Fritz0id3937 December 9, 2014 Share December 9, 2014 The rainbow granulosa got knocked over by my big turbo snail and it rested on the just the tip of a branch of a small birds nest colony for about a day before I fixed it. Now the entire branch of the birdsnesr is turning white, the tip looks like white bone and polyps transition to a white velvetly fuzz on the rest of the branch, rest of the colony is still green and has pe. What can I expect? Should I do anything or just wait? Is rainbow granulosa that aggressive, cuz it looks fine? Birdsnest Colony is about the size of a tennis ball. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCReefer1964 December 9, 2014 Share December 9, 2014 Birds Nest will recover fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmerek2 December 9, 2014 Share December 9, 2014 It should be fine as long as you keep PH and alk stable. Only dose alk in slowwww drip as I'm sure you know. Have a beer and watch it recover if it doesn't I have a really nice frag of that cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz0id3937 December 9, 2014 Author Share December 9, 2014 Ah oh, it looks much worse today, white velvet condition has spread to about 85% of the coral and about a centimeter of flesh is gone from that tip. Only the tips have normal PE. I manually dose 2 part and have been bringing my ALK up over the past week. I never dose more than 30ml of each a day. I thought that would be slow enough for my 65gal with 20gal sump. Sad to lose this one, grew it out from the smallest frag the size half a pinky finger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz0id3937 December 9, 2014 Author Share December 9, 2014 Everything else looks great, even my other colony of the same birdsnest. Should I move it to the sand bed, out of the high light high flow spot its at now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz0id3937 December 9, 2014 Author Share December 9, 2014 My alk was low last week. So I've raised it from 6dKH to 8dKH over the past week, by adding about 30ml a day or every other day manually. The birdsnest touched the other frag during this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 December 9, 2014 Share December 9, 2014 How much SPS do you have? Alk of 6 is very very low if you don't have much SPS, unless you never do water changes. You may want to check what your salinity is at with a calibrated refractometer. Low alk could be b/c low salinity. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz0id3937 December 9, 2014 Author Share December 9, 2014 I have a lot of sps now, upper half of the tank is all sps, and recently added a bunch more sps about 2 weeks ago. My salinity stays stable at 1.026, but I'll double check with my refractomitor again tonight. Thanks. I thought this green birdsnest was all but indestructible, it grows like a weed, but I just read faster growing corals might be more sensitive to alk swings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmerek2 December 9, 2014 Share December 9, 2014 They like stability of PH and Alk and other parameters. a small injury can send a colony into a tailspin during changes. Dosers are the way to go if your coral demand needs dosing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz0id3937 December 9, 2014 Author Share December 9, 2014 Yea, I think it's time for me to invest in a Doser. I am thinking of getting the jebao dp-4. I worried this birdsnest won't be there when I get home tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz0id3937 December 9, 2014 Author Share December 9, 2014 The entire colony is white now. I clipped off the entire branch with the burnt tip and moved the coral to the sand bed. That sure happened fast, ouch. The flesh appears to remain on the rest of the coral but looks like it could be rubbed off easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Rhoads December 9, 2014 Share December 9, 2014 I hate to say it, but i doubt the loss stemmed from the encounter. Losing the branch? Sure. But the loss should have been localized if it originated from a sting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz0id3937 December 10, 2014 Author Share December 10, 2014 It started from the tip that was stung and spread throughout the entire coral. All my other corals look great, even the other colony I have of the same exact birdsnest. So don't think its anything other than the sting and maybe me raising ALK over the past dew days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCReefer1964 December 10, 2014 Share December 10, 2014 Alk or PH sing will do it for sure. Get it under control before it claims other colonies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz0id3937 December 10, 2014 Author Share December 10, 2014 Next time I'll be sure to move ALK much slower over a longer period of time. I didn't think raising alk by 2dKH over a week was a big swing, but I guess it is especially for an injured coral. