Tips of birds nest sps going white

merereef

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So recently ive noticed the tips of my BIRDS NEST corals going white.. i mean the polyps too.
My alk is at 8.2
Calcium 420
Phos undetectable
Nitrates at 0-1
Salinity 1.025

I have acros that are doing great just the birds nest corals. Only thing i did was increase the light by 5%

8F79FF10-1651-4383-BAE7-AC0E12ED5A00.jpeg 096960C0-0DB3-4AA2-ACAB-ECEB5D3B3874.jpeg
 

CCauthers

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Sounds like it could be burnt tips. I'd try to get your phos detectable and raise nitrates a bit
 

footgal

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Hi! Are these tips growing or burnt? The tips will be white while they grow but these look more burnt to me. I don’t know what it is, but when people put birdsnest into sps tanks they don’t do well. It’s the craziest thing. I have a mixed reef and an SPS system, I put a frag of my mixed reef birdsnest into the SPS tank and it withered and died. I’m thinking they need higher nutrients than other SPS?
 
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merereef

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Hi! Are these tips growing or burnt? The tips will be white while they grow but these look more burnt to me. I don’t know what it is, but when people put birdsnest into sps tanks they don’t do well. It’s the craziest thing. I have a mixed reef and an SPS system, I put a frag of my mixed reef birdsnest into the SPS tank and it withered and died. I’m thinking they need higher nutrients than other SPS?

The tips with polyps look white.. my skimmer stopped working and i did notice forthr 3-4 days i had no skimmer the sps started to look better
 

jda

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Is it new growth? The new growth is often white, or a different color, since the final population of zoox have not moved to that area yet. This looks like new growth to me.

Light burn from LEDs is a real thing. Turn it back down if you are sure that this is not new growth.

Don't sweat phosphates unless you have a hannah ultra low and can really track them. Even 1-3 parts per billion is fine. Most low phosphate freak-outs are over an inaccurate test kit.

Micro algae (think dinos/zoox in this case) cannot use no3 like macro algae can, so they get their nitrogen from ammonia/ammonium - you can have nitrogen starved corals, but this would be from underfeeding the fish and not having enough ammoni[a,um] and not a low residual nitrate level thing which is fools gold. Are you feeding the fish enough - the photos look like it.
 
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merereef

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Is it new growth? The new growth is often white, or a different color, since the final population of zoox have not moved to that area yet. This looks like new growth to me.

Light burn from LEDs is a real thing. Turn it back down if you are sure that this is not new growth.

Don't sweat phosphates unless you have a hannah ultra low and can really track them. Even 1-3 parts per billion is fine. Most low phosphate freak-outs are over an inaccurate test kit.

Micro algae (think dinos/zoox in this case) cannot use no3 like macro algae can, so they get their nitrogen from ammonia/ammonium - you can have nitrogen starved corals, but this would be from underfeeding the fish and not having enough ammoni[a,um] and not a low residual nitrate level thing which is fools gold. Are you feeding the fish enough - the photos look like it.

Its white tips... with whiteish polyps on the edge... i feed usually 4 times a day but for the past week started feeding 2 times a day..
 

Macdaddynick1

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Its white tips... with whiteish polyps on the edge... i feed usually 4 times a day but for the past week started feeding 2 times a day..
The white tips are not burnt, and the coral is still growing. However, as was previously mentioned by others, this coral likes more nutrients, raise your no3 and po4 a bit by feeding more.
 

t5Nitro

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My birdsnest mini colony had white tips but you could visibly see the flesh flapping in the current off of the skeleton, if that gives you any comparison to yours. Mine didn't last a week.
 
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merereef

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went through a phase where i was feeding 8 times a day and my nutrients still were at 0... only thing i have is a skimmer and tangs and urchin
 

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