SPS Birdsnest help

[smh254]

I have a 40b. Yesterday I pumped almost all of the water out of the tank to remove two damsels and then pump the water straight back in. Everything in the tank is doing just fine except for my birdsnest. A lot of the tips have turned white and are dead I guess. My question is should I snip all the white tips off and do Think it would be OK after that?

 

[smh254]

Couple more pic

 

[Tab28]

It should send out new growth to compensate for what died, if the tips are dead. Birdsnest unlike most SPS do not encrust. So what is dead will always be there. But new growth will dwarf it. Even members of its family like pociliopara and styo encrust. Which is even a frag with lots of growth will have the same tiny glue spot visible.

Birdsnest is very sensitive to ph change. So when you drained water the ph changed. An entire colony will die overnight if ph swing is too much.

 

[jsker]

It should send out new growth to compensate for what died, if the tips are dead. Birdsnest unlike most SPS do not encrust. So what is dead will always be there. But new growth will dwarf it. Even members of its family like pociliopara and styo encrust. Which is even a frag with lots of growth will have the same tiny glue spot visible.

Birdsnest is very sensitive to ph change. So when you drained water the ph changed. An entire colony will die overnight if ph swing is too much.

Good to know

 

[smh254]

It should send out new growth to compensate for what died, if the tips are dead. Birdsnest unlike most SPS do not encrust. So what is dead will always be there. But new growth will dwarf it. Even members of its family like pociliopara and styo encrust. Which is even a frag with lots of growth will have the same tiny glue spot visible.

Birdsnest is very sensitive to ph change. So when you drained water the ph changed. An entire colony will die overnight if ph swing is too much.

So would it be OK if I snip the tips off or should I just leave it be?

 

[Tab28]

That is up to you. I would leave it be. If it continues to die along the tip. Then I would take action. They are pretty hardy as long as it is happy with your tank. If you do have to remove it from the tank for any period of time. Don't leave it out of water for too long.

 

[Salty1962]

Ditto with Tab28. Don't stress the coral anymore than you have too.

 

[smh254]

Thanks for all your help. I don't think it was the ph that did this. When I drained the tank it took me a little time to re fill it. I think the tips of my birdsnest dried out. When I refilled the tank all my SPS had slim on them. The birdsnest had a lot more of what I thought to be slime but I'm thinking that a lot of it was skin tissue. It's doing fine now just has dead white tips. I'll give it some time before I snip all the dead tips

 

[Fishyjay]

While dipping a birds nest frag i noticed a 1/4" strip of tissue detached from the skeleton on what you would call the trunk of a tree portion of the frag. So I left it alone and placed into my display. There were no pests on it or any visible reason why it happened. I assumed it was damaged during transport from my LFS to home. Good news was that it healed over the white area 7-12 days and now it looks like nothing ever happened.

 

[bobbyM]

Personally, I would remove the dead tips. Use a sharp set of coral cutters for an accurate cut. Algae is prone to grow on the dead skeleton.

 

[WetWhistle]

I would also leave it to see if it gets worse. If you see algae growing on the tips then snip them off. Until then I would let the coral heal and recover. You might want to spot feed the coral or up your tank feeding a little. This extra energy from the food will usually be put towards healing and will speed up the process. Just don't go crazy on the food so you cause a nutrient issue obviously.

 

[bobbyM]

I would also leave it to see if it gets worse. If you see algae growing on the tips then snip them off. Until then I would let the coral heal and recover. You might want to spot feed the coral or up your tank feeding a little. This extra energy from the food will usually be put towards healing and will speed up the process. Just don't go crazy on the food so you cause a nutrient issue obviously.

I'm lazy, so this is what I would really do. Birds nest is a weed anyway.