TheKleinReef Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this buttttt: My birds nest is getting huge. to the point where the underside isn't getting light and its starting to die. I'm wondering what the best procedure is to prevent this. should i thin out the upper branches so light can penetrate. or split the huge colony into 4, and hope the under-side recovers? the colony (top down with pumps on): Link to comment
disaster999 Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 i would make sure you have enough flow in your tank. Most would focus on the flow around the top of the coral and neglect the bottom. sometimes its not the lights that kills the coral but the lack of flow. you can try fragging the piece right now to get more light to the bottom. Link to comment
TheKleinReef Posted February 24, 2013 Author Share Posted February 24, 2013 i would make sure you have enough flow in your tank. Most would focus on the flow around the top of the coral and neglect the bottom. sometimes its not the lights that kills the coral but the lack of flow. you can try fragging the piece right now to get more light to the bottom. i don't think it's flow. cause the mp10 is about 4" away and all the polyps have good movement. i'll try fragging some chunks off before the light gets cut off completely. the thing is the branches are intertwined almost. its like a spiderweb in there. fragging will be interesting... Link to comment
disaster999 Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 dont be surprised if you start breaking of branches you didnt ment to frag. and be prepared to find little fragments here and there. i had a huge coloney in my tank before, i got tired of fragging it and giving it away i basically just yanked it out of my tank and gave it to someone. i didnt want to deal with it anymore. it grows like weed. Link to comment
TheKleinReef Posted February 24, 2013 Author Share Posted February 24, 2013 dont be surprised if you start breaking of branches you didnt ment to frag. and be prepared to find little fragments here and there. i had a huge coloney in my tank before, i got tired of fragging it and giving it away i basically just yanked it out of my tank and gave it to someone. i didnt want to deal with it anymore. it grows like weed. true story. it's the fastest growing thing in my tank. maybe i can bust out the little handheld dremel and get some clean cut lines. if that doesn't happen (cause i'm lazy) i'll just grab bone cutters. lol which ever i find first. thanks for the help though Link to comment
--chris-- Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 I fragged up a colony a little smaller than that once. You are right, it is intertwined like crazy. I would snip off at the bottom and just try to trim the whole ting back to a smaller size. I ended up with so many frags it was sad. I ran out of plugs and started gluing thing to large pieces of substrate. When i ran out of large pieces of substrate i pulled a rock out and hammered it into frag plug size pieces. You will end up with a LOT more frags that you plan. Link to comment
Veng Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 If you want to get rid of it, let me know. Link to comment
patback Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 I fragged up a colony a little smaller than that once. You are right, it is intertwined like crazy. I would snip off at the bottom and just try to trim the whole ting back to a smaller size. I ended up with so many frags it was sad. I ran out of plugs and started gluing thing to large pieces of substrate. When i ran out of large pieces of substrate i pulled a rock out and hammered it into frag plug size pieces. You will end up with a LOT more frags that you plan. Good thing he's got that frag system going up Link to comment
TheKleinReef Posted February 28, 2013 Author Share Posted February 28, 2013 Good thing he's got that frag system going up yep. that's one of the main reasons. so i can keep the 29 clean looking, and not too overgrown. maybe this frag tank could help me clean it up. Link to comment
metrokat Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 My colony also has dead undersides, it is due to lack of light. The best thing to do I have found it to reposition it so that the top of the colony is tilted towards you so that the dead underside is less visible. I have fragged my colony a lot but as it re-grows the same issue still occurs. It could be because of light, flow or both, not sure. Link to comment
TheKleinReef Posted February 28, 2013 Author Share Posted February 28, 2013 My colony also has dead undersides, it is due to lack of light. The best thing to do I have found it to reposition it so that the top of the colony is tilted towards you so that the dead underside is less visible. I have fragged my colony a lot but as it re-grows the same issue still occurs. It could be because of light, flow or both, not sure. alrighty. maybe trimming the top can save some of the tissue that's light starved. i hope so. Link to comment
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