Cutting back birdsnest to save it

[Arsenix2001]

I posted other threads and have since determined I have burned the tips of my green and pink birdsnest coral with a high alk swing. Birds of paradise seem as unaffected. The green is affected the worst. Both colonies are softball sized and were getting a little out of control anyways. I'd say it is suffering polyp loss and algae growth over the first half inch of the majority of the tips. Pink BN has spotty damage. The interior of the corals are wider due to shading from its large growth. Rather than just fragging a small piece and throwing out the large colony, is there any Hope in taking cutters and clipping back 3/4 of an inch all the way around just like you would prune a bush. This would leave things rather stubby and closer down to the white polyp flush but I was hoping it would eventually color up and spur new growth or am I wasting my time?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I posted other threads and have since determined I have burned the tips of my green and pink birdsnest coral with a high alk swing. Birds of paradise seem as unaffected. The green is affected the worst. Both colonies are softball sized and were getting a little out of control anyways. I'd say it is suffering polyp loss and algae growth over the first half inch of the majority of the tips. Pink BN has spotty damage. The interior of the corals are wider due to shading from its large growth. Rather than just fragging a small piece and throwing out the large colony, is there any Hope in taking cutters and clipping back 3/4 of an inch all the way around just like you would prune a bush. This would leave things rather stubby and closer down to the white polyp flush but I was hoping it would eventually color up and spur new growth or am I wasting my time?

Looks like shading from lack of light and flow reaching inner area

 

[Arsenix2001]

Looks like shading from lack of light and flow reaching inner area

Yes, that is a fact, but the tips are in fact recently damaged, heavily. Polyps will blow off with a pipette and I have algae growing. Seems to be suffering tissue loss. You've kind of hit to my question though. If I clip it back, would those inner areas sprout new growth/color up or is it a lost cause?

 

[Arsenix2001]

Everything was super healthy up untill 3 weeks ago when my alk when from 8-12 over the course of a week. Dino battle, sucks...

 

[ApoIsland]

Everything was super healthy up untill 3 weeks ago when my alk when from 8-12 over the course of a week. Dino battle, sucks...

Interesting that is all it takes for the coral to go downhill so fast. I have the same coral and due to idiotic dosing miscalculation my alk went from 5.5 to 17.5 over the course of 2 weeks and did not experience any losses.

To answer the question about pruning back - yes you can do that. My birdsnest was growing out of the water a while back and had some dead tips so I lowered the rock it was on. The dead tips that were out of the water started to collect some hair algae strands so I chopped them all about half inch. Everything recovered just fine.