Ponape Birdsnest growing and coloration issue

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pandora32

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 22, 2011
Messages
1,337
Location
Port Orchard Washington
I bought a ponape a few months ago. It hasnt jardly grown at all and it took all of a couple days to loose almost all of its color. The tips are still pink. Its not dead. All the polyps come out at night. It just lost its color and hasnt grown.
Ive tried it all over the tank. Bottom. Top. Shaded. Bright light. High flow. Low flow. Its just not happy.
Its in a 215g. 3 mh at 250wthe ea. Geismann T5 bulbs. 2 mp40's on reef crest. Param are great. All my acros and monti are growing great. Been feeding marine snow 2X a week.
Just doesnt like my system. Any ideas?
 
Hmmm, well I've found this particular birdsnest the slowest to getting going initially after introduction. At least the tips are still pink, but is the body still yellowish..? I've had mine for over a year and it's tripled in size, but I did notice that it took quite a while to even get any kind of growth. I did what you did which is move it all over the place at the start until I finally decided to place it in low light (Bottom above sandbed) with low to medium flow. Only then after I left alone for months did it start growing slowly at first, but faster recently. The polyps were always out the entire time it moved around the tank, but I did bleach it a little with too much high light and lost some pink tips in the first couple months. Good luck!
 
Cool. Thanks. Ill move it down out of the light and put it in a lower flow area. Havent lost any of it. Just odd. But then again, ive NEVER had good luck with birdsnest...lol
 
Where did it come from ? A Metal halide lit tank or LED lit tank or Flourscent lit tank? Slow acclimation with lighting can be important if changing its enviroment
 
My ORA ponape likes to be off centered from my LEDs and high flow. So the way it works out in my tank is it pretty much sits directly in front of my power head towards the side of my tank. Bright light causes the green tint to go away.
 
Cool. Thanks. Ill move it down out of the light and put it in a lower flow area. Havent lost any of it. Just odd. But then again, ive NEVER had good luck with birdsnest...lol

That's tough cuz I feel birdsnest species to be relatively easy to care for among sps. Most of them grow fast yet aren't as delicate as certain acro's, but each tank is surely unique plus where the frags came from is also a big deal.
 
It came from a lfs. It was under a 400w halide for a long time. Then it went under a radion thats much higher than the halide was. But it was under the radion for maybe 3you days before i bought it and im using 250w phoenix 14k mh along with T5.
 

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