Help birds nest coral disintegrating

[elcapitan1993]

I have a huge colony of birds nest and it has been thriving and growing for almost a year and a few days ago I realized that one of the branches was pure white with no polyps, and today there was a little algae on it so I went to blow it off and no joke a bunch of “green dust” or polyps come flying off and a bunch of branches now have no polyps on it and are white, what could cause this? It has been doing great and is in the same spot it always had been, alk 9.0 calcium 490 magnesium 1380 phosphates 0.05 nitrate 4 , I have recently been dosing vibrant as well

 

[Sean Clark]

I have a huge colony of birds nest and it has been thriving and growing for almost a year and a few days ago I realized that one of the branches was pure white with no polyps, and today there was a little algae on it so I went to blow it off and no joke a bunch of “green dust” or polyps come flying off and a bunch of branches now have no polyps on it and are white, what could cause this? It has been doing great and is in the same spot it always had been, alk 9.0 calcium 490 magnesium 1380 phosphates 0.05 nitrate 4 , I have recently been dosing vibrant as well

Any recient changes to the tank? Alk, Flow, lights, Vibrant? Birds nest is very sensitive to changes. Other corals still looking good? Can you provide anymore info?

 

[elcapitan1993]

I

Any recient changes to the tank? Alk, Flow, lights, Vibrant? Birds nest is very sensitive to changes. Other corals still looking good? Can you provide anymore info?

added a calcium reactor 2 weeks ago but has been stable, the only other coral that seems irritated is a candy cane coral but I have two candy cane corals and only one type is irritated, I have only dosed vibrant once about 4 days ago, I do daily automatic water changes, I have 2 kessil Ap9x, for has always been good and seemed to keep corals happy

 

[Sean Clark]

I

added a calcium reactor 2 weeks ago but has been stable, the only other coral that seems irritated is a candy cane coral but I have two candy cane corals and only one type is irritated, I have only dosed vibrant once about 4 days ago, I do daily automatic water changes, I have 2 kessil Ap9x, for has always been good and seemed to keep corals happy

So the calcium reactor is a huge change. What were the Alk Ca and MG levels prior to install? How do you have it running? Chamber pH, what kind of media, do you know the Alk of the effluent?

I assume that you are running Vibrant for a reason. Why is that?

Based on what you have said, I am leaning towards an Alkalinity swing that stressed out your birdsnest. Frag what you can ans try to save some.

 

[elcapitan1993]

So the calcium reactor is a huge change. What were the Alk Ca and MG levels prior to install? How do you have it running? Chamber pH, what kind of media, do you know the Alk of the effluent?

I assume that you are running Vibrant for a reason. Why is that?

Based on what you have said, I am leaning towards an Alkalinity swing that stressed out your birdsnest. Frag what you can ans try to save some.

Alk was 9.0 and cal was 500mag was the same, how high of a fluctuation would it have to be? I have the GHL kh director and have it testing 12 times a day (every 2 hours) until I get the calcium reactor tuned, the most was up by 1 dkh and a couple 0.3-0.5 swings the following 4 days

 

[Arricefe]

Is it bleaching in the “inside” where it shades itself? I had a similar experience and I think it’s a common experience the inner branches for shaded as it grows. So you have any pics?

 

[ecrumpler]

I have heard some experienced coral people say that this is a natural process with Birdsnest; they grow huge, then die and have to be fragged and regrown in a constant cycle...

 

[elcapitan1993]

Is it bleaching in the “inside” where it shades itself? I had a similar experience and I think it’s a common experience the inner branches for shaded as it grows. So you have any pics?

I’ll upload pics when I get off work, it started out like that though yes

 

[elcapitan1993]

I have heard some experienced coral people say that this is a natural process with Birdsnest; they grow huge, then die and have to be fragged and regrown in a constant cycle...

So I should frag it before it disintegrates more? My smaller colony is doing just fine

 

[ecrumpler]

I personally would Frag it immediately and not expect recovery. IME once a healthy coral goes STN/RTN in a relatively healthy system, a frag is usually the only hope. I also don't look at this as a negative. How I see it, in the ocean, corals are constantly being broken by storms and natural happenings and thus are in a constant state of natural fragging. I think this is healthy for the coral to just start over sometimes.