Dying birdsnest

Well can't say that i'm surprised, but my green birds-nest frag has bleached from the bottom to a little less than halfway. The two branches look great and are vibrant. What do you guys think? My theory is coral beauty was hungry <--- LOL or maybe i'm just not able to keep SPS under my 150 watt metal halide and 96 watt actinics. I've read a lot about people having difficulty with anemones yet my LTA has been thriving for a year now and has completely outgrown its welcome, yet I put a SPS birdsnest in there (first sps ever) and it starts bleaching from the bottom up. Maybe it was the super glue gel that I glued the frag with who knows. Now i'm paranoid with ever buying another sps.

 

bleaching from bottom up sounds like STN to me (Slow Tissue Necrosis)

the good news is that it does not always affect the whole coral
and also it is slow so if you see it progressing, then I suggest you cut any healthy tips
well above the bleached areas and then mount these using putty somewhere else on the reef

STN -is a bacterial infection from what I have read thus far so I would not assume its a lighting issue

what I would do is make sure that there is adequate flow in your set up, to make sure nothing is able to settle on this coral as this can be a cause for localised infections of this nature

the white area of dead coral skeleton is now a prime target for nuisance algaes
so in addition to ensuring flow is adequate
you do need to ensure your Phosphates and Nitrates are in check

just my opinion based on my experience
is if you do have any green hair algae present in your system
then its probably a good idea to frag the healthy areas of the coral now
because even in very good flow, one of my STN infected SPS corals did become a magnet for GHA on the expossed white skeletal area


Steve

 

Double check your flow.

 

Your curent lighting is fine as long as the bulbs have been changed out in the last 9 months. You should have no problems with growing a birdsnest under 150w mh. Worst comes to worst frag it and try different placement.

 

Thank you guys! I did move it and it has no issues now. Hopefully it will heal over time.

 

I personally find birds nest impossible to keep. I don't know why but they don't do well in my tank.

 

+1 on double checking flow for birdsnests

very intricate branches, easy for stuff to get trapped on them
they are targets for GHA
other less complicated branchwork SPS are much easier to accomodate in terms of flow as less is actually required to keep them clear

additional issue is that birdsnest typically do better a bit further away from the lights than you might want Acros etc , and as most people have a large percentage of flow directed at the upper half of the tank - in order to avoid a shifting sand bed
this can mean that in order to provide adequate flow for the birdsnest, they end up closer to the lighting than would be ideal for them

just my experience with this particular coral type
I found that slightly lower on my reef, in an area of turbulant flow in order that nothing settled on the branches was the key to keeping it looking at its best.

Steve

 

I had to move mine into a low/medium flow from a high flow and it's thriving now. Hopefully yours stays ok!

 

Thanks everyone I took your advice on flow and gave it more as well as moved it about 2" further down from the MH lighting it is fine and is starting to grown polyps where the dead skeleton was. Also it has two tiny nubs where it is starting to grow a branch.

 

Yeah I know what you mean sometimes I can never figure out why my anemone thrives in my tank but my blue rics don't. I think easy and hard to keep corals don't exist its pretty much a grey area. Maybe instead of easy and hard they should rate on success of keeping in captivity like a percentage scale.