Ponape Birdsnest not doing well

[FishyDP]

I just got into sps, and my Ponape Birdsnest frag seems to have lost its color. It has been in my tank for about 8 days, and had nice colors for several days. Now you can see it in the pic below. I had it about 12" directly under a 4 bulb t5 fixture with led supplement. Yesterday, I moved it to about 20" below the lights, in low-medium indirect flow. Do you think it will color back up? I received a purple stylo, a couple monti caps, a branching monti and a bird of paradise at the same time as the ponape, and they are all doing well in the same tank.

150g with 30g sump, dosing kalk via ato, manually dosing Kent's magnesium, no3/po4 near undetectable, broadcast feeding coral food daily, no known coral munchers. Parameters in range, all other corals doing well, except for a cyphastrea that is not doing well..also carbon dosing 5ml/day (vodka)..I am slowly reducing carbon dosing now that I have a fuge in place.

 

[sbash]

Too much light will fade the colours for sure. Mine is mid to high level in the tank and is fairly colourless, except for the part that started growing under a monti cap, so it has partial shade.

I'm not sure why I put it up so high, all my other birds nests are thriving about 8" lower...

 

[FishyDP]

I am hoping it gets its colors back now that I moved it lower..

 

[skysoblue987]

It should be ok. Usually sps will fade in color until they adjust to your tank. As long as there's no bleaching from the base you should be good.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I suspect that your water is too clean in addition to too much par.

Need about 5-10 ppm N03 and 0.02 P04.

How old is your tank?
If you have no nutrients, you should discontinue dosing vodka!

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Both low nutrients and too much light will pale out birdsnest corals. Full water parameters are helpful sg, alk, cal, mg, no3 and po4. If you only have a few frags there should be no need to dose kalk or mag at this point, not until you see a daily drop in alk and cal. Water changes should take care of replacing elements until the corals start growing. Dosing carbon is also bad if no3 and po4 are low already or out of balance or if tank is still newer and finding its balance.

 

[FishyDP]

The tank has been running for about 2 months. Everything was transferred over from an 8 month old tank, which was my first reef. In that system I had a huge hair algae outbreak early on and utilized carbon dosing, which did a great job lowering no3/po4, which in turn resolved the algae problem. I also had insufficient/underrated equipment, as this was my first reef tank. In the new system I have a much better skimmer, and have a decent sized refugium. I agree that ultra low nutrients is not a great idea. I am slowly reducing carbon dosing.

My tank is 27" deep so I have the ability to move corals to dif par levels. I am hoping the birdsnest colors back up, I did notice last night that the tips appear to be getting back a little hint of pink/purple. I have about 40 different frags, a mix of lps, zoas and now 7-8 sps including a monti plate around the size of my hand, which I picked up yesterday. Not sure water changes alone can keep up at this point? I am going to up my testing frequency and adjust if need be. The other sps I have are doing well, just the birdsnest is struggling..

 

[FishyDP]

I have stopped carbon dosing for around a couple weeks now. The ponape is in the bottom 3rd of my tank, and still has yet to regain colors. It is alive, but dull looking. Other sps are doing fine- stylo, enchinata, monti plates, digitata..but I cant get the ponape to color up..

My system still seems to be running low nutrient levels, nitrate wont get above 10. Phosphate is creeping up a bit though. I am lessening frozen food to twice a week, in hope's that my phosphate levels will get lower. I feed moderately, twice a day, pellets and flakes. I tuned down my t5 photo period by a couple hours as well, as I am thinking my PAR is a bit high.

Magnesium is 1450-1500, alk around 10, calcium near 450.