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmerek2 December 10, 2014 Share December 10, 2014 Next time I'll be sure to move ALK much slower over a longer period of time. I didn't think raising alk by 2dKH over a week was a big swing, but I guess it is especially for an injured coral. I used to think the same thing! I couldnt believe the growth after I got mine set up then I changed my mind about stability. Get a doser. It will keep the alk at a number of your choice once its fine tuned. well worth the money and time to set up. Then you dont have to worry about dosing all the time and you might get bored with testing as often because its the same number every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueTricia December 10, 2014 Share December 10, 2014 I used to think the same thing! I couldnt believe the growth after I got mine set up then I changed my mind about stability. Get a doser. It will keep the alk at a number of your choice once its fine tuned. well worth the money and time to set up. Then you dont have to worry about dosing all the time and you might get bored with testing as often because its the same number every time. Out of curiosity, how do you fine tune a doser? I'm picking one up from ERC soon, so I'm curious. I get the concept behind dosing, but what are the steps? Test, use online calculator, set doser, test in a week, recalibrate? or.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueTricia December 10, 2014 Share December 10, 2014 I used to think the same thing! I couldnt believe the growth after I got mine set up then I changed my mind about stability. Get a doser. It will keep the alk at a number of your choice once its fine tuned. well worth the money and time to set up. Then you dont have to worry about dosing all the time and you might get bored with testing as often because its the same number every time. Out of curiosity, how do you fine tune a doser? I'm picking one up from ERC soon, so I'm curious. I get the concept behind dosing, but what are the steps? Test, use online calculator, set doser, test in a week, recalibrate? or.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz0id3937 December 10, 2014 Author Share December 10, 2014 Good question, is there a good method or post for determining what amount to dose and how often? Or should I just start dosing low amounts daily, and test often and adjust from there with a trial and error method? Tricia - what doser did you decide to get? I still can believe how fast that coral died, at least the rest seem to be fine, actually seeing faster growth in some (spongodes is taking off), since my levels are now within ideal range. My ALK has always been on the low side until now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM December 10, 2014 Share December 10, 2014 Dose once by hand and then test to make sure you are at the level you want. Then do nothing for two days and test again at the same time of the day as the first test. Calculate how much will be needed to bring you back up the original level, divide by the number of days you waited, and that's how much you need per day. Then run doser for an hour or two into a cup and measure how much came out in that time and divide it out and you'll get volume/minute. Then set the dosing timer for the right number of minutes/day and you're all set except for testing from time to time to check that it hasn't drifted or that consumption hasn't changed (which it definitely does from time to time). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Rhoads December 10, 2014 Share December 10, 2014 (edited) Alan is spot on. But I would say that Jebao dosers make calibration even more easy. Here is what I did to set mine up (I am still getting to my "target" numbers as this is y second week of running it. 1) initial test to establish baseline (in my case for Ca and dKH) 2) go to BRS and use their online calculator to determine how much of each additive I will need to get to my desired numbers 3) divide whatever difference you have between your target and your baseline by: (number of days you want to use in getting to target X number of times per day you want to dose).. in math terms: (target - baseline)/(days*doses per day)=ml you need to dose each time your pump turns on 4) calibrate pump. the Jebao pump allows you to "dial it in" by using a 100ml cup and a few button pushes (took me 60 seconds to calibrate all 4 pumps) 5) Set dosing schedule 6) retest in a week (or whatever # of days you chose in step 3) once you hit your goal numbers, move on to step 7 7) stop dosing for x days and determine current tank demand in ml (again by using the BRS calculator) and then divide by x days to determine consumption per day 8) reset your pump to only meet your daily consumption I chose to bring my dKH up by one point per week and have seen no ill effects. In fact, my corals are looking MUCH better (color) than when I was dosing by hand. I am sold on the pumps, you just cannot do it by hand unless you are willing to add 4ml every 2 hours for 10 hours (in my case I only dose at night to counteract any drop in PH). Edited December 10, 2014 by Jason Rhoads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmerek2 December 10, 2014 Share December 10, 2014 Put it on a timer and add a half hour every few days until you reach desired Alk level. I wanted 10dkh. Or do what he says that sounds better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz0id3937 December 12, 2014 Author Share December 12, 2014 How toxic is a dying birdsnest coral? Its long dead now, but it seemed to burn a nearby gorgoian in a few places that was only a few inches away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmerek2 December 12, 2014 Share December 12, 2014 Shouldn't be toxic at all unless it's a nano. Should be bad with direct contact only. I had a nem kill a BN colony no problems at all . Is there a nearby chalice by any chance? Just a long shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz0id3937 December 12, 2014 Author Share December 12, 2014 Actually there is a nearby chalice, about 3 inches away. What does a chalice do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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