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Coral Vue Hydros

GSP Dissolving


Dave21

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Hi,

 

So I have a reef tank that had been running for about 5 months. I have multiple fish, coral, and invertebrates and they have all been doing great and growing except for my GSP. 

 

The GSP began growing and spreading across the plug but now the areas that grew have begun dissolving and disappearing. The part that remains still opens up. 

 

What might be causing this? My water parameters are below.

 

Nitrate consistantly 5-10 pom

Salinity 1.024 (maintained with ATO)

Alkalinity 11

Calcium 420

PH 8

 

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Phosphate test results would also be interesting.

 

Can you post a pic of the tank as well as a closeup of the coral in question?  Photos in daylight tend to turn out the best.

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 I only have an API phosphate kit so I can only say its below .25 but not 0.

 

No other corals around it. The gap on the right side used to all be covered. 

Screenshot_20211231-213447_Gallery.jpg

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8 hours ago, Dave21 said:

 I only have an API phosphate kit so I can only say its below .25 but not 0.

I still feel that kit was primarily intended for freshwater planted aquariums, where levels are typically kept higher (like between 0.5 and 1.0 ppm).  Using the API phosphate kit, it's very difficult to determine the lower levels that are typically kept in our reef tanks (often ten times lower, like between 0.05 and 0.10 ppm).

 

Green Star Polyps can suffer from the lack of enough inorganic phosphate.  I'd get a lower range phosphate test kit (at least Salifert, but many people like and recommend a Hanna Checker for phosphate) to find out where your tank's level is at.

 

I wouldn't worry too much if a portion just wasn't opening for awhile  However, dissolving is a real problem.  I might be tempted to cut away to affected portion of the mat.  GSP is a fast growing coral, so if the remaining mat is healthy, and there are enough nutrients, it should grow back quick enough.  You might even come to consider it a pest coral.

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It looks like my LFSs only sell the API kits so I'll order one online. 

 

I'll test the water again later tonight and post the parameters. 

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If API test kit shows some traces of green on phosphate test kit, not pure yellow, this is way above 0.03 ppm, detectable by Salifert test kit.

 

With phosphates present (mine are 0.03 ppm and gsp is growing well), the only thing I could think of is high alkalinity (11 dKH vs. 8-8.5 dKH) and any toxins from nuisance organisms in the tank.

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So you use any phosphate buff? Also what type of inverts? I ask because I ran a pico for years with gsp growing until I tried phosgaurd (very tiny amount, huge mistake).  The gsp started dissolving similar to yours. Once I took the phosgaurd out all was good. My blue legged hermit crabs ate the dead parts of the gsp but left the live tissue alone. Love those little guys.

 

I second cutting the dying portion off. Hope this helps!

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Thanks so right now I'm not dosing anything in the tank. Its 29 gallon and I do a 5 gallon water change weekly. 

 

I have two feather dusters, cleaner shrimp, mix of snails, hermits, conch, a small tuxedo urchin, and a mix or soft coral (xenia, toadstool, leather). I know I probably have too large a clean up crew but I find them more interesting than fish so feed them algae waffer/nori sheets etc. And they are all growing fine.  

 

I have coralline algae growing on my filter, shells around the tank, and starting to grow on the rock, which I've read is a good sign your tank is maturing and things are going good.  

 

I ordered a Salifert kit so will see what it reads when it arrives. 

 

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Sounds like a good plan. Pretty sure gsp likes moderate to high light. You could also try moving it up a bit to be closer to the light and see what happens. If it's slowly dissolving I'd just wait to get the tests done. IMO chasing water parameters can be more dangerous than adjusting lighting, flow, and livestock first. Good luck!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for all the info everyone. Sorry for the long delay in updating but I've been busy. 

 

My phosphate looked good so I decided to move my GSP a bit and around the begging of January got my RODI filter hooked up and started using it for water changes. 

 

The coral seems to have stopped dissolving and seems to come out more and looks more full. I'm not sure if it was moving it or swapping to RODI. Right now I dont see growth but since it seems to be better I'm going to leave it for a bit.

 

I havent had to frag anything in my tank yet so was a little leery about trimming it. 

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RaymondNoodles
On 1/19/2022 at 9:11 PM, Dave21 said:

I'm not sure if it was moving it or swapping to RODI.

The old "change 2 things and hope one fixes it." We've all been there.

What were you using for water before getting the RODI?

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17 hours ago, RaymondNoodles said:

What were you using for water before getting the RODI?

I know it wasn't Ideal but I was just using tap water with Kordon Novaqua for conditioner. 

 

I'm not sure that the water was the problem though because I have Xenia, some leathers, mushroom, and a toadstool that was all doing great and growing rapidly. It's just the GSP that seemed to be having issues for some reason. 

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The GSP might actually appreciate the nutrients in tap water.  Not that I'd recommend tap water, because it contains a bunch of other non-reef-safe elements (and there are better/cleaner ways to add nutrients to a reef tank).

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1 minute ago, seabass said:

The GSP might actually appreciate the nutrients in tap water.  Not that I'd recommend tap water, because it contains a bunch of other non-reef-safe elements (and there are better/cleaner ways to add nutrients to a reef tank).

I have noticed since I started using the RODI water my nitrates have typically been no more than 5 or even under. I know if nitrate get too low that's an issue. 

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  • 3 months later...

I am currently having a similar issue. Water is exactly on point as far as params, but the GSP is receding as are also a few button polyp Zoos.

 

Any supplements (read as not snake water Marc Weis) that help softies flourish ?

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4 hours ago, Armadildo said:

I am currently having a similar issue. Water is exactly on point as far as params, but the GSP is receding as are also a few button polyp Zoos.

 

Any supplements (read as not snake water Marc Weis) that help softies flourish ?

How is the flow in that area?

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On 5/11/2022 at 1:42 PM, Armadildo said:

Water is exactly on point as far as params

What are the parameters?  I'm especially interested in what you consider on point for phosphate and nitrate.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Phosphate is negligible, and Nitrates are under .015 ppm The reef janitor crew handle it nicely. I've always had issues with GSP... some corals just for some reason don't do well for me and others are phenomenal. 

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In the past, low levels of inorganic nutrients were commonly recommended for keeping reef tanks.  However, corals get a lot of their nutrition from inorganic nutrients and reef lighting.  Some common recommendations today are at least 0.03ppm of phosphate and at least 3ppm of nitrate.  Higher values are usually better than lower values.

 

GSP seem especially reliant upon these nutrients.

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  • 1 month later...

UPDATE: So, GSP apparently like me keeping a "dirty" tank. Alkalinity also was bottoming out and test kit was giving a false reading. I have since increased dosing with ESV B-Ionic and added a bit more Magnesium to help get accurate readings from the Salifert Alk test kit. Nitrates were up to .20 I added some algae currently is stable with Chaeto and some tufts of seamat and dropped to .10 with good growth of Coraline purple and pinks.  Added also a weekly dose of micro nutrients and Coral-feast powder supplement. 

 

GSP has decided to "walk" itself higher up the rock and now spreading with full polyp extension and proper size.

 

Lets hope the fact the tank was "new" and starved for nutrients is ultimately the issue. 🙂

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