Whitish-looking Green Birdsnest?

[Mattie H.]

I'm new to SPS, just bought a few frags from the LFS to try out about a week or so ago. This particular frag, I think a green Birdsnest, seems to have a whitish stalk and very light colored polyps, even though otherwise it seems quite healthy. It's appeared white since I placed it in my tank, but it seemed to have much more color in the store. To be honest, I don't know if this side was facing up or down in the store.

LFS had it at about 9 or 10 inches down in a tank either MH lights a few inches above the water line. I have 4x 36 watt ATI T5s that are 3 or so inches above the water line (blue plus and purple plus), and the frag is about 12 or 13 inches below the water line in my tank. My tank is a little over a year old.

Anything I should worry about, or does the frag look okay?

Thanks!

 

[Dana Riddle]

Looks bleached. Do you have access to a PAR meter?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Looks bleached. Do you have access to a PAR meter?

And what's your water parameters?

 

[Mattie H.]

Looks bleached. Do you have access to a PAR meter?

No access to par meter. It's looked white since the day I got it, would it bleach out that quickly? Would it regain it's color if I lower it, move it to a corner maybe?

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Three things cause bleaching, too much light, alk(too high or swinging) or too little nutrients. I think your lights are fine so long as you're not running them crazy long hours. What is your alk at and is it stable? What is your NO3 and PO4 at?

 

[Mattie H.]

And what's your water parameters?

NH3, NO2, NO3 all at 0. Phos lower than my meter can read. Ph 8.2, Alk 7, Mg 1170, Ca 500, sg 1.023. I just dosed BRS Mg, hopefully that'll be up 100+ by tomorrow. For some reason Mg depletes fairly regularly in my tank.

Tank seems very happy otherwise, no problems anywhere. A dusting of algae enough to clean the glass every few days and keep the snails alive, but no buildup. Can't grow macro.

 

[FugeTown]

NH3, NO2, NO3 all at 0. Phos lower than my meter can read. Ph 8.2, Alk 7, Mg 1170, Ca 500, sg 1.023. I just dosed BRS Mg, hopefully that'll be up 100+ by tomorrow. For some reason Mg depletes fairly regularly in my tank.

Tank seems very happy otherwise, no problems anywhere. A dusting of algae enough to clean the glass every few days and keep the snails alive, but no buildup. Can't grow macro.

Just curious what you test salinity with? Also I keep my alk around 9.5 not sure if that's good for SPS cause I only have 3 little birdsnest frags.

 

[Mattie H.]

Just curious what you test salinity with? Also I keep my alk around 9.5 not sure if that's good for SPS cause I only have 3 little birdsnest frags.

Just your run-of-the-mill Refractometer.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

You're nutrient locked, that's why macro won't grow. Nothing for it or corals to eat. NO3 should be about 2-5ppm, and PO4 at 0.02-0.03ppm. I would look into some coral food. I use red sea energy a and b, and reef nutrition oysterfeast. .5ml each red sea a and b and 1ml oysterfeast per 10g. I feed maybe 2 to 3 times a week in my fishless nano to keep nutrients down but corals fed.

 

[Mattie H.]

Should also add that I run the Ts for 8 hours. Oh, and also forgot to mention I supplement with about 90 watts of .3 watt LEDs, the crappy Current Orbit ones. Those are on for about 12 hours.

 

[Mattie H.]

Three things cause bleaching, too much light, alk(too high or swinging) or too little nutrients. I think your lights are fine so long as you're not running them crazy long hours. What is your alk at and is it stable? What is your NO3 and PO4 at?

NO3 nada. I'm sure I have some PO4, but it's too low for my meter to read. I probably need to invest in a Hanna ULR. I get a dusting of algae, but not much.

I found I had too much PO4 in May/June, when I upgraded my lights causing a bad algae outbreak. Killed my first round of coral. So I'm currently running BRS dual reactor with GFO and carbon per BRS calculator. I turn it on and off every so often in hopes the tank won't be too clean. But it might be. I can't keep macro algae.

 

[Mattie H.]

NO3 nada. I'm sure I have some PO4, but it's too low for my meter to read. I probably need to invest in a Hanna ULR. I get a dusting of algae, but not much.

I found I had too much PO4 in May/June, when I upgraded my lights causing a bad algae outbreak. Killed my first round of coral. So I'm currently running BRS dual reactor with GFO and carbon per BRS calculator. I turn it on and off every so often in hopes the tank won't be too clean. But it might be. I can't keep macro algae.

And Alk is stable, always at 7.

 

[Mattie H.]

You're nutrient locked, that's why macro won't grow. Nothing for it or corals to eat. NO3 should be about 2-5ppm, and PO4 at 0.02-0.03ppm. I would look into some coral food. I use red sea energy a and b, and reef nutrition oysterfeast. .5ml each red sea a and b and 1ml oysterfeast per 10g. I feed maybe 2 to 3 times a week in my fishless nano to keep nutrients down but corals fed.

I've been feeding reef chili. Should I try something else? I also feed the fish liberally, but it doesn't really do anything to raise NO3.

I ordered some phyto to dose the tank with, should be in soon. Hoping that will also be a positive.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

You said you only run the Carbon and GFO every now and then or turn it off every now and then? What's your schedule on that? I think that is what is stripping your tank of nutrients. Maybe you can play around with amount of carbon/gfo and time the pump is on to try and regulate your nutrient levels better than zero.

 

[Mattie H.]

You said you only run the Carbon and GFO every now and then or turn it off every now and then? What's your schedule on that? I think that is what is stripping your tank of nutrients. Maybe you can play around with amount of carbon/gfo and time the pump is on to try and regulate your nutrient levels better than zero.

I'm worried about an algae outbreak, but I will try to shut it off for a while and see what happens.

Anything I can do for this frag in the meantime, or should I just leave it be? It's not completely void of color, tips still look decent.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Having your NO3 higher than your PO4 will decrease the chances of nuisance algae. Not completely eliminate, reduce drastically.

NO3 5-10 is a good place to start. PO4 trace.