Birds nest bleaching

[agamblinalot]

Tank is in its 2nd month since cycling. I’ve had very stable water parameters for 6 weeks in a row. The stats below hardly vary every week I test. Decided to add a birds nest. Been in the tank a week and this just happened over night. I have a hammer that isn’t doing well either. What’s going on? My weekly water changes keep parameters pretty darn stable.

Tank:15 gal Helloreef AIO
Light: 12” AI Blade running at 60% (not 100 like in the pic)
Temp: 78
PH: 7.9
SG: 1.026
Alk: 8.2-8.1
Ca: 418
Mag: 1268
Phos: .1
Nitrate: 18
No ammonia or nitrite

 

[agamblinalot]

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The tank is very new. Although your parameters are stable, consider that we can test for only 5 or 6 parameters, but there are dozens of other things we can't test for.

Birdsnest and hammers are not exactly beginner corals. I would suggest to start with soft corals, such as zoa's and mushrooms and leathers, if these do well then move up to lps, and if you can keep lps for a while, then graduate to sps.

Also the light is not very intense, not enough for sps corals. You have a 20 watt light running at 60%. I also have a 15 gallon tank with a 55 watt light running at 80%.

Do you have any powerheads in the tank or only the return for flow?

 

[Rixar]

Your aquarium won't be a good place for hard corals for a few months, no matter how well you do it. You must be patient.

 

[agamblinalot]

The tank is very new. Although your parameters are stable, consider that we can test for only 5 or 6 parameters, but there are dozens of other things we can't test for. Birdsnest and hammers are not exactly beginner corals. I would suggest to start with soft corals, such as zoa's and mushrooms and leathers, if these do well then move up to lps, and if you can keep lps for a while, then graduate to sps.

Also the light is not very intense, not enough for sps corals. You have a 20 watt light running at 60%. I have a 15 gallon tank with a 55 watt light running at 80%.

Do you have any powerheads in the tank or only the return for flow?

Oh wow! I was just worried about cooking things at full intensity.

Yes I have a sicce nano1000 power head.

 

[Dburr1014]

I second what mojo said.