Birdsnest bleaching?
- Thread starter Noobie_fish
- Start date
Without knowing your setup, history & husbandry practices, I would say your system is starving for nutrients. I personally don’t like keeping NO3 close to 0, too much of a gamble. Do you feed any coral foods? Do you have a dosing regiment? It would help others in giving suggestions if you can share everything from setup, routines & full parameters.
Sorry, I know it’s hard to list everything but I’ll try
It’s a 150 gal w/ 40 sump set up about 4 months now.
- Dose about 40ml of BRS 2 part daily
- I have 6 fish: 2 damsels, 2 chromies and 2 clowns
- led runs for 8 hours 11-7 and the T5s go for 4 hours
- feed the fish 1-2 times daily. Flakes and sometime mys
- run a skimmer BM curve 7
- haven’t done a water since setup
Parameters:
Salt 1.026
Alk 9.0
Calc 440
Phos 0.12
Nitrate around 0
I currently do not feed coral. If I do what should I feed?
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It’s a 150 gal w/ 40 sump set up about 4 months now.
- Dose about 40ml of BRS 2 part daily
- I have 6 fish: 2 damsels, 2 chromies and 2 clowns
- led runs for 8 hours 11-7 and the T5s go for 4 hours
- feed the fish 1-2 times daily. Flakes and sometime mys
- run a skimmer BM curve 7
- haven’t done a water since setup
Parameters:
Salt 1.026
Alk 9.0
Calc 440
Phos 0.12
Nitrate around 0
I currently do not feed coral. If I do what should I feed?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Get an auto feeder and feed your fish more and make some sodium nitrate and dose 1ppm every night until you get a consistent reading of a few ppm. In the meantime, you can lower your lighting intensity by 5% until you bring up your NO3. I would also allow your alk to drop into the 8's ( 8 - 8.5 is a good range). Use James Planted Tank calculator to figure out your dosage of NO3 found here. Use potassium nitrate in the menu (as this is really close to sodium nitrate).
Great setup you have going. I would recommend adding a couple of working fish like a blenny & goby, maybe even a Ctenochaetus tang like a kole or tomoni that are great at controlling algae. Personally, I would start giving the tank at least a 10-15 gallon water change, it’s amazing how much a simple water change can correct water chemistry. Coral food, I personally do phyto & roids. Hope it helps & good luck in getting the tank to stabilize.
Personally I'd confirm that nitrate with a good test kit. I like Salifert, not super specific but shows an accurate ballpark reading in my experience. Confirmed by ICP testing when I send them out.
I feel like when I was keeping birdsnest, they would pale out in low nutrient/food tanks. If you decide to manipulate that no3 number I'd go about it by dosing some type of no3 supplement. That way it's the only factor changed and you can confirm that was your issue. Just take it slow if you do that, like drexel mentioned above. I'd take any kind of increase or food, or addition of coral foods very slowly in such a young system. Sometimes dosing nitrates can decrease your phosphates so keep an eye on that if you do decide to go that route.
I feel like when I was keeping birdsnest, they would pale out in low nutrient/food tanks. If you decide to manipulate that no3 number I'd go about it by dosing some type of no3 supplement. That way it's the only factor changed and you can confirm that was your issue. Just take it slow if you do that, like drexel mentioned above. I'd take any kind of increase or food, or addition of coral foods very slowly in such a young system. Sometimes dosing nitrates can decrease your phosphates so keep an eye on that if you do decide to go that route.
