Any idea what's going on with this stylophora and birdsnest?

SpunCoral · Nov 29, 2022

The birdsnest (left) was showing signs of this yesterday and the stylo was fine. Then the lights came on today and I noticed that the stylo is now looking bad as well. Its especially strange because the stylo has grown 1cm in the month that I've had both of these, so I thought it was very healthy. There is another rainbow birdsnest to the left of these that looks completely fine, but now I'm worried it say be subject to the same fate. They are positioned at the highest platform in my tank with high flow. Is there anything I can do?

Parameters:

8.0 alk

1500 magnesium

500 calcium

.2 Phosphate

1 nitrate

Fish/inverts

Sailfin tang

6line wrasse

two clowns

firefish goby

sapphire damsel

1 emerald crab

bittle starfish

blue hermits, snails, etc.

V A R I A N T · Nov 29, 2022

Given one month in your tank, I’m wavering between a hungry emerald crab and bacterial infection. Hopefully someone else sees something in the photos.

SpunCoral · Nov 29, 2022

V A R I A N T said:
Given one month in your tank, I’m wavering between a hungry emerald crab and bacterial infection. Hopefully someone else sees something in the photos.

I havent ever noticed the emerald chomping on anything, but I've always wondered if he would. Bacterial infection; could there potentially be something that I'm doing wrong?

SpunCoral · Nov 29, 2022

***.02 phosphate

Om84 · Dec 18, 2022

Did you figure it out?
I’m having the same issue. I thought it was some pest but looks like STN.

SpunCoral · Dec 18, 2022

Om84 said:
Did you figure it out?
I’m having the same issue. I thought it was some pest but looks like STN.

Unfortunately, no. The birdsnest went completely white so I pulled it from the tank.
The stylo is holding on though and appears to be slowly coming back.
I have another birdsnest to the left of these frags (not pictured) that is perfectly healthy and has not had any issues.

Right after this happened, I had a bit of an algae (maybe dinos) breakout on the left side of the tank in the sand bed. I deduced that in the weeks leading up to the ti.e of this post and picture, I was overfeeding amino acids, vitality, and energy from aquaforest. This maybe have caused a short nitrate and phosphate issue, which may have hurt my corals. I have since cut back on feeding as well as adding more copepods to my tank. I've also started using phytoplankton and zooplankton in the last couple weeks. The algae (maybe dinos) outbreak has gone away and the tank looks better than ever.

I'm chalking it up to; growing coral is hard and sometimes things just don't make it.

sculpin01 · Dec 19, 2022

Phosphate of 0.02 is within the error range of most testers and may effectively be 0. Phosphate below 0.05 has been shown to injurious to corals in aquaria, although it can be tolerated by some.

Impact of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) enrichment and skewed N:P stoichiometry on the skeletal formation and microstructure of symbiotic reef corals - Coral Reefs

Reported divergent responses of coral growth and skeletal microstructure to the nutrient environment complicate knowledge-based management of water quality in coral reefs. By re-evaluating published results considering the taxonomy of the studied corals and the N:P stoichiometry of their...

link.springer.com

SpunCoral · Dec 19, 2022

sculpin01 said:
Phosphate of 0.02 is within the error range of most testers and may effectively be 0. Phosphate below 0.05 has been shown to injurious to corals in aquaria, although it can be tolerated by some.

Impact of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) enrichment and skewed N:P stoichiometry on the skeletal formation and microstructure of symbiotic reef corals - Coral Reefs

Reported divergent responses of coral growth and skeletal microstructure to the nutrient environment complicate knowledge-based management of water quality in coral reefs. By re-evaluating published results considering the taxonomy of the studied corals and the N:P stoichiometry of their...

link.springer.com

Glad you mentioned this. Its an important angle to consider. I posted a comment above yours talking about an algae or dinos outbreak I had at a similar time of these corals hurting. I've never experienced dinos before but when it was happening, the idea it might be dinos crossed my mind.
An algae outbreak would have shown excessive nitrate and phosphates. A dinos outbreak would have been a sign of too little nitrate and phosphate, correct? From what I read, it sounds like dinos becomes an issues when you reach 0, and they are given free reign to take over. Maybe im incorrect on what I understood, please let me know what you think.

Either way, in the past few weeks I have been feeding the tank copepods, phytoplankton, PNS YellowSno, and PNS ProBio. The algae or dinos outbreak had gone away, the stylophora is hanging on and looks like it will recover, and the rest of my tank is healthier than ever.

I love this hobby.

SPS2020 · Dec 19, 2022

sculpin01 said:
Phosphate of 0.02 is within the error range of most testers and may effectively be 0. Phosphate below 0.05 has been shown to injurious to corals in aquaria, although it can be tolerated by some.

Impact of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) enrichment and skewed N:P stoichiometry on the skeletal formation and microstructure of symbiotic reef corals - Coral Reefs

Reported divergent responses of coral growth and skeletal microstructure to the nutrient environment complicate knowledge-based management of water quality in coral reefs. By re-evaluating published results considering the taxonomy of the studied corals and the N:P stoichiometry of their...

link.springer.com