Birdsnest and lighting distance

[chewy tabacca]

Had this for a month or 2 not really colouring up, thinking it's to close to the light, at night as the lights go dimmer you can really see the pink. Probably about 20 inches from the light.

100% blue and uv
55% power 9 hours of the day then dims to black

 

[Flippers4pups]

Had this for a month or 2 not really colouring up, thinking it's to close to the light, at night as the lights go dimmer you can really see the pink. Probably about 20 inches from the light.

100% blue and uv
55% power 9 hours of the day then dims to black

I need a closer picture of it. Looks bleached.

Also, what is your water pramameters and did you light acclimate it?

 

[chewy tabacca]

Ya I got it like that, polyps are extending

Mg1400
Ca410
Alk9.4
Nitrate 2ppm
Salinity 1.025

 

[Mal11224]

A birds nest can usually take strong light but you will be able to tell if it is too much if you do not see its polyps extended and it begins to pale. May need to move it a little lower or reduce intensity if possible.

 

[chewy tabacca]

Found a crab on it that's why some of the branches are dead a teddy bear crab

It looks green but at night it's pink

 

[Charterreefer]

In my experience birdsnest corals like lower light. Mine gets ~200 par. I had it higher in my tank and it wasn't happy. I was running a low nutrient tank also. It was happier when I increased the nutrients to detectable levels, i.e. NO3 and PO4.

 

[sunnyc90]

I placed mine halfway in the tank. Medium light and flow.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Ya I got it like that, polyps are extending

Mg1400
Ca410
Alk9.4
Nitrate 2ppm
Salinity 1.025

Okay, numbers look good. That much blue can throw off colors to the eye. Try reducing the blue channel some, say by 10% and give it a week. Remove the dead branches.

 

[chewy tabacca]

I think I am going to move it about 8 inches to the right, unfortunately I don't have anything to measure PAR, I am starting to run my tank like Jason Fox, 120 gal 5 foot tank 2 MP 40's on reef crescent at 50% each, he says higher flow the better

 

[Mal11224]

Mine is at the upper 2/3 of my tank in the middle of my AP700. Seems to do well there. It gets good flow as well.

 

[chewy tabacca]

I moved it over about 6 to 8 inches... See if it colours up

 

[Charterreefer]

I moved it over about 6 to 8 inches... See if it colours up

I had a pink birds nest in my main tank lit with 20000k Radiums. It looked just ok, not very colorful. It grew very large and I needed to make room in my tank. I put it in my refugium that is lit with 5000k LED flood lights from home depot. It looked amazing under those lights...It wasn't that it changed color from being exposed to those lights but rather appeared to look different because of the spectrum that was illuminating it. The instant it was placed under the other light it looked different.

 

[Fudsey]

Mine hasn't grown much in the 7 weeks I've had it but it sure has filled out. It's getting about 220 PAR where it is sitting right now.

Before:

Today and after getting knocked off a couple times by my stupid hands:

It's been turned but you can see that it's filling in but really not growing out

 

[chewy tabacca]

Here is a update, moved it over a week or so ago, crushed it by a rock here is what it looks like today lol

Starting to colour up

 

[chewy tabacca]

Got back from vacation it seems birdsnests are not like your standard acro ( I know it's not an acro) it seems they like moderate light and not such high lite as standard acro

 

[John23]

you should probably slowly acclimate the coral to more intense light... Ideally you can use a par meter to check the par

 

[DSC reef]

IME seriatopora hystix could take more light than guttatus. Both liked moderate flow. Typically all birdsnest we've kept were midway up in the tank to keep nice colors.

 

[jda]

As you can clearly see from your own personal experiences, the LED is not making the coral happy with so much light - lowering or moving it is probably smart. However, you can place a Birdsnest directly under a 400W or 1000W halide and it will grow out of the tank. I had some in a vat outdoors in the summer in Missouri under the sun and it went from golf ball to basketball sized in one season - this was about 8" under the water, but I had to move it down when the tips were all growing out of the water. ...as with most corals, the type of light matters.

 

[CrashTestBennie]

Mine hasn't grown much in the 7 weeks I've had it but it sure has filled out. It's getting about 220 PAR where it is sitting right now.

Before:

Today and after getting knocked off a couple times by my stupid hands:

It's been turned but you can see that it's filling in but really not growing out

It looks great! It must be getting pretty good flow, as it's "shrubbing" out a lot...

 

[CrashTestBennie]

Here is a update, moved it over a week or so ago, crushed it by a rock here is what it looks like today lol

Starting to colour up

It sure looks happier to me!