ORA neon bird nest white tissue spots

[vetteguy53081]

Moderate light and water flow seems to be the happy medium. Additionally placement plays a role and pic almost indicates that there is insufficient light to or at the base of coral.
Don't fret on chasing PH numbers. If you use a good salt and do regular water changes, that will stabilize itself

 

[markalot]

If your alk is stable, meaning 0.5 swing, why would alk being lower help? I have to disagree as seriatopora guttatus grew like a weed in our tank along with green slimer, bonsai, red planet, etc, with alk at 9.0-10 dkh. To the OP, IMO I would not make any drastic changes to your tank as that could be consequential to the rest of your coral. Focus on stability with your current numbers. I understand its upsetting to loose a coral but don't let one coral change your entire tank. Stability is key here. Alkalinity, nutrients and par work together with what numbers you can be at. If your nutrients are bottomed out with a lot of light and high alkalinity then that can cause issues as well.

Not sure what you are disagreeing with? The last sentence above speaks to what I am talking about. Why run high Alk when it creates additional risk? To have fun my goal is to identify risks and eliminate them. This makes the tank easier to run, fits better into my lifestyle and grows SPS quite well. My green bird is at the lower left, in a pile of various birdsnests I want to keep alive but don't really have on display at the moment.

That slimer beast above lived through Alk from 5.8 to 7.0 as did the rest of the acros. Naturally I don't want Alk swinging that much but growth was so fast I had a hard time keeping up with the adjustments. My assertion is that Acros and more sensitive SPS, like the green bird, can tolerate much more when Alk is at natural levels. I recommend low Alk because for the most part people new to SPS who come here with issues are using a high Alk salt and swinging Alk all over the place without realizing it. They have a newer tank or a tank with very low nutrients because they were told they need low nutrients to be successful. They get some SPS, Alk starts to drop, they do a water change, boom.

I think that the best advice for people new to SPS is to run a low Alk because it's easier, a LOT easier. I've been through this, which is why I give the advice. Running Alk near natural levels allows so much more room for errors it's really a no brainer IMO. I had all kinds of problems before I dropped Alk to 7. Nowadays I can ignore the tank for weeks and as long as I make sure the skimmer is running everything just keeps growing fast, too fast.

Every tank is different, we all have different goals and grow different corals. Super low Alk is not good for many LPS and Zoas. I can't grow zoas for example, but probably because I let Alk drop way too low before correcting it.

 

[DSC reef]

Those are nice acros. My point being I don't think lowering his alk will give a benefit or help his birdsnest at all if the alk is stable. Like you said, different tank will run accordingly and I'm giving advice based on my experience as well. Happy reefing.