ORA Neon Birdsnest lost color

[Luke Schnabel]

hey guys I picked up a frag of ORA Neon Birdsnest about two months ago. It was bright neon green when it came in from WWC now it's totally brown. Its under about 200 par LED lighting.
Cal-450 Alk 7.8 Mg 1380 Nitrate 0 phosphate 0. Feed reef Roids twice a week.

Anyone have this coral and know what par it's on or what your levels are?

 

[Diesel]

200 par isn't bad but it can have a little more.
Where in your tank do you have it placed?
I'm also looking at your 0.0 on the Po4 and No3, what kind of test kits you use to do your test.
What about flow through out the tank?

 

[Luke Schnabel]

My test kits are Red Sea. My flow is two MP40s on the sides of my 6' tank. I have a mixed reef so all my SPS are on my top of my aquascape

 

[Diesel]

Thanks for the info.
Now how are your other SPS looking?
Sometimes a SPS can go through a stress period and it can brown it out.
Yet, I'm worried about your nutrients supply for your corals as you test 0 on your Po4 and No3

 

[Luke Schnabel]

My other SPS, all Pocillopora and one Acro are fine. Everything is growing but colors are a bit faded on the sps. What levels do you keep in your tank?

 

[Diesel]

Po4 sits at 0.08 since Saturday and No3 which i test everyday sits at 6ppm as of this morning.
If your other SPS the colors are fading feed your fish more and turn off your skimmer for 6 hours.
Do you have any nutrients reducing reactors like GFO, Bio-pellets or a refugium going?

 

[Luke Schnabel]

GFO and A fuge. it would be great if I can get my phosphate and nitrate up without having any algae problems. I took my GFO offline for a bit and got my PO4 to around .06 and my LPS didn't seem to like it, had some hair algae growing. Nitrate has stayed Zero for many many months.

 

[Diesel]

Try dosing No3.
Maybe our friend Todd can give you some feedback on his No3 thread @twilliard

 

[twilliard]

Yes indeed..
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-nitrate-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing-steps.215730/
Now no3 and po4 is a needed element for Photosynthesis
Think of it this way.. what do we add to our lawns to make them more green?
That is 100% supplying the needs for Photosynthesis for growth and color.
I want to also bring my buddy @Russ265 in.
The birdsnest is starving.
We can give all the light and perfect big 3's all day but this does not help the zooanthelle to provide the energy needed for survival.

 

[Russ265]

Yes indeed..
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-nitrate-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing-steps.215730/
Now no3 and po4 is a needed element for Photosynthesis
Think of it this way.. what do we add to our lawns to make them more green?
That is 100% supplying the needs for Photosynthesis for growth and color.
I want to also bring my buddy @Russ265 in.
The birdsnest is starving.
We can give all the light and perfect big 3's all day but this does not help the zooanthelle to provide the energy needed for survival.

hit the nail on the head.

feed it nitrate and itll love you forever. until it dies of cardiac arrest from nitrogen 20+?

5-10 nitrate
.02-.15 po4 and itll be as right as rain

 

[Diesel]

^^^^ THANKS GUYS^^^^^^

 

[Luke Schnabel]

Thanks for all the input guys! I'll try to maintain that levels and hopefully algae will stay away!

 

[bubbaque]

@Diesel Why do you test NO3 everyday? Does it change that much?

 

[Diesel]

@Diesel Why do you test NO3 everyday? Does it change that much?

Nope, that's the thing I don't want it to change and every day I add between the 10 or 20 ml No3 to the tank.
If not my No3 drops from 6ppm to 4ppm and stability is the key of success.

 

[bubbaque]

I started dosing stump remover and noticed I got some diatoms afterwards. Have you noticed or heard of that before?

 

[Diesel]

Possible.
In that case dose less.
What size tank you have and how much did you dosed?

 

[Russ265]

I started dosing stump remover and noticed I got some diatoms afterwards. Have you noticed or heard of that before?

yup.
algae want the same nutrients as symbiodinium.

its a balancing act

 

[bubbaque]

It's a 75 gallon and I brought it up from 0ppm nitrate to 4ppm but it didn't seem to matter how much I dosed, I still got diatoms. I raised it the first time from 0 to .25 and the same happened. Didn't know if it was normal.

 

[Luke Schnabel]

What are you using to dose NO3?

 

[bubbaque]

Stump remover