Gsp problem

[Dave MN Nano]

I have a tank full of healthy coral, but my gsp is looking bad? My most hardy coral??? No polyp extension for the last few days. Just mantle. Everything else looks good. 
 

kh =9, calc = 420, nitrates = 5, phos = 0.08, salinity = 1.024. 
 

Only thing that changed lately - I am on day 12 of a fluconazole treatment for some gha. I also turned red lights to 0 and green way down. Also for algae. 
 

I have caught some asterina stars lately. Can they hurt gsp? Do I have some gsp specific pest? Why do my other, less hardy, corals look good? The gsp was beautiful a few days ago. 

[Murphs_Reef]

GSP does this often before or after periods of growth.. if you can't see any pail areas of the mat around the edges (new growth) I would bet that once it opens back up that it will grow out, sometimes extensively.. 

I have a few colonies in both of my tanks and interesting they all seem to be in a cycle with each other in that they close down for a week (but can absolutely be longer), then open up at the same time... This is followed by a large growth burst. 

 

 

[mje113]

Interesting... on the growth. I was about to post about my own GSP not opening up this morning after having seemed pretty healthy for the past few days since I purchased it. How much time would it be worth giving it until deciding to do something more extreme like an iodine dip?

[Murphs_Reef]

12 hours ago, mje113 said:

Interesting... on the growth. I was about to post about my own GSP not opening up this morning after having seemed pretty healthy for the past few days since I purchased it. How much time would it be worth giving it until deciding to do something more extreme like an iodine dip?

I have had GSP stay closed for over 2 weeks and bounce back. I wouldn't do anything other than blow it with a turkey baster to keep it clear of algae and detritus. 

[seabass]

14 hours ago, mje113 said:

I was about to post about my own GSP not opening up this morning after having seemed pretty healthy for the past few days since I purchased it.

Make sure that it has detectable phosphate and nitrate.  It uses these along with the reef lighting and zooxanthellae within the cells of the coral polyps to benefit from photosynthesis.

 

I'd suggest at least 0.03 ppm phosphate, and at least 3 ppm nitrate.  Higher is better than a little lower when it comes to inorganic nutrients.

[mje113]

2 hours ago, Murphs_Reef said:

I have had GSP stay closed for over 2 weeks and bounce back. I wouldn't do anything other than blow it with a turkey baster to keep it clear of algae and detritus. 

Hmmm, I'm noticing some small bubbles on the GSP so I'm guessing that is indeed some algae. Do you think turkey vaster is enough to get it off or do I need to get more aggressive?

[Murphs_Reef]

Red or green bubbles might well be bubble algae. I would carefully remove them with tweezers. But it might be worth posting a picture of the bubbles so we can see what it might be 

[mje113]

Definitely not bubble algae, they dislodge hire easily and float to the top and dissipate. I also have a bunch of these bubbles all over my sand bed, I figure just part of the algae bloom I'm going through.

 

 

[seabass]

@mje113, is that your GSP frag?  I'm not even seeing the mat.  I might try swishing it around in a 1:1 mixture of tank water and hydrogen peroxide to clean it off.  Luckily, even a small bit of a healthy mat can grow out into a healthy colony.  Although, I'm concerned that this one might be gone.  Worth trying to save it though.

[mje113]

It is a frag. I'm pretty sure the mat is the same color as when I purchased it (about a week ago), but it may be a bit greener now. I do have a few polyps poking out a bit this morning. If I did do hydrogen peroxide is it a matter of dipping it for a certain amount of time? I'm a bit reluctant to go that route in case it recovered on its own. Unless HP is low risk.

 

 

[seabass]

Oh, definitely signs of life.  I'd just swish it around in the peroxide solution until you can clear it of this algae mass.  It'll probably piss it off for a few days, but if you leave this be, it will likely get smothered to death.  You can use a turkey baster in the peroxide solution to help clean off the mass.

