How should I deal with dying birds nest?

[nathan212178]

My tank in general has been a hit or miss with some corals but I’ve had steady levels of alk and cal so I was a bit confident in my purchase, but I’m soon going to get an icp test taken soon to see if there’s any small things going on, but for now I’ve bought a huge pink birds nest colony and in some parts it has started to bleach and die off , when I added it to the tank I put it up at the top portion of the tank,( mostly due to me not having enough space on the sand bed) but I have recently put it on the sandbed today, half of it is almost dead, it’s spitting out a mucus on the dying portion and was wondering if I should frag the half of the dying colony and frag the live portions, my other question is iodine enough to prevent the frag fr? Even if it’s a small percentage?
I believe the colony was wild caught and I might have rushed the whole “acclimation process” so I kind of regret it but I want to let it live even if it’s a tiny piece

on other news right now I have a massive release of what seems to be shrimp baby’s??
I don’t have any shrimp in the tank to my knowledge but I’m positive they’re shrimp.
Anyone have any ideas of what they might be?
( Also Sorry for the Lengthy paragraph)
Nitrate:0
Alk:9.3
Cal:420-430
Mag:1380
(This is the day after water change)

 

[((FORDTECH))]

My tank in general has been a hit or miss with some corals but I’ve had steady levels of alk and cal so I was a bit confident in my purchase, but I’m soon going to get an icp test taken soon to see if there’s any small things going on, but for now I’ve bought a huge pink birds nest colony and in some parts it has started to bleach and die off , when I added it to the tank I put it up at the top portion of the tank,( mostly due to me not having enough space on the sand bed) but I have recently put it on the sandbed today, half of it is almost dead, it’s spitting out a mucus on the dying portion and was wondering if I should frag the half of the dying colony and frag the live portions, my other question is iodine enough to prevent the frag fr? Even if it’s a small percentage?
I believe the colony was wild caught and I might have rushed the whole “acclimation process” so I kind of regret it but I want to let it live even if it’s a tiny piece

on other news right now I have a massive release of what seems to be shrimp baby’s??
I don’t have any shrimp in the tank to my knowledge but I’m positive they’re shrimp.
Anyone have any ideas of what they might be?
( Also Sorry for the Lengthy paragraph)
Nitrate:0
Alk:9.3
Cal:420-430
Mag:1380
(This is the day after water change)

Possible mysis shrimp it’s common to have and ok. As far as corals I notice your nitrates at 0 this is to low. And do you have a phosphates reading?

 

[capt.dave]

Following. I’ve had this problem in the past and dipped but did not frag it and lost the colony. That doesn’t mean fragging would have saved it but maybe. Interred in replies from those with more SPS experience and success.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

.

 

[nathan212178]

Possible mysis shrimp it’s common to have and ok. As far as corals I notice your nitrates at 0 this is to low. And do you have a phosphates reading?

Sadly I don’t have any phosphate reading because my lfs at the time only had nitrate, I’ll see if they have any next time, also is NEOnitro and neophos from brightwell good? I believe they have a lot in stock

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Sadly I don’t have any phosphate reading because my lfs at the time only had nitrate, I’ll see if they have any next time, also is NEOnitro and neophos from brightwell good? I believe they have a lot in stock

Ive never used them I feed very heavy to keep them up and dose very little sodium nitrate from loudwolf

 

[nathan212178]

Ive never used them I feed very heavy to keep them up and dose very little sodium nitrate from loudwolf

Ohh ok I’ll go to the lfs then to try the brightwell products to go see if it has any effect then. Thanks!
Also, to you and anyone responding later, should I let the colony be? Or should I frag it tomorrow?( the dead half of it)

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Ohh ok I’ll go to the lfs then to try the brightwell products to go see if it has any effect then. Thanks!
Also, to you and anyone responding later, should I let the colony be? Or should I frag it tomorrow?( the dead half of it)

Would not hurt to frag it but it looks pretty ruff be surprised if it makes it. Let’s see what others say tho

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Have you had long term success in the past with Birds nest corals. I have a tank full of sps doing very well. I can’t for the life of me keep a Birds Nest coral alive. I bought a frag a few months ago just to see if anything had changed, no change, it died within a week. I hear of other reefers having the same difficulties with just “some” corals. Good luck.

