Discolored birdsnest, but polyps still extended

cdw79 · May 9, 2022

I purchased this Enchanted Forest birdsnest at RAP 2 ish weeks ago. I noticed yesterday that the main stem, for lack of a better word, seems to have gotten lighter / lost its greenish yellow coloring it had when I brought it in. This is taken under some daylight lighting with tank lights off, so there's definitely some discoloration, but it doesn't seem to be necrosis given the polyps are still there and extending, right?

Did some tests before I posted and got the following:
Alk- 9.51 (Apex)
Ca- 440 (Apex)
Mg- 1350 (Apex)
Nitrate- ~2 ppm (salifert)
Phosphate- .16 (Hanna)

Obviously phosphate stands out. I usually dose MB7 daily but was finding it was giving me 0 based on my testing, so I backed off it a few days to see how much phosphates would increase. So I'm guessing this big bump up was at least in part due to not adding any MB7. You'll note the browned out acros beneath, one with some bleaching it got early on but has been slowly recovering from. not really sure how bc my Hydra's aren't crazy powerful or anything, and I think elevated nutrient probably caused the browning I'm still hoping will go away, but everything else as far as coral including the Monti stolen by my urchin below has been doing great. Full extension across the board across LPS, Monti's, softies, etc. Obviously going to restart dosing MB7 at a "medium" level compared to what I was originally doing, but any sense if phosphate is the issue?

CoralB · May 9, 2022

Not sure it’s just your phosphates which need to come down and or maybe need to look into your par placement of your lighting . Is it too high in the tank too soon ?? Acclimation ?? Did you dip and if so what did you use and how long . You might want to bring nitrates up to 10 ppm as well .

cdw79 · May 9, 2022

CoralB said:
Not sure it’s just your phosphates which need to come down and or maybe need to look into your par placement of your lighting . Is it too high in the tank too soon ?? Acclimation ?? Did you dip and if so what did you use and how long . You might want to bring nitrates up to 10 ppm as well .

Estimating PAR up there is around 250 or so (was 215 but I have slowly been raising intensity so it's a bit of a guess at the moment). I bought it from the WWC booth so I figured if anything my PAR would be underpowered compared to what it was in prior?

I broke my normal rule of dipping because I had bags from about 8 different vendors and at midnight on a Sunday when I got home with work the next day, 8 sets of dipping and waiting wasn't realistically going to happen. Not my proudest moment, but it's what ended up happening for better or for worse.

I'm frustrated with my nitrate and phosphate situation and I can't seem to get it right. For some reason Phosphate in particular is either at ~13 or 0, nowhere in between. Nitrates had been hovering in the 10-15 range but have dropped off. I feel conflicted about feeding a pretty well-stocked tank more because phosphates always seem to be on the higher end but nitrates on the lower. What's the best approach for this? Maybe a more moderated MB7 regimen would help? Really not sure, it's been confusing me for some time now