Ponape Birdsnest

[MikeMizz]

Hi everyone!

I scored a Ponape Birdsnest at the last meeting. From reading online, it seems like there is mixed feedback on lighting. Right now, it’s probably in about 250 PAR. It has lost all the green. I did read that they take time to acclimate, but not sure if I should lower it or wait it out.
Any feedback will be much appreciated! Thank you.

 

[MikeMizz]

Actually, it’s probably more like 200 PAR now that I’m looking at the tank again.

 

[evolved]

Ponape is Seriatopora hystrix, and therefore the coral bible can be helpful: http://www.coralsoftheworld.org/species_factsheets/species_factsheet_summary/seriatopora-hystrix/

What I often find to be the most helpful line:

Habitat: Shallow reef environments especially intertidal reef flats.

Which can translate to: lots of light, lots of flow.

Corals tend to saturate out around 400-450 PAR (meaning, that's the highest the zooxanthella know how to use). Therefore, 200-250 is kinda low.

However, you said "lost all the green", meaning what exactly? Turned white? Shifted to brown/tan?
Also, general parameters could be helpful. Alk/Ca/Mg, N/P.

 

[MikeMizz]

Makes sense about the habitat. Thank you.

Not sure the lighting is quite the same in these pictures, I tried. The lighting is on a schedule that ramps from blue to white and back each day. But you can see all the green fluorescence is gone from a few weeks ago when I first put it in.

alk: 9.6
Cal: 380
Mg: 1425
N: .5
P: .05
Sal: 1.026

Its been a long time since I checked calcium because I have been dosing according to alk need. But that probably could come up. Don’t know how much that is hurting things. Nitrate I can never keep up. I tried feeding more but just blew up P instead. I switched to more frozen to see if that would help

 

[evolved]

Okay, yes - definitely bleached. But also the lack of polyp extension makes me question a possible lack of flow?

Calcium is looking a bit low, especially at that alk level. Any chance your alk level is somewhere up in the 10s? High alk and low nutrients can burn SPS too.

I would move it down into lower light with good flow for now.

 

[MikeMizz]

Okay, yes - definitely bleached. But also the lack of polyp extension makes me question a possible lack of flow?

Calcium is looking a bit low, especially at that alk level. Any chance your alk level is somewhere up in the 10s? High alk and low nutrients can burn SPS too.

I would move it down into lower light with good flow for now.

Lack of flow is possible. I always have trouble knowing what’s what because my only frame of reference is my own tank.

I’ll check my alk again. I use a Hanna checker but it’s possible I botched it.

I moved it down but now I’m even more worried about flow down there. Might be time for some more power heads….

 

[evolved]

Lack of flow is possible. I always have trouble knowing what’s what because my only frame of reference is my own tank.

What do you have for circulation/powerheads now, and how big is the tank?

 

[MikeMizz]

What do you have for circulation/powerheads now, and how big is the tank?

Two ReefWave 25s, one on each side of a reefer 350, 4 foot tank.

 

[Ef4life]

You got that from me.

I’d say my main piece is in medium to high light, and pretty high flow.

my tank is usually around 9-10dkh, 400 ca, 1400 mg. Nitrate around 5, and phosphates are running about .05-.08. Calcium always seem to run on the lower side in my tank. Lately I’ve been letting it run dirtier and the nitrates and phosphate levels have risen to about 10ppm no3 and .12po4 over the past few weeks.

I also just put a similar sized piece in my biocube, and it’s looking like yours, bleached but not dead. I feel like it’s under less light intensity in the biocube (70w mh and 2 reefbrite lumi light blue strips) than my main tank under orphek atlantik.

Main tank - mid height in the tank, but in a turbulent area.


Biocube - Bottom 1/3rd of the tank, not a ton of flow in this tank.

 

[Ef4life]

I forgot to add, I’m struggling to keep any nitrate abs phosphate in the biocube. And I’m currently dosing both daily. So low nitrate might be the common denominator.

 

[MikeMizz]

I forgot to add, I’m struggling to keep any nitrate abs phosphate in the biocube. And I’m currently dosing both daily. So low nitrate might be the common denominator.

Thank you for chiming in and hooking up a few awesome frags!

How are you approaching running things “dirtier”?

 

[Ef4life]

Thank you for chiming in and hooking up a few awesome frags!

How are you approaching running things “dirtier”?

Not cleaning it basically. Since I started adding trace elements I decided to cut back on water changes.

I Let the filter socks go for about a week vs changin every 3 days. And I haven’t vacuumed the frag tank out in probably 2 months, it gets lots of detritus. The bottom glass gets heavy coralline growth and gets all rough and flaky and holds all kind of junk. Which is probably where the increased nitrate and phosphate are coming from.

 

[MikeMizz]

Not cleaning it basically. Since I started adding trace elements I decided to cut back on water changes.

I Let the filter socks go for about a week vs changin every 3 days. And I haven’t vacuumed the frag tank out in probably 2 months, it gets lots of detritus. The bottom glass gets heavy coralline growth and gets all rough and flaky and holds all kind of junk. Which is probably where the increased nitrate and phosphate are coming from.

What all are you dosing? I am doing alk, calc, mag, tropic Marin part c, and I just started AB+. I’m trying to figure out the most effective regimen without frivolous stuff.

 

[evolved]

Two ReefWave 25s, one on each side of a reefer 350, 4 foot tank.

That should be enough, but some dead spots exist in every tank.

 

[Ef4life]

What all are you dosing? I am doing alk, calc, mag, tropic Marin part c, and I just started AB+. I’m trying to figure out the most effective regimen without frivolous stuff.

I do the brs tm hybrid. Brs soda ash abs calcium mixed with tropic Marin a and k trace. Brs mag, and the tm part c.

I also add some brightwell amino daily.

if you don’t have a lot of coral growth, and if your tanks pretty new I wouldn’t add any of the a and k trace elements. A regular maintenance and waterchange schedule will be able to take care of it for probably a year maybe longer until your corals really take off and start growing and really using all that stuff up.