Bad luck with birds nest

[PLNelson]

So, Apparently, Birds nest is my Achilles heel. I have been very sucessfull at keeping everything else except these guys. I have it mounted about 6" below a 150watt halide, and have a good amount of flow going by it. Any ideas?

[Goldpony75]

What is it doing?

[morty]

I've read that birdsnest commonly occurs below (in the shadowed areas) of other sps corals in the wild. Could it be an issue of too much light? (Although I say this while keeping my LiveAquaria aquacultured birdsnest in about 10" of water midway between my 400W 20000K bulb and 13000K 250W DE bulb, and it seeems to have good color and decent growth.)

[kjdeut]

When takling about pink birdnest I have only been able to get the nice pink color by having it up high and directly under the lights (2x250 hqi). I could never get the nice colors when I had it lower in my tank. It would stillgrow down low but not have the nicer color.

Ken

[Chad Vossen]

my birdsnest is doing great, but i cant get my pocci to do anything for me. every 8-10 seconds my birdsnest gets a blast from the powerhead. its 6 inches below the water level, and my 175W halide is 12 inches above the water surface. im not getting much color, but im getting some "ok" growth from it.

[mattb]

how do you know that your pocci isn't behaving as t should? Not every pocci is pink or green?

[PLNelson]

Right now the frag I have is bleached.

[mattb]

phil could you post a pic? Some are high light some not. Some are heavy wave action some are not? Is it a new coral? If so, I'd always start on the bottom, less light than most acros.

[David Grigor]

my 175W halide is 12 inches above the water surface. im not getting much color, but im getting some "ok" growth from it.

While there are alot of variables. The one that stands out to me the most is intensity.

By the time you factor in the height of the MH and that your using 175W, the intensity has dropped pretty signicantly before you ever get to the water level. For most reflectors, 6-8" gives enough spread.

[twincitiesreefer]

How long have u had it?Is it just bleaching or resission?from the tips or the base?

My birdsnest is one of the 6 that didnt bleach dureing the move.If u lose that one i could give you a branch phil

[Arm Hag]

I've kept a few different birdsnests over the years and I've found them all to be among the more adaptive hard corals. That said, I do find that they take longer to establish than most. I've found them to do best about 12-15" under a 250 watt halide with fairly strong water movement around them. This is one coral where the water motion around it will really influence the growth morphology. IMO, it's a "mid-level" coral for light and flow.

[Chad Vossen]

While there are alot of variables. The one that stands out to me the most is intensity.

By the time you factor in the height of the MH and that your using 175W, the intensity has dropped pretty signicantly before you ever get to the water level. For most reflectors, 6-8" gives enough spread.

i agree, but in my 20 long, its tricky to not shade the corals on the ends. it wont matter soon, as i want to try T5 on my 65 gal.

my pocci just simply wont grow, its a nice brown color, and catches lots of food though i dont know if its actually eating it.