Browning Out Birdsnest

[Casper12065]

Hi All,

I recently had an episode where I dosed too much nitrate to my tank and it really spiked up (topped the charts on my red sea test kit). I brought it back down gradually and am now at 5 ppm. All corals seem to have tolerated it except green birdsnest, which is turning brown per the photo. Anyone have thoughts on whether it is salvageable or a goner? Thoughts on additional things I should do?

Thanks in advance.

 

[tehmadreefer]

That thing is about dead, there’s noticeable tissue loss in that pic.

can be a bazillion things wrong. Start with some info o your tank.pretty sure the no3 spiking that high and then lowering all the way down did it. Wouldn’t be surprised if you have some crazy algae issues shortly.

 

[Casper12065]

That thing is about dead, there’s noticeable tissue loss in that pic.

can be a bazillion things wrong. Start with some info o your tank.pretty sure the no3 spiking that high and then lowering all the way down did it. Wouldn’t be surprised if you have some crazy algae issues shortly.

Yeah, pretty sure it was the nitrate. Other specs are fine. Salinity 34.5 ppt, calcium 450, alk 9.5, ph 8, temp 78.5, mag 1360, phosphate .05, ammonia 0, nitrite 0.

 

[JGT]

I see some tissue loss but the majority is intact. They are very hardy. Takes a lot to kill them. Continue keeping your params in check and it should come back.

 

[CRath]

You should keep it around if the polyps don't die back. If those stay on the skeleton I bet the colony could bounce back. In that picture it only looks like the underlying skin is gone or bleached.

 

[BiggestE222]

Dosing nitrate because it was too low?

 

[Casper12065]

Dosing nitrate because it was too low?

Yes, it dropped to zero so I was trying to get it back up to 5. LFS gave me an amount of nitrate they said would get up to that level but spiked it way higher. Think the issue was dosing to tank size rather than water volume. I have a lot of rock.

 

[blasterman]

Going quickly from 0 to 20 nitrate will murder many SPS. This is again why I dont regard birdsnests as beginner SPS.

Most montipora like blue digis or pocillopora can take this abuse or worse. Birdsnests wont. Acros wont.

If you are at zero nitrate for awhile you need to get just a trace of nitrate in there, wait a week , then slowly bring it up to 5. The coral zooanthalae need to adapt to the higher nutrients. Of course, hindsight is 20/20.

I've not had good luck with birdsnests when they RTN. If the tissue loss doesn't stop you might want to frag the healthy parts.