Dying Birdsnest? Maybe?

Canaan Gary · Feb 13, 2022

So I’ve had two Birdsnest for about a month and they’ve been perfect and now all of a sudden, one of them just turned solid white. It literally happened overnight. The other one is perfectly fine.

DE FISH · Feb 13, 2022

Yeah that one looks dead buddy if there’s polyps then there’s hope it will eventually recover however that just looks like pure white dead skeleton

Canaan Gary · Feb 14, 2022

DE FISH said:
Yeah that one looks dead buddy if there’s polyps then there’s hope it will eventually recover however that just looks like pure white dead skeleton

Oh:/ is it normal for them to die that fast tho? It was literally overnight.

SlugSnorter · Feb 14, 2022

Canaan Gary said:
Oh:/ is it normal for them to die that fast tho? It was literally overnight.

did your temp fall or params shift? if so maybe, still fairly rare

Canaan Gary · Feb 17, 2022

SlugSnorter said:
did your temp fall or params shift? if so maybe, still fairly rare

Nope. nothing changed at all.

Bribo12 · Feb 17, 2022

Yep sps will rtn like that writhin a very short amount of time. Clearly something wasn’t happy with them. Birdsnests from my experience are super susceptible to alk issues. How stable has your alk been over the past few days/weeks?
Also your other birdsnest is showing skeleton in certain areas, especially near the tips. I wouldn’t call it perfectly fine. Any other sps in the tank?

Canaan Gary · Feb 17, 2022

My alk was kinda low and I slowly brought it up from 7 to 8.5 over a week. That’s it though

Bribo12 · Feb 17, 2022

Any other sps? 7 is perfectly fine. Nutrient levels (nitrate, phosphate?) Were you testing it everyday while bringing it up? Birdsnests are super finicky from my experience.

Canaan Gary · Feb 17, 2022

Bribo12 said:
Any other sps? 7 is perfectly fine. Nutrient levels (nitrate, phosphate?) Were you testing it everyday while bringing it up? Birdsnests are super finicky from my experience.

I tested it about every other day. I didn’t go above 8.5. My nitrates are about five and my phosphates are below .25
Calc 460
Alk 8
Mg ?
Nitrate 4
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Phosphate < .25
pH 7.9
Salinity 1.0235

Canaan Gary · Feb 17, 2022

Bribo12 said:
Any other sps? 7 is perfectly fine. Nutrient levels (nitrate, phosphate?) Were you testing it everyday while bringing it up? Birdsnests are super finicky from my experience.

And no, I don’t have any other sps. I tried a monti a while back but it died. The second Birdsnest lost almost all its polyps today

Bribo12 · Feb 17, 2022

Your salinity is relatively low. Are you using a refractometer? When was the last time it was calibrated if so? If you’re having issues with sps there is definitely something going on either with a parameter not being stable or possibly the salinity.
Also, I see coralline and such so your tank doesn’t seem new. Birdsnests imo suck, they’re super finicky and even if they get massive will shade themselves and cause stn or rtn. I’d definitely try bumping salinity up and get a better phosphate checker if you want to keep trying sps. Just knowing less than .25 with sps is not helpful. Really the Hanna kit is the only reliable phosphate kit in the hobby.

PghReef · Feb 17, 2022

I can't keep a Birdsnest alive to save my life. Acros seem to do ok and grow, birdnest and montis just die. Most frustrating thing ever, I think some tanks just grow certain corals and not others. Ignore the easy vs difficult corals, its whatever your tank can grow lol.

SlugSnorter · Feb 18, 2022

PghReef said:
I can't keep a Birdsnest alive to save my life. Acros seem to do ok and grow, birdnest and montis just die. Most frustrating thing ever, I think some tanks just grow certain corals and not others. Ignore the easy vs difficult corals, its whatever your tank can grow lol.

your PH is pretty low, maybe its that

Afterburner · Feb 18, 2022

I had my birdsnests die overnight one at a time like that a few years ago, then I lost my torch and other corals one by one over the next 6 weeks. I eventually did a ICP test and found out that zinc (I think) was off the charts high and the ICP test said it was probably a magnet. Sure enough, I found the culprit was a magnet and did a ton of water changes to save my remaining corals. The interesting thing is that the torch in it’s distress spawned tiny torches all over the tank. I actually need to get another birds nest just to use it like a canary in a coal mine to identify issues right when they start.

PghReef · Feb 18, 2022

SlugSnorter said:
your PH is pretty low, maybe its that

I never posted my pH but it does run around 8 at night 8.1 during the day. You be be referring to the OP numbers

SlugSnorter · Feb 18, 2022

Canaan Gary said:
And no, I don’t have any other sps. I tried a monti a while back but it died. The second Birdsnest lost almost all its polyps today

your PH is pretty low. Maybe its that

SlugSnorter · Feb 18, 2022

PghReef said:
I never posted my pH but it does run around 8 at night 8.1 during the day. You be be referring to the OP numbers

sry thought you were op lol

Canaan Gary · Feb 20, 2022

SlugSnorter said:
your PH is pretty low. Maybe its that

Yeah i realized that. I’m currently raising it. Do you think that would affect hammers too? I’m losing some super nice pieces right now and I can’t figure out why

HudsonReefer2.0 · Feb 20, 2022

DE FISH said:
Yeah that one looks dead buddy if there’s polyps then there’s hope it will eventually recover however that just looks like pure white dead skeleton

One for the shelf. Welcome to the up and down world of sps