 

[Tcook]

Do you have any test kits? I recommend you invest in these before you start "dosing" anything. It will give you a better pulse on your reef and reduce some of the frustration.

 

[nathan212178]

Would not hurt to frag it but it looks pretty ruff be surprised if it makes it. Let’s see what others say tho

Yeah I think I’ll try and frag a few pieces of possible, if all goes downhill I’ll give the surviving pieces to my lfs to see if anything comes back

 

[nathan212178]

Have you had long term success in the past with Birds nest corals. I have a tank full of sps doing very well. I can’t for the life of me keep a Birds Nest coral alive. I bought a frag a few months ago just to see if anything had changed, no change, it died within a week. I hear of other reefers having the same difficulties with just “some” corals. Good luck.

Not really, but that was because it was really hard to find some healthy birds nest, and the ones I did find were before I had dosing pumps so the main three elements were really low or fluctuating, I always keep hearing they’re easy too which I’m kind of thinking it’s not, i have a acropora currently for two weeks now and I’m waiting on my Nero 3 to come in to upgrade my current pump. Also since you have experience with sps, what kind of brands or solutions do you dose?I only really have 2 part and mag solutions

 

[nathan212178]

Do you have any test kits? I recommend you invest in these before you start "dosing" anything. It will give you a better pulse on your reef and reduce some of the frustration.

Yes, I always do test kits before dosing anything, I hate it when I see a person or YouTuber dose a random amount in their tank without testing kits. Also after my Nero 3 arrives I’ll only focus on test kits and dry goods because I just now realize I’ve been lacking on those kinds of things and how important they are. But I’ve been substituting it for 50% weekly water changes, which again, might bad since it’s making the tank a little too clean so I’ll do less so my nitrates and things rise a bit. thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it!

 

[elysics]

Have you had long term success in the past with Birds nest corals. I have a tank full of sps doing very well. I can’t for the life of me keep a Birds Nest coral alive. I bought a frag a few months ago just to see if anything had changed, no change, it died within a week. I hear of other reefers having the same difficulties with just “some” corals. Good luck.

In my experience, Seriatopora hystrix is super finicky about too low/ no nutrients and is the first to suffer from that, way before Acropora even notice.

It's a great indicator if it doesn't die completely as it quickly grows back over the dead skeleton and looks healthy again.

S. caliendrum is a bit hardier I feel, and Pocillopora is steady as a rock for me, even grows downwards into the shadows

 

[Alexopora]

My tank in general has been a hit or miss with some corals but I’ve had steady levels of alk and cal so I was a bit confident in my purchase, but I’m soon going to get an icp test taken soon to see if there’s any small things going on, but for now I’ve bought a huge pink birds nest colony and in some parts it has started to bleach and die off , when I added it to the tank I put it up at the top portion of the tank,( mostly due to me not having enough space on the sand bed) but I have recently put it on the sandbed today, half of it is almost dead, it’s spitting out a mucus on the dying portion and was wondering if I should frag the half of the dying colony and frag the live portions, my other question is iodine enough to prevent the frag fr? Even if it’s a small percentage?
I believe the colony was wild caught and I might have rushed the whole “acclimation process” so I kind of regret it but I want to let it live even if it’s a tiny piece

on other news right now I have a massive release of what seems to be shrimp baby’s??
I don’t have any shrimp in the tank to my knowledge but I’m positive they’re shrimp.
Anyone have any ideas of what they might be?
( Also Sorry for the Lengthy paragraph)
Nitrate:0
Alk:9.3
Cal:420-430
Mag:1380
(This is the day after water change)

My guess is firstly, bigger colonies don’t do well when introduced to a new tank. Mainly due to its shape, as it has grown to cater to the flow, size and space of the original tank hence way you would have better success breaking it into smaller pieces. That doesn’t mean that its impossible to successfully introduce a big colony into a new tank, I’m there would be reefers that will testify to that. As for now, you could frag the healthy parts and either set them on a frag rack or glue them somewhere in your rockscape that has medium to high water flow and medium lighting.

