Birds nest woes

[allan]

Hey folks, what's happening? :-)

I have this bright green bn that seems to have little spots of dirt on it. It's happened before and I've picked it off.

Now it's back and you can see a couple of them on this photo, and the polyp recession around them. I'm thinking they are bugs. Last time within hours the polyps all opened up, so I don't think they're eating anything. But I do have flatworms on some of my mushrooms. Doesn't seem to bother them and I rinse them off when I get the chance.

I really don't want to pull this coral out to rinse it but I will. Will "reef dip, coral disinfectant" work to rid me of these little guys?

Nothing else appears to be suffering at all.

[allan]

Sorry, forgot pic...

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-93.jpg

[Mr Cob]

I also have a few spots like that on my BN. I never figured out what it was though. I just assumed it was burned out polyps for whatever reason. It never seemed to be a problem and I have only noticed a few spots here and there over the course of the last year.

Yours seem to be only tips. Mine were in the middle of the branch. Yours look like burned tips with algae growing on them.

If I would get them on the tips...I would probably just snip em'.

[Europhyllia]

I think Reef Dip is more for bacterial infections. After reading an article by Blue Zoo I've been double dipping the corals designated for move into the big tank and moving them onto QT.
First dip is:
Malachite Green to remove any parasite eggs, parasites, etc.
then:
Reef Dip for bacterial stuff and sort of to wash the malachite off before going into QT

[Mr Cob]

But...I think those are just burnt tips with algae growing on them?

Hopefully some seasoned SPS pros will chime in.

[Big_Pun]

yea probally burnt tips or dying tips, it happens, ide leave see if it gets worse then snip the tips off, did you recently move it, or hit it while oving stuff??

[Texreefer]

could be alkalinity too high. or spiked at some point

[CoryDude]

Red bugs never messed with my stylo and I doubt they'd mess with your seriatopora. I always had better luck snipping the dead spots than waiting for the flesh to grow back over the old skeleton.

Did it fall over? When mine would tip over, it would land on some mushrooms below. There was always a little damage to the tips.

[allan]

Okay, I'm finished in the garage, will shower and then pick off one or two to get a close up.

Rob, burnt tips are exactly what they look like, but last time I just picked them off. When I thought I'd lose the... The... the periocopas? ... I clipped off a few pieces to preserve this coral so my stress level is real low.

Mike, I will test for alk.

[allan]

Okay calcium is between 420 and 460 (I got tired of adding so many drops one at a time and it changed to violet from 420 and 460).

I couldn't find an alk test in my kit so I measured the hardness of the water. Isn't there a way to determine the alk with that?

Kh/gh is around 80, I dropped another drop to see if it would get more yellow and ended up with two more drops with no significant change to the color.

The ph is somewhere between 71.9 and 8.3. Really! Whose idea was it to color match a transparent liquid with an opaque colored piece of paper. My wife wasn't home to tell me Wichita color matched closer.

I took some pictures of the little things but I can't see much more than a smudge that has some texture to it and smears fairly easy. It hasn't got a smell but tastes really salty.

[allan]

Cory, I haven't dropped this particular coral in some time.