Birdsnest Bleaching FAST

I picked up two frags of birdsnest about two weeks ago and it's bleaching out very quickly starting from the bottom up. Both of them are bleaching at almost the same rate. Everything else seems to be doing well. I'll take a picture when my lights turn on tomorrow. The frags are right in the middle of the tank height with no neighbors (6-8" of water height)

Here's my water stats as of tonight
0 NH3/4
0.25 NO2
0 NO3

1470 magnesium
6 calcium hardness
19 of calcium content
PH of 8

Equipment
150w metal halide 14k kelvin brand new (10hr light cycle)
2" sand bed
21lbs live rock
20 gallon tank
protein skimmer
2 power heads for flow, 5/hr turnover

Dose (weekly)
Calcium, strontium, iodine, magnesium, trace


Any clues?

 

Nitrites are bad. That is likely the cause of your problem. How long has the tank been up?

 

Clue 1~ NO2 .25
Since you have nitrites and no nitrates I'm guessing your tank hasn't been up long and isn't cycled.

 

the tank was setup middle of January. Just did a water change on the tank yesterday, my guess is I stirred up a bit when adding the new water. I'm betting that it'll be gone by tomorrow evening.

Edit: Looked at the test again, think it's my tired eyes playing tricks on me. There may be a trace in there, but it's not at the .25 level.

 

Nitrite, nitrate and ammonia tests are time-sensitive. You need to check them after the time the test kit says, within a smallish margin, or the color won't be right.

 

Redid the test and it came out to a 0 this time. What else could be going on with this?

 

sounds lke RTN not bleaching. Frag them above the tissue loos and glue them to new plugs. Sorry dude

 

not to hijack, but what is RTN?

 

RTN = Rapid Tissue Necrosis... I don't think there are any known causes for this, but some theories....

you posted "6 calcium hardness" do you mean 6 dkH? if so, that's kinda low... I'd bring it up to at least 8, but more like 9-11 to match the magnesium concetration.

 

anyone miss this??? 2 power heads for flow, 5/hr turnover. don't sps need somewhere like 40-60x???