Birdsnest bleaching? Recommendations welcome

[Holmzie123]

Hi fish people,

I got this wwc green birdsnest a few months ago and about a month ago it started bleaching. Maybe six weeks at this point. This is my first coral that's started doing that so I was slow to react. I've lowered the light intensity and the time the lights are on. It's still slowly melting away tho. I'm thinking I have to move it next. Any recommendations?

If I frag the frag will it stop the bleaching from continuing? Also concerned about the brown starting to form at the base. Will a coral potentially recover from this?

Any recommendations or help is appreciated.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Hard to say - birdsnest like flow and decent lighting but can survive just fine with lower lighting. How's the flow to that area? What are your nitrates and phosphates? Check salinity, etc. I would test your water first, then look at your flow.

 

[Holmzie123]

Hard to say - birdsnest like flow and decent lighting but can survive just fine with lower lighting. How's the flow to that area? What are your nitrates and phosphates? Check salinity, etc. I would test your water first, then look at your flow.

The flow is pretty high and a controller fluctuates a bit. Nutrients are high, I have gha sucking up a lot of them giving a false reading. So I've been tackling the nutrient issue for the past few weeks by reducing lighting duration and intensity while also reducing feeding and trying to remove nutrients through water changes and physical removal of gha (that's hard to remove tbh tho.) I've also added cleanup crew but could use another hermit crab or two.

I'm worried it's being hit by both too much light and nutrient overload at the same time. No other coral seems to be affected however. I'm guessing the light wasn't a problem until the nutrients went up.

 

[DDenny]

What lighting do you have it under? I think I see some soft coral (leather) to the left and higher that the Birds Nest. If those are thriving where they are then its probably not getting enough light.

 

[Holmzie123]

What lighting do you have it under? I think I see some soft coral (leather) to the left and higher that the Birds Nest. If those are thriving where they are then its probably not getting enough light.

It's a 60-80 w LED that I have at about 90%. I've never heard of a coral bleaching from too little light before. I thought they would do fine with less if it happened. You're right in what you're looking at. Two soft up and to the left, which is the middle of the tank. And a birds of paradise birdsnest from wwc above it to the right in higher light but same flow.

 

[Holmzie123]

If I frag this to the tips will it stop the bleaching maybe?

 

[DDenny]

If I frag this to the tips will it stop the bleaching maybe?

Worth a shot as it does look to be on its way out. Remove it form the tank and cut just above the bleaching area and glue to a new plug or directly on to the rock.