Help! Birdsnest trouble

[ReeferTang44]

Poop man !! I know the feeling

Didn’t mean to post the last two pictures
But my Goni looked good before I left for vacation and I come back. I have two dead corals and a few irritated ones

 

[Tired]

Feeding is a better way to raise nutrients than dosing.
Coral prefer ammonium over nitrates. Fish secrete ammonia coral uptake it. Fish poop phosphorus. Bacteria (and coral) eat the poop, coral eat the bacteria.

Feeding a good amount, yes. Overfeeding so that food winds up rotting isn't ideal.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I assume since it's the 13.5 you may have limited filtration, I'd be careful with "feeding" it can lead to months of needing to remove nutrients and algae outbreaks.

imo if you can get a reliable test (for example Hannah ulr phosphate and hr nitrate checkers) I would dose liquid nitrates and phosphates to maintain a very low range of both, this will require a bit of testing daily for the first few days or weeks then you will have an idea of whats going on, you will probably be able to maintain levels without daily dosing and only fish the feeding.

I like to follow brightwell nenitro and neophos recommendations of "low nutrients" but you don't necessarily need to use that product although it's fine and what I prefer to use. then feed what your fish can consume like you originally were doing. I like to use pellets most often with the occasional frozen food cubes a couple times a week, i even use reef nutrition refrigerated foods.

if you have sand combined with lower filtration and less frequent maintenance, all that uneaten food can be an issue down the road and cause you to extend the "ugly" stage.

imo you really want to get a packed tank of healthy coral as quick as you can so when you do add N&P through dosing or feeding, they can quickly uptake them for you. feeding the tank/ the water column is different than feeding more cubes of food that the fish can't eat, that stuff gets lodged under rocks and settles under sand and with limited filtration can cause issues. dosing a small amount of N&P while monitoring levels is a clean way to insure they are always present in the system providing nutrients for all the microfauna and coral, once your system and new rock equalizes this may get much easier to maintain and requireless frequent testing.

 

[Saltyreef24]

Didn’t mean to post the last two pictures
But my Goni looked good before I left for vacation and I come back. I have two dead corals and a few irritated ones

Aww shucks. It’s always nerve wracking to check on your tank after some time away. Hopefully the irritated ones settle down and recover

 

[Saltyreef24]

I assume since it's the 13.5 you may have limited filtration, I'd be careful with "feeding" it can lead to months of needing to remove nutrients and algae outbreaks.

imo if you can get a reliable test (for example Hannah ulr phosphate and hr nitrate checkers) I would dose liquid nitrates and phosphates to maintain a very low range of both, this will require a bit of testing daily for the first few days or weeks then you will have an idea of whats going on, you will probably be able to maintain levels without daily dosing and only fish the feeding.

I like to follow brightwell nenitro and neophos recommendations of "low nutrients" but you don't necessarily need to use that product although it's fine and what I prefer to use. then feed what your fish can consume like you originally were doing. I like to use pellets most often with the occasional frozen food cubes a couple times a week, i even use reef nutrition refrigerated foods.

if you have sand combined with lower filtration and less frequent maintenance, all that uneaten food can be an issue down the road and cause you to extend the "ugly" stage.

imo you really want to get a packed tank of healthy coral as quick as you can so when you do add N&P through dosing or feeding, they can quickly uptake them for you. feeding the tank/ the water column is different than feeding more cubes of food that the fish can't eat, that stuff gets lodged under rocks and settles under sand and with limited filtration can cause issues. dosing a small amount of N&P while monitoring levels is a clean way to insure they are always present in the system providing nutrients for all the microfauna and coral, once your system and new rock equalizes this may get much easier to maintain and requireless frequent testing.

I have a ton of bio media, from a sponge block to black bio balls, plus my live rock, all covering biological filtration. Mechanical is mainly my center filter chamber being packed with filter floss to polish the water well, and chemical is a bag of activated carbon and a chemi-pure blue. I regularly rinse or replace my filter floss to remove build up, and siphon the sediment in the first 2 chambers the best I can when I do water changes. I recently started to gravel vac about 1/5-1/4 of the sand bed each water change, and I have plenty of ceriths and a Florida fighting conch constantly deep- sifting my sand bed for food, as my hermits skim the top of it. Hopefully no fouled food sticks around too long.

Definitely looking at getting a better phosphate test. Hopefully then I’ll be able to get a good handle on what my levels are and maintain them.

 

[Saltyreef24]

Old thread but I want to update it and give it closure. That one was a goner. I’ve lost and grown a few different sps since then and now am further down the path. I have a few new birdsnest, and am seeing the kind of growth I dreamed of back then. To some birdsnest are easy “gimme” corals, but they are excellent indicators as well. Here’s my new thread documenting some success

Birdsnest growth and ID

I acquired this birdsnest coral from a friend of mine a month ago, and it has put on incredible growth so far. These pictures are from June 5th and today, July 6th. I believe it was originally from top shelf aquatics. Any ideas what variety this is? He has a huge tank and buys a lot of corals so...

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