Dying Birdsnest? Maybe?

[Canaan Gary]

So I’ve had two Birdsnest for about a month and they’ve been perfect and now all of a sudden, one of them just turned solid white. It literally happened overnight. The other one is perfectly fine.

 

[DE FISH]

Yeah that one looks dead buddy if there’s polyps then there’s hope it will eventually recover however that just looks like pure white dead skeleton

 

[Canaan Gary]

Yeah that one looks dead buddy if there’s polyps then there’s hope it will eventually recover however that just looks like pure white dead skeleton

Oh:/ is it normal for them to die that fast tho? It was literally overnight.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Oh:/ is it normal for them to die that fast tho? It was literally overnight.

did your temp fall or params shift? if so maybe, still fairly rare

 

[Canaan Gary]

did your temp fall or params shift? if so maybe, still fairly rare

Nope. nothing changed at all.

 

[Bribo12]

Yep sps will rtn like that writhin a very short amount of time. Clearly something wasn’t happy with them. Birdsnests from my experience are super susceptible to alk issues. How stable has your alk been over the past few days/weeks?
Also your other birdsnest is showing skeleton in certain areas, especially near the tips. I wouldn’t call it perfectly fine. Any other sps in the tank?

 

[Canaan Gary]

My alk was kinda low and I slowly brought it up from 7 to 8.5 over a week. That’s it though

 

[Bribo12]

Any other sps? 7 is perfectly fine. Nutrient levels (nitrate, phosphate?) Were you testing it everyday while bringing it up? Birdsnests are super finicky from my experience.

 

[Canaan Gary]

Any other sps? 7 is perfectly fine. Nutrient levels (nitrate, phosphate?) Were you testing it everyday while bringing it up? Birdsnests are super finicky from my experience.

I tested it about every other day. I didn’t go above 8.5. My nitrates are about five and my phosphates are below .25
Calc 460
Alk 8
Mg ?
Nitrate 4
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Phosphate < .25
pH 7.9
Salinity 1.0235

 

[Canaan Gary]

Any other sps? 7 is perfectly fine. Nutrient levels (nitrate, phosphate?) Were you testing it everyday while bringing it up? Birdsnests are super finicky from my experience.

And no, I don’t have any other sps. I tried a monti a while back but it died. The second Birdsnest lost almost all its polyps today

 

[Bribo12]

Your salinity is relatively low. Are you using a refractometer? When was the last time it was calibrated if so? If you’re having issues with sps there is definitely something going on either with a parameter not being stable or possibly the salinity.
Also, I see coralline and such so your tank doesn’t seem new. Birdsnests imo suck, they’re super finicky and even if they get massive will shade themselves and cause stn or rtn. I’d definitely try bumping salinity up and get a better phosphate checker if you want to keep trying sps. Just knowing less than .25 with sps is not helpful. Really the Hanna kit is the only reliable phosphate kit in the hobby.

 

[PghReef]

I can't keep a Birdsnest alive to save my life. Acros seem to do ok and grow, birdnest and montis just die. Most frustrating thing ever, I think some tanks just grow certain corals and not others. Ignore the easy vs difficult corals, its whatever your tank can grow lol.

 

[SlugSnorter]

I can't keep a Birdsnest alive to save my life. Acros seem to do ok and grow, birdnest and montis just die. Most frustrating thing ever, I think some tanks just grow certain corals and not others. Ignore the easy vs difficult corals, its whatever your tank can grow lol.

your PH is pretty low, maybe its that

 

[Afterburner]

I had my birdsnests die overnight one at a time like that a few years ago, then I lost my torch and other corals one by one over the next 6 weeks. I eventually did a ICP test and found out that zinc (I think) was off the charts high and the ICP test said it was probably a magnet. Sure enough, I found the culprit was a magnet and did a ton of water changes to save my remaining corals. The interesting thing is that the torch in it’s distress spawned tiny torches all over the tank. I actually need to get another birds nest just to use it like a canary in a coal mine to identify issues right when they start.

 

[PghReef]

your PH is pretty low, maybe its that

I never posted my pH but it does run around 8 at night 8.1 during the day. You be be referring to the OP numbers

 

[SlugSnorter]

And no, I don’t have any other sps. I tried a monti a while back but it died. The second Birdsnest lost almost all its polyps today

your PH is pretty low. Maybe its that

 

[SlugSnorter]

I never posted my pH but it does run around 8 at night 8.1 during the day. You be be referring to the OP numbers

sry thought you were op lol

 

[Canaan Gary]

your PH is pretty low. Maybe its that

Yeah i realized that. I’m currently raising it. Do you think that would affect hammers too? I’m losing some super nice pieces right now and I can’t figure out why

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Yeah that one looks dead buddy if there’s polyps then there’s hope it will eventually recover however that just looks like pure white dead skeleton

One for the shelf. Welcome to the up and down world of sps