bleaching birds nest?

tankedchemist

Reef enthusiast
SO, last week I got my first pieces of SPS... 2 montipora and 1 neat birdsnest... the montis are doing just fine, but the birdsnest is slowly bleaching more and more. Water params test fine. Is the lighting too strong on my stock biocube? they're just PC's so I thought it'd be all right.... any ideas?
 
do you have it at the top of the tank? or down lower? a birdsnest is one of those coral that some people can ot keep alive no matter what they do
 
montipora is probably the hardeiest sps i have ever dealt with and can cope with a lot more than any other sps i have had. birdsnest have been known to be very tempremental and need very mature stable conditions for it to thrive. but also as stated has been known that some people just cant seem to keep it.
what are your parameters? and how long has your tank been running?
 
I had it down at the bottom of my tank, as per the recommendations of the LFS... but then my snails wouldn't quit irritating it, so I moved it up high onto the rocks. it was bleaching a litlte bit on the sand, so I thought perhaps more light was needed... but then it got worse.

Tank's been running for 3 or 4 months now. Params: SG 1.026, temp 80-81, NH3 0ppm, NO2- 0ppm, NO3- 5ppm, Ca2+ 420, I2 0.03 ppm, pH 8.3, 0 phosphate.... I think that's it.
 
well theres definetly nothing wrong with your parameters, it was probably just not happy where it was try not to keep moving it around as that will just stress it out more.
not only that it will take a long time to settle down and be fully acclimatised to your tank conditions the only thing you can do is keep an eye on it and see how it goes
 
I haven't had success with this SPS coral, either. Sometimes I wonder if a coral is in the process of dying when we purchase/get them and we just don't know it. Because it usually takes longer for a coral to die than a fish, it appears as if it's our tank which is to blame. Just wondering...
 
There are a few different species of seriatopora. Your lighting is not too strong for any of them. I've seen huge colonies barely under the water directly under 400w MH lighting. Most seems to be especially sensative to alk swings. The problem may be a combination of not enough light and a big difference in alk from your tank to where it came out of.
 
Could also be flow. BN's like a lot of flow IME. My first one bleached from the bottom out to the tips, which I think was a flow and possibly alk issue. Is yours bleaching from the tips inward, or outward from the base?
 
sounds like the sand was irritating it, then you moved it up to high to fast and shocked it. which in turn made it start to bleach out.

"up high" in my tank is only a difference of approximately 3-5 inches. :P

It's bleaching from the tips inward, although now it's just spreading willy-nilly. About 1/2 the coral is bleached now.
 
Enh... it's okay.... the LFS guy likes me, so he gave me all the SPS for $10, 'cause I was curious if it would work out in my tank or no. Guess not!!!
 
Wow, that's a great price. I usually pay $75 - $130 for a colony, only to watch them die. Not all, but I've lost a lot. I've told my SO that one day I'll open a gift shop and sell the poor dead things. People are willing to buy them. I'll just mount them on a decorative piece of wood or something. :grin:
 
wow, that much? Dang. Guess I got a good deal. If you ever open that shop, you can come collect my almost-dead one. It looks neat, even without most of its polyps.
 
Tips-out sounds like an alkalinity problem (I think) ;)
Frag some good pieces from it, make sure there's no dead areas on the new frag, and glue it down in a different spot. Check your alk, calcium, and pH. Hope it pulls through for you, but at this point I think fragging is your only chance.
 
Sounds like a flow problem to me especially with the "willy nilly" bleaching. That was the same problem I was having with mine, I upped my flow and it stopped it hasnt recovered but the bleaching stopped.
 
Sounds like a flow problem to me especially with the "willy nilly" bleaching. That was the same problem I was having with mine, I upped my flow and it stopped it hasnt recovered but the bleaching stopped.

I can't possibly have more flow in my tank-- I've got a K2 and a Rio+ 1100 return pump

It might be alk. it's testing a little bit high. maybe temp?
 
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