Personally, I have encountered this a few times when I got a colony of pocillopora and acro. I would snip of a few branches of the poci and acro, and glue them to frag plugs. The small frags goes to my frag rack while I set the bigger colonies onto the rock work. The small frags will almost instantly begin to encrust and grow while the bigger colony will begin to die from the shaded areas (bottom). So over the course of a few weeks, I’ll give the colony some trimmings until I see some progress in the “mother” colony.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Not really, but that was because it was really hard to find some healthy birds nest, and the ones I did find were before I had dosing pumps so the main three elements were really low or fluctuating, I always keep hearing they’re easy too which I’m kind of thinking it’s not, i have a acropora currently for two weeks now and I’m waiting on my Nero 3 to come in to upgrade my current pump. Also since you have experience with sps, what kind of brands or solutions do you dose?I only really have 2 part and mag solutions

I dose B-Ionic 2 part and B-Ionic Magnesium when needed as well. I have 2 Kamoer x-1 dosing pumps (great little pumps) I also do monthly water changes (25 gallons) each. It sounds like you’re doing pretty much the same. Seriously, a perfect recipe for success. One of the nicest lfs in the Phoenix area has done this same setup for years on their stores dt. It’s immaculate and successful. I enjoy listening to online hobbyists that definitely have a good handle on the hobby. Mark of Melev’s Reef is one of them. He sells Kamoer (fyi) and also he’s claimed in the past that he can’t grow or keep alive a Blue Oregon Tort. Not bragging but I can. (Top center) But not Bird’s Nest???

 

[nathan212178]

In my experience, Seriatopora hystrix is super finicky about too low/ no nutrients and is the first to suffer from that, way before Acropora even notice.

It's a great indicator if it doesn't die completely as it quickly grows back over the dead skeleton and looks healthy again.

S. caliendrum is a bit hardier I feel, and Pocillopora is steady as a rock for me, even grows downwards into the shadows

Yeah, I think the colony didn’t do so well overnight,I’m really bummed cuz a lot of coral I put into the tank go the same route, with that said I’m just going to invest more in supplies than actual fish or coral, I still have an acropora that’s been doing fine surprisingly, should have new from the start that it would pass since it’s from the ocean, but thanks for the advice tho! I’ll try and get a pocillopora or frag of some sort when my tank is stable enough.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Yeah, I think the colony didn’t do so well overnight,I’m really bummed cuz a lot of coral I put into the tank go the same route, with that said I’m just going to invest more in supplies than actual fish or coral, I still have an acropora that’s been doing fine surprisingly, should have new from the start that it would pass since it’s from the ocean, but thanks for the advice tho! I’ll try and get a pocillopora or frag of some sort when my tank is stable enough.

Invest in a Hannah ULR phosphate tester and nyos nitrate test kit

 

[sergifed91]

I had what I thought was a dieing birdsnest for months it was white. Then this past weeks it started to look like it's old self. I don't know what happened but it survived.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Yeah, I think the colony didn’t do so well overnight,I’m really bummed cuz a lot of coral I put into the tank go the same route, with that said I’m just going to invest more in supplies than actual fish or coral, I still have an acropora that’s been doing fine surprisingly, should have new from the start that it would pass since it’s from the ocean, but thanks for the advice tho! I’ll try and get a pocillopora or frag of some sort when my tank is stable enough.

Hey just a shot in the dark, but do you have soft corals in the tank as well? My personal experience with them if they get too big or rub up against each other is that the “toxins” that they emit really make it difficult to impossible for sps to grow and flourish. Soft coral toxins that are produced by corals fighting for space are unseen and can’t be tested for. I learned that lesson years ago and my sps corals took off.