Poor coloration of pink birds nest

[ashok sakthivel]

Hi,

My pink birds nest is predominantly greenish in color with only a small amout pink at the base. However, the colony is growing rapidly from a single twig to about the size of a 3 inch ball in about 6 months, is there anything i can do to improve the colour. the coral is under a diy Led fixture.

Thanks,

[DopeCantWin]

Hi,

My pink birds nest is predominantly greenish in color with only a small amout pink at the base. However, the colony is growing rapidly from a single twig to about the size of a 3 inch ball in about 6 months, is there anything i can do to improve the colour. the coral is under a diy Led fixture.

Thanks,

Subscribed. Same exact issue.

[daz the reefo]

sounds like you're going through what i did, apart from the usual stable parameters. my experience was that i had a little brown frag of the pink hysterix but grew quite well under LEDS for 2 years, but never really coloured up, since i replaced my LEDs with ATI PM 8x54w all i can say is wow, it's returned to how it should be , bright pink. funny thing you mentioned about the the green tinge is that prior to pinking up it always had the green tinge over brown. So i think that may be a sign it's not getting enough light?

[robs.mark]

What are your nutrient levels? Greening out can be caused by high p04..

[DopeCantWin]

What are your nutrient levels? Greening out can be caused by high p04..

My Phosphates always test at 0, even with a Hanna. Nitrates are likely below .2 at this point. Sorry OP for stealing the thread.

[ashok sakthivel]

My phospahtes are between 0.01 and 0.04. There are areas in the base which seem to have some pink but most of it is green. May be i will move the lights closer, they are about one foot above the water and the hysterix is another 6 inches below the waterline.

[allsps40]

IME high no3 and or po4 will cause them to stay brown but still grow like a weed. Pink birds nest likes low nutrients and it will show its bests colors in low nutrients.

[ashok sakthivel]

No3 is less than 5 on API test and Phospates are always less than 0.04 on a Hanna checker. I run GFO constantly and change it when phosphates reaches 0.04. Do i need to get them any lower to get the pink colour?

[Useful_Idiot]

Mine was brown with low nutrients under my AI leds. Other sps in my tank had great color, red planet cali tort, tricolor, ponape, etc. High and low in the tank didn't matter. I added supplemental t5's and it is returning to pink but isn't quite there yet. The brown is gone but it looks a little bleached. Could be a lack of proper spectrum.

[allsps40]

Try giving it more light. Your no3 and po4 are fine.

[DopeCantWin]

Try giving it more light. Your no3 and po4 are fine.

Photoperiod or intensity?

[Met3112]

I had a birds nest that grew very rapidly and stayed pretty much brown in a ULNS. I added another powerhead close to it and it started to get a more pink color. The vertical growth slowed down too but the branches are growing thicker.

[joao junior]

Mine was brown with low nutrients under my AI leds. Other sps in my tank had great color, red planet cali tort, tricolor, ponape, etc. High and low in the tank didn't matter. I added supplemental t5's and it is returning to pink but isn't quite there yet. The brown is gone but it looks a little bleached. Could be a lack of proper spectrum.

Whats lamps do you use??

[xCry0x]

Spectrum could make sense since the LED fixtures mentioned are generally white/blue fixtures. Given some whites can lean into warmer colors having a legit full spectrum fixture or a magenta t-5 could bring out more of the pink color?

Dunno how true this is since I have a pink zoa that is pink under cw/royalblue/blue leds but who knows.

[Useful_Idiot]

My birdsnest color started improving with the addition of the first two bulb retro kit running a purple plus and blue plus. I added another two bulb retro kit recently with a blue plus and coral plus.