New Birds Nest Turning White

Hi there.

With all the sales SWF.com has had lately I'm buying a lot of things I've never tried before.    :)     On Thursday I received my latest order which included a pink Birds Nest.  Friday it looked the same as it did when I put it in the tank, but this morning I woke up to find a piece of it (maybe 1/5th) all white.   Is that bleaching?   Is it necrosis?    After I took the photos (they're not great, but I used two different light settings so you'll see two versions of the "white") I tested the water and got these results:

Calcium:    440

Phosphate: .1

Kh:             120

Ph:             8.6

Salinity:     .023

Temp:        .74

Ammonia:   0

Nitrite:        0

Nitrate:      20

Is there something I should do with the birds nest or just leave it alone and give it time?   I don't know if this is stress related, wrong parameters, flow, etc.   I placed it near the top of my 92 gallon corner tank under a 400w 10K MH.  I've got a Vortech 40 in there on pulse mode.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.  Sue

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanko 

Hard to tell from the pictures. Is the flesh sloughing off?

If so then Rapid Tissue Necrosis

If not could be bleaching from the intense lighting. (this would be my first guess without a better picture)

Hi Henry - nice to "e" you again.   :)     No, I don't see any flesh damage, just white.   And I get your point - you want better pictures!     LOL    Guess it's time to play with the camera and figure out how to get you what you want.   Stay tuned.    :)
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by meowzer 

I had a birdsnest do the same thing.....it turned all white....I left it in there anyway...and then it came back to life

 

I wonder if you should move it lower, and gradually increase the height to let it adjust to 400w MH.....that is what I am doing with my new acro (oh I have 250W)

Hi Meowzer.

I did a search about this before posting and read about the one you had coming back to life - it gave me reason to hope!   I was thinking of moving it lower, too, but then I keep reading that every change you make stresses it more so I wonder if I should leave it alone.  What puzzles me is how FAST it went white.  Put it in the tank early evening Thursday, looked fine Friday, white this morning.