at the top.
 
Thank you all for your advice! It was from a friend's tank who grows them (green & pink) like weeds . Embarrassed to admit I don't acclimate stuff from him like I do from stores since he helped me set my tank up and we have similar setups/parameters/and use same additives (my bad, I know).Big difference is I have a much better skimmer (G3), my tank is taller and he runs t5&Led. This stuff came from top of his tank. I started out at the bottom, and in 2 weeks the green turned white (pink fine).Got another (this one) and same thing.Now I have another piece I am trying at top. 2 things I have a problem with red turf algae and almost all my Palys turned white?? Zoas started shriveling up. Don't know why? No pests or pox that I can find on them other than turf algae.
 
iamscuba said:
Thank you all for your advice! It was from a friend's tank who grows them (green & pink) like weeds . Embarrassed to admit I don't acclimate stuff from him like I do from stores since he helped me set my tank up and we have similar setups/parameters/and use same additives (my bad, I know).Big difference is I have a much better skimmer (G3), my tank is taller and he runs t5&Led. This stuff came from top of his tank. I started out at the bottom, and in 2 weeks the green turned white (pink fine).Got another (this one) and same thing.Now I have another piece I am trying at top. 2 things I have a problem with red turf algae and almost all my Palys turned white?? Zoas started shriveling up. Don't know why? No pests or pox that I can find on them other than turf algae.
Click to expand...

You need more stuff (that's a technical term :D ) in the water, it's either too clean or lights are too bright while the water lacks any food the corals can munch on. If we have the same bird then I can say the green can go pale if I reduce feeding. Can you reduce the efficiency of the skimmer for a while?
 
I tried putting skimmer on 12hr cycle and it didn't help. I question the nutrients level because I do have spots of cyano and I have very healthy (almost nuisance) level of small feather dusters that are thriving. So I'm assuming there are plenty of nutrients, but I guess it could be the wrong type of nutrients?
 
My new green grows with pink tips

Here it is when I got it last week
<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/402B1A05-F849-49EE-B69A-359ED3384126_zps7l96aaew.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/402B1A05-F849-49EE-B69A-359ED3384126_zps7l96aaew.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 402B1A05-F849-49EE-B69A-359ED3384126_zps7l96aaew.jpg"/></a>

And today
<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/4A256B6F-0B76-4B29-B7F3-C4C270E7D0EF_zpsmy5nndfd.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/4A256B6F-0B76-4B29-B7F3-C4C270E7D0EF_zpsmy5nndfd.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 4A256B6F-0B76-4B29-B7F3-C4C270E7D0EF_zpsmy5nndfd.jpg"/></a>
 
I have a pink birdsnest and the ORA birds of paradise. Both are colored up nicely. I have them placed in the upper half of the tank under 250 w 10k halides in areas of really high flow (18"- 20" in front of MP40s). BTW, The pink one was white for the first 3 months. In addition to 2 part, I dose potassium and amino acids.
 
Last edited:
The first was under LEDs only. The second was LEDs and MHs. The MHs are 10k so they don't change coloration.

I'll take more pics. It fell a couple of times yesterday :( but the tips should recover soon.
 
I got a new green birdsnest colony and put it on the rock next to the old pink one (that used to be green).

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/FF6126AE-AF19-41E3-95D8-47B435FB8D69_zpsvvqwoqbz.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/FF6126AE-AF19-41E3-95D8-47B435FB8D69_zpsvvqwoqbz.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo FF6126AE-AF19-41E3-95D8-47B435FB8D69_zpsvvqwoqbz.jpg"/></a>

I think pink and green birdsnest are the same. They change color based on the lighting.
 
Dumb question but can you test for amino or potassium deficiency? I still wonder if it's possible my lights are to bright? Someone said it could also be a bacteria issue? Do any of you regularly dose bacteria to an established system?
 
Who? Me?

I don't dose anything. I started feeding recently but the color change happened before that.

I think the UV content in my MHs and LEDs is the source of the color change.
 
My experience has been that those "green" seriatopora hystrix do best in lower light - in strong light mine was always brown but in low light always turned green.
 
Mine turned pink in bright light.

I do have an unusual setup though where I apply MH (10k) for a 4 hour burst (400W) but use UV LEDs (415nm) at lower power (75W) for a much longer photoperiod (16hrs).
 
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