nginx reverse proxy automatically change url

I am using nginx to reverse proxy qwebirc.
When a user types: irc.example.org in a browser i want the url to automatically change to irc.example.org/?channels=blah
I have tried lots of methods but I keep on getting redirect loops?

Here is my config:

server {
listen *.*.*.*:80;
server_name irc.example.org;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_buffering off;

root /var/qwebirc/static/;

location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8404;
}
location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js|eot|svg|ttf|woff|woff2)$ {
expires 30d;
}
}