Green Star Polyp problem

[artschwartz]

I have a green star polyp coral that for the first couple of days was beautiful. However, I had a major cyanobacteria problem and the coral did not come out. I just used chemi-clean this weekend and cleared up the cyanobacteria.

 

Is is too late? Is my green star polyp history? Will it come back? If it does come back, how long will it take? A day? week? month?

[greatreef16]

it might live, but the chemi-clean might have killed it. You DONT use CHEMIcals in reef aquariums, it kills everything.

[Doc Shake]

I dont think the use a chemi-clean has anything to co with the polys not opening. If you ad a bad cyanobacter outbreak, you may have very high NO3. Test and change your water. As far as not useing chemicals in a reef tank, what about calcuim, strontium, iodide, etc.?

[kbxiong67]

water parameters are probably bad. I agree with Doc.

[Dolfan0925]

Chemicals kill everything? So you have never heard of a healty tank that has ocassional chemicals? artschwartz you could take that gsp and back over it with your car and throw it back in your tank and it'll still be alive. Don't worry about it. Be patient.

[artschwartz]

I have a 12 g Nano cube. (The 12 g is the manufacturer's figure). I do a water change of 1.5 g every week. I have tested the aquarium for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, calcium, and pH. The tests have all been excellent and well within the healthy range. The pH does tend to fall a little below 8.0 towards the end of the week but the water change always raises the pH back to the 8.2 area.

[Doc Shake]

You might want to do larger water changes, 1.5 is not much for a 12. Try three gallons at a time.

[greenbean36191]

GSP tend to pout for a few days at a time for no apparent reason. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I wouldn't use chemi-clean though. It's just curing the symptom, not the problem. You need to figure out what was feeding the cyano and try to cut it off, otherwise it will keep coming back. It's also usually a sign of high phosphates which will inhibit calcification, ie slower coral and coralline growth.

[artschwartz]

I think I figured out what was causing the problem. The Nanocubes come with sponge filters (actually 4 separate sponges) and a carbon filter. I just removed these and replaced them with live rock rubble. I am pretty sure that the sponges and carbon were acting as bacteria factories. I hope I am right and the problem does not reappear.

[Doc Shake]

You are on the right track, but a nice big water change will help rid the system of the nitrate that is leading to the cyanobacter.

[JustPhish]

As long as the mat is intact and not disintegrating at all you should be just fine. They can remain closed for long periods at a time.

[artschwartz]

How long will they remain closed. A day? Three or four days?

[JustPhish]

There's no magic number. They will either open when they are ready or pass.

[rong666]

ive had mine close up for 2 weeks...then poof re-appear....they can be pissy..escpecially if touched or moved.

[artschwartz]

I did a 20% water change yesterday and lo and behold some of it started to reappear. I thought it was a goner for sure. It had closed up for a week. Patience is definitely a necessity.

[TimsVw]

are you doing water changes with RO water? If you are using tap water it may be adding nutrients that feed the cyno.

 

-Tim

[Spasticat]

Don't stress! GSP is hearty but senstive.

 

When I made the switch from tap water to RO water, it stayed in for about a week, but it slowly came out. Unfortunately, this can happen a lot with water changes and this coral, but it steadily goes away.

 

I ripped mine in half and rubber banded it to some rock, and it still comes out! Be patient bro!