Birdsnest Trouble

[Dive Cowboy]

Help! I have this small colony of birdsnest coral that was looking really good for a month or so. Yesterday I noticed a couple branches looked bleached. They were in a spot that looked like they could have been just grazed by a torch. I moved the coral a few inches away. Similar lighting, maybe a bit higher flow (pretty high). This morning I woke up and the area that looked bleached had at least doubled, maybe tripled, and almost the entire colony isn't opening at all. Only about 10-20% looks bleached. The rest is brown with no polyp extension. My LFS says that if it gets stung, the death can spread to areas that didn't even get touched. I hadn't heard of that, but he knows more than I do.

My water parameters stay pretty stable. Phos are .09. Nitrates are about 9. Other parameters in photo. Most everything else looks pretty good, including other SPS. The onky exception is a small digitata frag that died a few days ago.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Parameters look fine. My vote is on the torch. :)

 

[Dive Cowboy]

Parameters look fine. My vote is on the torch. :)

Even though only a very small piece would have been touched?

 

[blecki]

All it takes. Birdsnest grows fast and dies fast.

 

[Dive Cowboy]

All it takes. Birdsnest grows fast and dies fast.

For real. It was almost completely gone 8 hrs. after I posted. Luckily, a very small piece broke off when I was moving it away from the torch, so I threw it on a plug, and it survived and looks pretty good.