bird's nest died overnight

[TheReefDiary]

okay so two days ago my bird's-nest looked great, no issues. today about half of the piece is showing the coral skeleton (completely dead). why would this happen so quickly over the course of 2 days? I have other SPS that are perfectly fine as well as a ton of lps.

my parameters are stable. have to do a water test now to check everything, but a few days ago when I tested everything was stable. I dose alk daily to maintain 8.4-8.5dkh

should I cut off the dead parts are just continue to let it be? it's moving to my new tank sometime this week most likely once the cycle is complete.

 

[TheReefDiary]

for some reason my alk built up since the last time I tested about 5 days ago. not sure what caused that. went from 8.5 to almost 10. pretty sure it's not happy about that big change. not going to dose for a couple days and then will have to recheck. everything else is in same range it's been for a while.

 

[TokenReefer]

It seems like you may have found the cause and already have a fine plan in place to remedy the situation. Good luck. Merry Christmas

 

[TheReefDiary]

It seems like you may have found the cause and already have a fine plan in place to remedy the situation. Good luck. Merry Christmas

not sure how it built up that quickly. I just beat dinos so I haven't done water change in 3 weeks. pretty confident that didn't help. would you cut off dead part (middle of trunk) or just let it keep going? I think that part will eventually be hidden behind other corals as well.

 

[TokenReefer]

What are your n + p at? Something may have happened that stunted thier uptake and then dosing built it up as it wasn't being consumed at the same rate. No wc would be good to maintain some nutrients imo. Just my quick take...

I have no sps exp so I don't want to speak to that and mess ya all up

 

[TheReefDiary]

What are your n + p at? Something may have happened that stunted thier uptake and then dosing built it up as it wasn't being consumed at the same rate. No wc would be good to maintain some nutrients imo. Just my quick take...

I have no sps exp so I don't want to speak to that and mess ya all up

my nitrates are at 15-20ish range and my po4 is .2 (mostly lps dominated system). not sure what else would stop the uptake in consumption that I had been seeing for months.

 

[TheReefDiary]

What are your n + p at? Something may have happened that stunted thier uptake and then dosing built it up as it wasn't being consumed at the same rate. No wc would be good to maintain some nutrients imo. Just my quick take...

I have no sps exp so I don't want to speak to that and mess ya all up

these higher numbers also helped (at least I think) get rid of my dinos.

the only change recently is a new fish added to the system. so there's 4 in my 13.5g because they're all going to my 40g within the next few weeks. first fish should.be transferring this upcoming week as well as my corals.

 

[TokenReefer]

Seems like enough for uptake (there's a lot idk to be fair).

What kind of fish? Does it nip coral is where I'm going...

Do you trust that alk reading? I know it's like a step backwards...

What were you dosing? How much? What's your tank volume? See if that makes sense that high alk reading with some maths perhaps

 

[Pistondog]

Had the same thing happen when my alk spiked. Lost 2 birdsnest, other sps not affected.
Cutting off skeleton not necessary.

 

[TheReefDiary]

Seems like enough for uptake (there's a lot idk to be fair).

What kind of fish? Does it nip coral is where I'm going...

Do you trust that alk reading? I know it's like a step backwards...

What were you dosing? How much? What's your tank volume? See if that makes sense that high alk reading with some maths perhaps

2 clowns, a six line, and a starry blenny. all less than an inch and a half except the blenny who's 2 inches. healthy amount of corals, nothing crazy though.

all reading is salifert test and has been consistent the entire time I've been using it. next purchase I'm making will be my last Hannah checker which will be alk tester.

I was dosing 2ml of red sea alk daily to maintain what was 8.4-8.5dkh. water volume is a bit over 10gallons.

 

[TheReefDiary]

Had the same thing happen when my alk spiked. Lost 2 birdsnest, other sps not affected.
Cutting off skeleton not necessary.

once I saw how high it was realized I didn't even need to ask what did it haha. but still good to try and figure how it would spike like that with no changes really.

 

[TokenReefer]

While I attempt do the math ... Does the blenny (or any fish) like to perch on it? I recently mounted a caulastrea on rocks and my flame hawk likes to perch with his fins braced on the flesh and I've noticed it's not happy and may be receding there.

This just speaks to why the uptake may have slowed down mystery. Just thinking... The spike probably did it in

 

[Pistondog]

I later had other pocilloporidae bleach due to alk instability. They seem very susceptable to alk swings.

 

[TheReefDiary]

I later had other pocilloporidae bleach due to alk instability. They seem very susceptable to alk swings.

must be because everything else is stable in the tank recently. I just haven't figured out what would cause the uptake to change because I had been dosing the same dose for over a month and a half with no issues.

 

[TheReefDiary]

I later had other pocilloporidae bleach due to alk instability. They seem very susceptable to alk swings.

must be because everything else is stable in the tank recently. I just haven't figured out what would cause the uptake to change because I had been dosing the same dose for over a month and a half with no issues. unless it just built y

While I attempt do the math ... Does the blenny (or any fish) like to perch on it? I recently mounted a caulastrea on rocks and my flame hawk likes to perch with his fins braced on the flesh and I've noticed it's not happy and may be receding there.

This just speaks to why the uptake may have slowed down mystery. Just thinking... The spike probably did it in

nope he perches on the rocks only. I removed a cyphastrea and leptoseris frag earlier in the week, but they weren't large at all so couldn't believe that's what caused an upswing.

I'm mostly just interested because figuring out what could've caused it could stop me from doing it again. obviously its just something difficult to figure out.