star polyps
 

I have a couple of nice patches of bright green grassy looking star polyps that for the past 2 weeks will not come out at all. There is only the pinkish bumpy leathery looking base left. Parameters all seem to be normal and the other stuff in my tank is doing fine. It started the day after I put a large tiger cucumber in the tank but since it doesn't eat them I thought it to be a coincidence, yet that is the only change made in that time frame.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Greg

reply
 

Water perameters.

I have a GSP rock that went into hiding when my Ca+, Alk and Ph levels went all wonky. I moved all of my corals to my friends tank and they are just starting to come out now, after 2 weeks.

What are those levels at?

I am having the same problem, all my paremeters are fine, my Calcium is a bit low at 420, but other then that everything is where it should be.

What kind of wonkiness did you have going on in your tank Danny?

Blast them with a turkey baster! Serious i did that and they came out later that day

Done that about a million times

Ca at 420 isn't low. It's fine. What's alk and magnesium?

alk is 8.4 no reading on mg

I was low on Mg in all three tanks. Corals all looked okay, but when I added the right amount of Mg to compensate for the depression, everything just blossomed. GSPs included.

Magnesium levels are hardly ever talked about, but the proper amount of Mg is vital to a system.

I guess I'll be picking a test kit later today

My GSP retracted when I went away on vacation and didn't feed enough, I figured the Tang might have been nipping at them.

Also get some Mg. I used Kent's product. Works well. The only test kit I could find was Salifert's at J&L. Don't know what AI has. BTW, AI is closed today :neutral:

Damn...I forgot its a holiday for everyone...

Here's the Reef Chemistry Calculator to help you figure out how much Mg to add:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

Make sure you use the link to the Tank Volume Calculator to get things right. Take inside measurements of your tank:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/volcalc.html

reply
 

I had low Calcium (200 or less) high Alk, over 12meq/L and high Ph 8.8 at one point. I don't know what my Mg was at but I can only assume that it was low as well. Mg makes you calcium bio-available so it is pretty important.

That sounds good. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow!

Thanks Bev!

Greg, if your Alk is really at 16 dKH then they will close up for a while, until things balance out again. Exactly what mine did a while back.

Greg,
GSP's as well as Gorgonians do this from time to time and it is perfectly normal. Encrusting or matting polyps and corals do this as a means of house cleaning, they close up for a week or two in order to shed a new layer of film off there mat's or to simply flush away debris that has accumalated over time. I wouldn't worry for now, when I use to keep GSP they would do this every 3-4 months in my tank. All three types of my branching gorgonians that are 8yrs old do this every few months for usually 3-4 days, with GSP this cleaning period is usually longer.

Thanks for the info. I'll wait it out and see if they come back. I'll try to get my parameters back in balance. I am not sure how but I am sure I'll get it sorted out.
Thanks,
Greg