birdsnest bleaching from the base
some of the frags i got from the swap are slowly bleaching from the base up. they bleach come back and then fade out again. im not sure the cause of it anyone have any ideas? the growth is phenomenal on the rest of the coral just a bit bleachy on the botton 1/4 in.

My birdsnest is doing the same thing... Great growth with new nubs poking out just the bottom half inch is whitish colored... It has almost always been that way.

what kind of flow do you have? also i seen alot of birdsnest do that because of how they grow the base is shaded and starts to bleach. as long as its not spreading i think you will be fine.

Fairly heavy flow in that area of the tank.. I have the return line blasting it as well as a Koralia on it.... at least in my situation :)

yup im flowing good too.

The growth has been crazy the past week... these birdsnests are cool... I love seeing quick growth, and they're perfect for that

I discovered a AESF. That's right an acropora eating starfish!!!!. I saw this guy near 3/4" in my tank and though he was just one of those 3-4 legged smaller ones that managed to grow out. But after the swap, I found him wrapped around one of my birdsnest frags just above the base where he had just consumed. AHHH! :rant: Pulled him off and the frag recovered. He the AESF is now a shell of what not to have on the top of my canopy. I have one frag that obvioulsy tumbled around before I got it as there's no way all that mass could grow so yeah I too have some shading issues causing lower branch recession. Maybe move it to a more reflective surface like white sand that would reflect light back upward. HTH! :-)

Could be just the base is getting shaded or could be due to high temps as well. Check your Alk and PH and if it's all good then I wouldn't worry to much unless it starts to RTN Chris, are you sure the Star wasn't just eating dying tissue? I have seen all too many times where certain critters get blamed for eating a healthy coral when in fact the coral was dying and the animal could sense that so it feasted.

Yep as the coral itself is all doing well except the area that starfish touched. the small 1/8" tip of the branch he was on is still ok but everything else is gone. So right after I did remove him I searched and found this: http://www.garf.org/STAR/starfish.html That's excatly what the guy I found looked like too.

HMM, I have always had those stars with SPS, I will keep a closer eye on them.

I have others that look very similar but are closer to 1/4" and have no problem with them.

I have a few questions about your Birdsnest before I can try and diagnose: What color is it and does the color appear uniform over the entire specimen excluding the base and the rapidly growing tips? Are the tips growing in the direction of the flow output that is blasting it? Are you getting good polyp extension on your birdnest? It should appear fuzzy and almost completely covered in polyps. Are you running halides and if so what wattage and kelvin rating are they? Do you feed a small ZOOPLANKTON and trace mineral supplement? It may help to see a picture of the colony.

crap now my acros are doing it too. it must be the heat. i was gone today so i didnt watch the temps but its 11:20 now and still 82.5 so i betcha i hit 84 or 85 today.

i just busted my bi-color blenny picking away on an acro so he is fuge bound until i can sell him. theres a good chance this was my issue.