Birdsnest colony bleached overnight

Fishko · Jul 30, 2020

it seems my birdsnest colony has bleached at the tips. One of my bowerbankis is receding a bit. All other corals are fine and extending. I think my nitrates have gotten too low and my mag
1.025 sal
1200 mag
410 calc
8.9 dkh
.08 phos
1ppm nitrate
Was dosing brightwell neo nitro. Stoped for a few days. I am going to dose to raise. Very confused why my bowerbanki is receding going to move to lower lighting. Same with the birdsnest. The bottom is bleached because the frag came off a large colony that was shaded.

Tahoe61 · Jul 30, 2020

The BN is either RTN or STN, the coral is losing tissue. Typically that is a chemistry issue.
If the mag value is correct there is an imbalance.
The bowerbanki should be in a lower par area.
Mag testing is prone to human error, I would recheck the values.

vetteguy53081 · Jul 30, 2020

Its possible there was a spike in either alk or CA as spikes jump and fall just as quickly. Water flow disruption can contribute to this also.

Fishko · Jul 30, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
Its possible there was a spike in either alk or CA as spikes jump and fall just as quickly. Water flow disruption can contribute to this also.

I havent had any major spikes. My alk rose maybe .5 dkh. I dosed a few ml of the neo nitro to raise nitrates. I rechecked my mag, its at 1280
Im using hanna for the alk and phos, nyos for the nitrate

Backreefing · Jul 30, 2020

My birdsnests just this week crashed . From my phosphate going to zero . I have had problems with them in the past from alkalinity going up and down.
Birdsnests are some of the hardest sps . But they grow fast when happy.

Fishko · Jul 30, 2020

Backreefing said:
My birdsnests just this week crashed . From my phosphate going to zero . I have had problems with them in the past from alkalinity going up and down.
Birdsnests are some of the hardest sps . But they grow fast when happy.

Hmmm, it was growing like crazy for the past month. As if it couldnt go worse my nyos nitrate test ran out of reagent. The amount i dose raised the nitrate to maybe 3-5ppm. Going to being dosing more amino and reef roids to try to recover the colony