Asternia stars. now with solutions, and stray voltage
 

Found this guy munching algae lastnight, wanted to make sure he's the good kind
How can you tell?
Dark on its back
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2505.jpg
Lightish colored mouth
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2504.jpg

I have a whole pile of these guys, don't seem to harm anything, they like to roam around the glass and munch algae.

yeah he was munching algae, I just want to find out if hes the good one for sure or the kind that mow down corals

I've never seen any on my corals and have hundreds of them, and have had them for over a year.

Yeah this is the first time I ever saw this little guy. I was going around with a flashlight in the tank last night and boom! micro turbos and asternias! Naturally I was up for like 2 hours looking for info on them all lol. I sure hope this isnt the coral munching kind

IMO they're all bad. Here's a little read for ya.

http://www.garf.org/STAR/starfish.html

Yeah I have read this one haha. not sure what to do with this one I have him in a cup, will most likely garbage it, but when I do my tank upgrade (37 gallons) is there anything that will keep these little guys under control? I have heard harlequin shrimp will but have to be trained or coaxed to eat them

Sorry but that statement makes me laugh. :lol:I see it quite often in regards to people training their fish to eat a certain thing. ie; mandarines and CBB. Seriously people? If something is hungry enough and a certain food is there for the taking than if everything is all good they should eat it. But i'm no fish whisperer or trainer.:biggrin: But I had alot of asterina stars before and IME with my last harlequin they mysteriously went down in quantity when I added him.

Haha yeah I suppose so. Is there anything aside from shrimp to take care of them? I have bad luck with shrimp, I have a minute amout of stray voltage in my tank that I can't pinpoint the source no matter what I do. I actually think it my apartments electrical. So any shrimp usually dies in a few weeks. which is a bummer cause they have character!

How have you been testing for voltage ?
Shouldn't be that hard to nail down

its an old voltmeter from the 90's :lol: I unplugged everything from my powerbar, one piece at a time, nothing. then I unplugged the power bar, then the reading went back to 0, so I bought a brand new $30 power bar with surge protection and all the bells.. I got a reading again.. wtf? is it possible its the ground in our apartment?

Are you putting the negative in the ground socket and the positive in the water?
What reading are you getting?
What reading do you get if you put the negative in the ground socket and the positive in the neutral socket?
On a properly wired outlet, the neutral is the larger of the 2 slots - that is of course if your duplex outlet is the polarized kind.

FYI The little snails you see at night are likely collonista snails.

no I was told a few months ago when I tested it positive is going into the ground but not the one that the power bar is plugged into, but the one just below it. (empty plug) that could be the problem. however, when I put it into the plug, then the negative(which I guess should have been the positive) I got a slight reading this is the picture, i just drew a black line on it were the reading was cause I dont speak electrician lol.
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2037.jpg
So the needle did in fact move. I did neglect to say however, before testing for this stray current when I lost my shrimp he had just molted, and there was a slight ammount of ammonia, which could be the real culprit.. I'm so confused lol.. My wife loved that shrimp and called him Jacque. :lol:

yeah I figured that one out at 4 am lol, it was the trap door on there shells opening that gave it away

I can't see what you've set the meter to. Did you set it to 250V?
Try putting the wires in the ground and neutral slots and see what you get

Search the forum.

It has come up SEVERAL times in the past 6 months.

If you like them, and think they are ok, I won't argue.

Speaking to anyone who thinks they are harmless.... not necessarily the OP... but anyone....

If you end up like me, and have plague proportions of them.. several thousand in a 70G.. and you WATCH them kill your zoanthind colonies, you would wish that you thought differently.

I lost about 20 zoa colonies this past while.... all fancy... several hundred bucks worth of them.

I am ****ed. ****ED I never removed them while I had the chance.

But go ahead... leave them in if you choose. Just consider this.... is it better to have them, or use caution and ditch them? I have conceded to having a tank full of stars.... and no zoas. Its too late for me.


Good luck.

