Birds nest is 99% dead. How to save it?

SimplyVibing · Oct 29, 2019

Got a free, 4” bird of paradise birds nest from my LFS. They’ve been having a bryopsis problem and algae growing on the coral has caused all but a dozen or so polyps to die. I took him home and brushed him with a new tooth brush and set him up directly in front of a small power head.
Any care tips? I really want to see this beautiful boy blossom.

Roosterjack · Oct 29, 2019

Can you frag off the good part? Picture if possible...

C. Eymann · Oct 29, 2019

Betta_baby said:
Got a free, 4” bird of paradise birds nest from my LFS. They’ve been having a bryopsis problem and algae growing on the coral has caused all but a dozen or so polyps to die. I took him home and brushed him with a new tooth brush and set him up directly in front of a small power head.
Any care tips? I really want to see this beautiful boy blossom.

How close to the power head did you put it? you dont want to be blasting it, esp sertiopora(bird of paradise) they like lower flow than most SPS.

pics will enable people help better, posting your system parameters would be ideal as well.

Is this your first sps?

SimplyVibing · Oct 29, 2019

Roosterjack said:
Can you frag off the good part? Picture if possible...

Picture yes, frag I don’t have the experience for unfortunately. Circle the live parts in blue, and there’s some other live bits not visible.

Skynyrd Fish · Oct 29, 2019

Betta, break off a good piece and super glue it on to a rock where you exposed the skeleton from the break. Now your almost an expert. Also you may want to make sure it’s in a nice flow area not getting blasted. It looks like there is a good amount of flesh missing. Or you could wait it out for a week or two and see what’s happening and how it’s doing. The move to your tank is a stress on it.

Vinman · Oct 29, 2019

Betta_baby said:
Got a free, 4” bird of paradise birds nest from my LFS. They’ve been having a bryopsis problem and algae growing on the coral has caused all but a dozen or so polyps to die. I took him home and brushed him with a new tooth brush and set him up directly in front of a small power head.
Any care tips? I really want to see this beautiful boy blossom.

Vinman · Oct 29, 2019

Betta_baby said:
Got a free, 4” bird of paradise birds nest from my LFS. They’ve been having a bryopsis problem and algae growing on the coral has caused all but a dozen or so polyps to die. I took him home and brushed him with a new tooth brush and set him up directly in front of a small power head.
Any care tips? I really want to see this beautiful boy blossom.

If you're ever in Fort Pierce I have plenty of birds nest for you to try again for free however are use bird's nest as an indicator for my water quality just a thought

SimplyVibing · Oct 29, 2019

Vinman said:
If you're ever in Fort Pierce I have plenty of birds nest for you to try again for free however are use bird's nest as an indicator for my water quality just a thought

That is SUCH a gorgeous coral! You are so lucky! Thanks for the offer, I’m eight hours away though

SimplyVibing · Oct 29, 2019

Skynyrd Fish said:
Betta, break off a good piece and super glue it on to a rock where you exposed the skeleton from the break. Now your almost an expert. Also you may want to make sure it’s in a nice flow area not getting blasted. It looks like there is a good amount of flesh missing. Or you could wait it out for a week or two and see what’s happening and how it’s doing. The move to your tank is a stress on it.

I’ll probably wait it out— no super glue atm. Thank you!

SimplyVibing · Oct 29, 2019

C. Eymann said:
How close to the power head did you put it? you dont want to be blasting it, esp sertiopora(bird of paradise) they like lower flow than most SPS.

pics will enable people help better, posting your system parameters would be ideal as well.

Is this your first sps?

Hello! This is my second ever SPS. I had another birds nest, a green apple, but it was unfortunately killed by bryopsis. My new bird of paradise is about six inches away from a small power head. The flow isn’t too strong.
Took me a minute to get the testing done, but here are my parameters:
Ammonia: 0.5ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Ph: 8.2
Calcium: 400 mg/L (20 drops)
KH: 143.2 (8 drops)
Phosphate: <0.25ppm
Salinity: 1.025 exactly

BranchingHammer · Oct 29, 2019

Ammonia shouldn’t be present at all in a cycled aquarium. How old is the tank?

SimplyVibing · Oct 29, 2019

BranchingHammer said:
Ammonia shouldn’t be present at all in a cycled aquarium. How old is the tank?

The tank is about a year old. I feed it every day, because I have a completely bleached anemone that I rescued from Petland. Of course it depends on me for food since there’s nothing to catch and it can’t photosynthesize. Same thing for large gorgonian— NPS as I’m sure you know. I’ll be doing a water change tomorrow regardless.

BranchingHammer · Oct 29, 2019

I understand the high input of nutrients, but a cycled aquarium should be able to convert the ammonia from the decomposing food/waste into nitrate pretty quickly. Maybe a testing error or lack of biological filtration. How much rock do you have in the tank/how long has it been in the tank?

jsvand5 · Oct 29, 2019

I definitely wouldn’t have put that in your tank. You could have introduced Bryopsis with it. Not worth the chance for a birdsnest.

C. Eymann · Oct 29, 2019

BranchingHammer said:
Ammonia shouldn’t be present at all in a cycled aquarium. How old is the tank?

I think this maybe due the interpretation of those API kits, it seems they always show. 25-.5ppm ammonia, when OP said drops, I figured that's what is being used

living_tribunal · Oct 29, 2019

Betta_baby said:
Hello! This is my second ever SPS. I had another birds nest, a green apple, but it was unfortunately killed by bryopsis. My new bird of paradise is about six inches away from a small power head. The flow isn’t too strong.
Took me a minute to get the testing done, but here are my parameters:
Ammonia: 0.5ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Ph: 8.2
Calcium: 400 mg/L (20 drops)
KH: 143.2 (8 drops)
Phosphate: <0.25ppm
Salinity: 1.025 exactly

Have you ran fluc for the bryopsis?

SimplyVibing · Oct 29, 2019

jsvand5 said:
I definitely wouldn’t have put that in your tank. You could have introduced Bryopsis with it. Not worth the chance for a birdsnest.

I already have bryopsis out of my butt lol. Like, the lawn in my tank is better than the one in my front yard. I actually have reef flux on the way, ordered it a couple days ago

SimplyVibing · Oct 29, 2019

living_tribunal said:
Have you ran fluc for the bryopsis?

Ordered it two days ago actually!

C. Eymann · Oct 29, 2019

If you really want to save a piece of this I agree with others, I'd make this cut and superglue the piece in appropriate place.

If no adhesive is available, I'd at least cut off as much of the dead you can and just leave that space as a nub,
just my .02

SimplyVibing · Oct 29, 2019

BranchingHammer said:
I understand the high input of nutrients, but a cycled aquarium should be able to convert the ammonia from the decomposing food/waste into nitrate pretty quickly. Maybe a testing error or lack of biological filtration. How much rock do you have in the tank/how long has it been in the tank?

What C Eymann is right, I do use the API test kit. To add to that, ammonia testers come from the freshwater kit so it’s hit or miss with that. Lots and lots of live rock in my tank (probably 2-4 pounds of rocks per gallon of water), as well as lots of filter media with nitrifying bacteria around all the intakes of my filter and pumps to preserve the life of my lettuce nudibranch lol. On top of that, I have a 30 gal filter on a 20 gal tank. Lots of copepods /amphipods /bristleworms /etc.
Do you have a better recommendation for testing? Not the first time ammonia has tested abnormally.