Problems with pink birdnest

[Ralistin]

I have many SPS and all do well and grow but I have had a pink birdnest frag since late December and I am just not having luck with it. When I first got it, the tips all began to grow at first. Then, due to my own neglect, many tips died due to sitting in the DSB for a day. These tips would grow algae on them and slowly but surely it took control. I ended up fragging it even smaller. The frag pictured below was completely clean of dead tissue. It did ok for a few weeks and even grew a bit. Now the tips have died as you can see. Why am I failing with this coral? It is in a higher flow area and water perams have all been good since I had the frag. Any ideas?

I also have it up high in the tank. My PAR is pretty intense with 2 x 250w Iwasaki 6500k MH and 4 x 110w blue actinic VHO bulbs.

 

[robitreef]

I believe that birdsnest coral likes less intensive light and current. They suppossedly grow in sheltered areas of the reef in the wild, and are often shaded by other corals. Maybe you should try to place it a little lower in the tank.

 

[Ralistin]

Yeah, I may have to try that. I have smaller frags on the bottom that are doing ok so far as well. I could only get very small frags, about 1/4 inch and placed a whole bunch of them randomly on a flat piece of epoxy. They have not really responded yet but also have not done anything negative either.

 

[jman77]

I have a Birdsnest frag that was 6 inches away from a 250w 14k AC DE bulb and it was growing fine. I downgradded the lighting to 150 DE 10k and it's still doing good. So i don't think lighting is the problem? What's up with all the algae in the picture?

 

[Ralistin]

Algae is mostly on the epoxy. You can see Halmedia behind it as well. I do get that small film of algae on some of the rocks here and there.

I used to starve my tank and maybe feed the fish twice a week if they were lucky. I also never ran my protein skimmer that much because I never got much out of it. I recently found out that the ball valve was clogged and that is why.

More recently I have done a 40% monthly water change the last two months. I have also started to feed daily and skim daily. I get a bit more skimmate but not as much as I expected to. I also have been running carbon. The difference has been very noticable as my water does not turn into the yellowish color but is mostly always clear now. I suppose this could be the reason too since it is a dramatic change. Unfortunately the film algae has not stopped. Here is a better pic of the entire tank days after a good cleaning. You can see how fast the algae comes back on the return pipe.

Left side

Right side