I was told 10 ac V... Here which one should it point to
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...a/DSCN2040.jpg

sooooo.. with it on 250ACv I get no reading from the outlet or tank

and with it on 250dc V I get no reading from the outlet or tank

so if thats the case, and I actually did it right this time with it on 250 V and got no reading, my shrimp must have died from the ammonia.. he had just molted the day befor he died, so thats my guess.. maybe I will look into getting some harlequins if thats the case

First of all, IMO, putting in a grounding probe to solve stray voltage is not the best idea. But that is a discussion for another post. As is my original question really.
So what you read was 0.2v with it set to 10vAC. Hardly anything to worry about.
Just make sure your tester is working in your outlet.
Set it to 250vAC, put the positive in the smaller slot and the negative in the larger slot. You should see anywhere from 110-120v.
Now put the positive in the same small slot, and the negative in the ground socket. You should get the same readings again. This tells you your outlet is wired correctly and the meter works.
Read up lots on Harlequins before you buy them :mrgreen:

Thanks Greg now that being said, with the negative in the ground and positive in the tank set on 250vac there is no reading, is this good then?

Did you perform the tests I recommended?
I'd like you to know your meter and your wiring are set up correctly

Yes, if your meter is working correctly, this is good

K so maybe my voltmeters garbage. The positive probe just disconnected from the wire lol.. god. but before that I tried this, negative in large slot, positive in small slot, got a reading of 150. so I think my meter must be trash, cause when I put the negative in the ground and positive in the small slot, I got a reading of 0...

Sometimes it's hard to get a good connection with the probes. But it sounds like you should borrow or buy another tester now :biggrin:
Start a new thread when you get your hands on one

I'll tinker with it tonight or pick one up new tomorrow, I'll just rename this thread so I dont take up sooooo much space on here like i did in my first 2 weeks on here lol:lol: it just looks like the wire broke, I might be able to splice it, but if its been giving me problems best just go for broke and buy a new one

I'd leave this thread be for the benefit of others concerning the star
And this is on sale right now, at least here it is
I bought one like this years ago for %50. Although this one doesn't, mine has an off button so you don't ruin the dial twisting it all the time. Plus it's autoranging, which is better
This one has an off button.
If you don't use it much, get the on sale one

I do my stray voltage testing at the 10 setting, and if the needle moves at all, I know I have a problem. Then it is just a process of elimination to find the culprit device.

I have found a couple mag pumps that moved the needle slightly. But the worst was an old T8 light fixture that was on top of a QT tank, and somehow the voltage would get down into the water. I am not using that one any longer.

I now test all my tanks, and sumps, and use the Rid Volt grounding plugs.

Thanks for shopping for me lol!
I'll get that tomorrow and toss the other, or fix the other test it against the new one, then I have a back up. Anyways, like you said leaving this thread now for Asternia star ID's and what not.

So whats the problem with harlequins that you say to do so much research first? if I decide not to go with one, whats a good star muncher? any fish? maybe a wrasse?

I found over 50v in my 125g FW tank. It was 2 Maxijet 900s and 2 300w Smartheaters causing it.
The only thing that will be 'wet' in my new 75g will be the skimmer pump. Even the heaters will only be up to the water mark.

thats kind of a PITA hey when you buy stuff, and it causes problems for what ever reason, and of course the store wont take it back for exchange lol

You're welcome :smile:
Best check if it's on sale in your area. It's not worth full price. But nothing @ Crappy Tire is :lol:

neat my buddy has this one here
http://products.unbeatablesale.com/g...1012328796.php
I'm going to borrow it tonight, and do some readings later on, he just tested it on his plugs and got 122.3v so it works

Good news. Let us know what you find

thanks Gregzz4

Now onto the Starfish, I think I got the only one so far, (i'm sure there are more) but just for other peoples sake,

We know Harlequins eat them
What else is there, aside from manually removing them?

So my electrical is all good. But I think I found my silent killer. My t5s are putting off 4-7v into the water. If I raise them above the tank 6 inches the meter reads 0 again, and unplugging puts it to zero. Good thing I'm getting an ai sol lol

As far as the Harlequins are concerned, if you don't supplement their diets once the pests are gone, you'll starve them to death. Not a very Conscientios Aquariast :mrgreen:
And about your lights, that's not unheard of. Flourescents can actually give off a 'field' of static electricity (for lack of the term right now)

Yup, weird how the florescent lights puts stray voltage into the water. I had the same problem.