Whats happening to this green birds nest coral

[Newms118]

So I've had these frags of green birds nest coral in my tank for about 4 days.  Before I put them in, i did a Coral Rx dip for 10 minutes.  I placed them mid level in the tank that receives medium flow.  When I came home I noticed they didn't look too good.

 

The smallest frag looks the most healthy:

 

The two larger frags look worse.  One is doing slightly better (on the left) but its skin is becoming lighter:

 

For my lights, I run the 14000K (original series) and 20000K (XB series) for the day, and the Super Actinic Spectrum (original series) for my night light; all from Build My LED.  Here is my lighting sequence:

 

For 14000K

3 hour ramp from 15% to 50% - runs from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM

3 hour ramp from 50% to 15% - runs from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

 

For 20000K

1 hour ramp from 15% to 65% - runs from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM

1 hour ramp from 65% to 15% - runs from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

 

Actinic Cycle

2 hour ramp from 15% to 45% - runs from 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM

1 hour ramp from 45% to 15% - runs from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM

1.5 hour ramp from 15% to 60% - runs from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM

1 hour ramp from 60% to 15% - runs from 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM

 

Some parameters

Alkalinity - 9

Calcium - 500 

Magnesium - 1340

Nitrate - 0.2 

Ammonia - <0.25

Phosphate - <0.03

 

Any ideas on what I can do?  For tonight I plan on just adjusting my lights so that they don't run as long.

 

 

[Newms118]

From what I've read, it could be just bleaching, or slow/fast tissue necrosis.  Such a shame bc I love the look of these little guys.

[Supernova26]

Alk swings are usually the colprit for stn. any major changes to the system in the last week? I would cut the healthy portion and reglue on another plug. Cut as far away from the dead tissue as possible.

[zygote2k]

little tiny frags such as yours have the least likelihood of surviving. get bigger frags and check the alk/ca of the parent tank to match yours.

[Newms118]

Alk swings are usually the colprit for stn. any major changes to the system in the last week? I would cut the healthy portion and reglue on another plug. Cut as far away from the dead tissue as possible.

 

What tool is good for this?  Wire cutters, needle nose pliers? 

[Newms118]

Alk swings are usually the colprit for stn. any major changes to the system in the last week? I would cut the healthy portion and reglue on another plug. Cut as far away from the dead tissue as possible.

 

No major swings that I'm aware of.  If the tank I got it from had say an Alk reading of 10 or 11, and since mine is 9, would that count as a swing, given that they are all good readings?

[Newms118]

little tiny frags such as yours have the least likelihood of surviving. get bigger frags and check the alk/ca of the parent tank to match yours.

 

thanks for the heads up, didn't think about checking the tank I was getting the frags from.  Question is, if there is a big difference between the tanks, how can you slowly acclimate to the new settings? Would drip acclimation be enough?

[Newms118]

Alk swings are usually the colprit for stn. any major changes to the system in the last week? I would cut the healthy portion and reglue on another plug. Cut as far away from the dead tissue as possible.

 

Actually, my pH does fluctuation from 8.1 to 8.3 for night and day cycles, would this cause issues?

[Origami]

A swing of 0.2 pH points is pretty typical. It's likely not the cause. The frags look like they were fresh cut and mounted when you got them. Combine that with their being small and you've got an increased chance that they won't survive. try cutting it back with a pair of wire cutters or whatever you have handy. Then, if you can make it work, you can try tying the frag down to a frag plug with thread or just setting it into a hole in a rock without glue. This relieves the frag from additional trauma. 

[Newms118]

Ok I dimmed the lights a bit and the birds nest coral seem to be doing better.  However, the little frag that seemed to be doing great today (lots of polyp extension) has been mauled to death by a limpet.  In a matter of about 8 hours.  I leave at noon after looking at the tank to make sure everyone is happy, to come home and see the limpet with its mouth now on the birds nest.  Here is the guy pre-limpet mauling:

 

Now the poor frag looks like this:

 

Needless to say I just got rid of any limpets I could find, but I know there others.

 

Anyone have this happen to them?

Edited June 29, 2014 by Newms118

[zygote2k]

doubtful that a limpet ate it- more likely it died from trauma and RTN'd. get bigger, fully healed frags next time.

[Newms118]

doubtful that a limpet ate it- more likely it died from trauma and RTN'd. get bigger, fully healed frags next time.

 

I'm thinking it wasn't RTN because I found that limpet on the coral.  In fact the bit of SPS tissue at the very tips of the coral that weren't eaten are starting to grow back.  To my understanding if it was RTN I should have lost all the tissue and that would be the end of it.  For the other smaller birds nest coral that was looking fine, I broke the healthy tips off and left them sitting in the tank for a week to avoid anymore trauma.  Yesterday I glued them onto a frag plug and they seem to be doing fine with good polyp extension. 

[gmerek2]

my guess is that the limpet was cleaning up dead tissue. They are not known to eat healthy frag tissue. I have a lot of limpets and a lot of healthy green birdnest and have never seen them bother the birdnest. Green birdnest is the most hardy of all SPS. It probably finally acclimated to your tank so it sopped dieing. All my SPS die from bottom up and sometimes when I get the problem stabilized it stops dieing.  For me the problem was alk swings from not having a doser or doing too large of a water change. If you dont want to call it RTN because it didnt die call it STN. Another theory is that the glue and fresh cut can kill the bottom 1/4 inch of the frag, also making the rest of the frag sick but able to recover