Birdsnest Question

[djs4him]

My birdsnest is showing some bright white areas. Is this bleaching or new growth? Sorry for the blurry shot - really hard to photograph through water and glass.

 

[vetteguy53081]

It tissue loss due to stress. What stress:
Sudden temperature increase
Sudden change in water flow
Alkalinity spike
Elevated salinity
Low calcium

Assure temperature, salinity, alk, CA and pH are all within safe range. You may have to cut off dead areas if this continues

 

[djs4him]

Might this be due to insufficient lighting? Or would that cause a different symptom? Without a par meter I’m never 100% confident I’m giving it enough light.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Might this be due to insufficient lighting? Or would that cause a different symptom? Without a par meter I’m never 100% confident I’m giving it enough light.

Too much lighting would be more harmful than too little

 

[DanyL]

Birdsnest are pretty hardy when it comes to high PAR from my experience, even without properly acclimating them, and it's pretty consistent with the different types (or at least the 5 I've grown for over a decade).

There are however some finicky types that require high flow and are generally more delicate to sudden chemistry changes, especially Calcium and Alkalinity.

All types however don't handle temperatures below 25 degree celsius, so I highly recommend to make sure your temperature control is in check.

I join @vetteguy53081 recommendation to watch it closely and if the tissue loss continues, frag it as fast as possible to save the live tissue. Dipping it in Iodine is recommended as well.

 

[Pistondog]

Lost birdsnest due to stupid alk spike, check yours.

 

[Dburr1014]

My birdsnest is showing some bright white areas. Is this bleaching or new growth? Sorry for the blurry shot - really hard to photograph through water and glass.

How old is your tank? How was it started? What are your parameters? What lights and Flow are you running? Do you know the par? Birds Nest love flow lots of flow.
I can't tell you how many times I've tried starting a bird's nest. I finally got one to stick and it's been growing pretty quickly. I have it in about 300 par and the flow in the tank is crazy. So I believe that they are finicky and not always a starter SPS.

 

[DanyL]

I grew birds nest in both high (400-600) and low (100-200) PAR, and they do well in both as long as the light distribution is good enough to penetrate between their tiny branches.

I actually tried to use low PAR as a tool to slow down its rapid growth and still found myself breaking apart colonies every 2 to 3 months, so high par isn't a hard requirement for their health.

But I agree about the flow - they love it, and its necessary to be able to keep them healthy.
When they grow to large colonies (20--30 cm) the internal branches may not get enough flow and start to die off, which for me is a sign that it needs to be broken apart and restarted.

From my own experience, it is a great SPS to start with, maybe after Pocelophora and Stylophora.