[mje113]

@seabass any specific time to leave it in the peroxide? I'm thinking swish for 30s-1m?

[seabass]

Nah, I don't think that the time is very critical.  I'd just clean it off in the peroxide solution.  For other types of algae, I typically expose it to air (after treatment) for minute to oxidize (before rinsing it off in tank water, prior to returning it to your tank).  Note that not all coral can be safely exposed to strong peroxide treatments; however, green star polyps should be fine.

[Jakesaw]

6 hours ago, Murphs_Reef said:

I have had GSP stay closed for over 2 weeks and bounce back. I wouldn't do anything other than blow it with a turkey baster to keep it clear of algae and detritus. 

I've had GSP stay closed for 4 months with zero nitrates / phosphates and came back to life when I raised both to acceptable levels.  It's very hardy coral.

 

That Bubble algae issue you want to get rid of ASAP ( outside of tank ).  Can be a nightmare to deal with in tank when it spreads.  

 

I can't give advice b/c my path was not successful.  I'm going to chemically nuke my tank b/c I have BA on all my rockwork that I found initially on a single frag base and I thought removing it would solve issue. 

[Murphs_Reef]

Glad you posted that picture.. there is a good bit of algae on that frag.. excusing the snail, you'll see new growth on the upper right hand side of this colony which has a purple mat. That's what colour your healthy frag should be. 

 

[Murphs_Reef]

Not sure if that's bubble algae or air trapped.under the mass of algae (akin to cyano bubbles) .. clear it off as @seabass suggested and you'll be good all the same 👍🏼

[seabass]

46 minutes ago, Murphs_Reef said:

Not sure if that's bubble algae or air trapped.under the mass of algae (akin to cyano bubbles)

Looks like air trapped in a snotty cyano-like substance.  Being green, I'm not 100% sure what it might be (besides photosynthetic).

[mje113]

Well, that was interesting. I dipped in 1:1 mix, swished, hit it with a turkey basted but nothing was coming off. I grabbed a toothpick and very carefully started pulling some back and I'd say I the end I was able to get about 50% of the surface algae off before I felt like I stressed it enough and rinsed it and put it back. 

Next steps... how soon should can I repeat to try to get the rest? Can I use a soft-bristle brush next time or will that cause too much damage? Could I just park a snail on top of it and hope it cleans up more?

[mje113]

Incidentally, I'm pretty certain that it's hair algae, I found some clumps on the back glass and also have observed very small clusters of it (like 6 little 1/8" threads in a clump) on the front glass. I do know what bubble algae looks like and it's not this--these bubbles, when released, just go to the top of the tank and off gas.

[seabass]

I'm still not sure of the ID.  But given this new information, I probably wouldn't use a brush (but if you do, it should be a soft brush that you don't scrub very hard with).  Instead, I will recommend a longer bath in the peroxide solution (maybe a couple of minutes), followed by a minute in the air (to further oxidize).  Often after such a treatment, snails and crabs might become more interested in the damaged algae.

[mje113]

4 hours ago, seabass said:

I'm still not sure of the ID.  

I think I may give another couple days and if it doesn't recover, give it another round as you suggested. I will say that checking it now a couple hours later the algae has lost all green and is looking translucent.

 

Concerning the ID, I was able to get this shot of the back of the tank. It's kinda hard to tell but all those clusters of hairy algae are on the glass and many of them are holding small bubbles. Curious if I can get a positive ID?

 

[seabass]

Thanks for the pic.  It's not close enough to say for sure  But I'd like you to do an image search on bryopsis, to rule that out if possible.

[mje113]

 

12 hours ago, seabass said:

Thanks for the pic.  It's not close enough to say for sure  But I'd like you to do an image search on bryopsis, to rule that out if possible.

Hmmm, not ruling bryopsis out yet, but from the images I'm seeing online I don't think it's a match. Just not seeing the "fern-like" structure. Fwiw I've seen no evidence of it on rockwork, just on the glass, return nozzle and this one drag plug. Also my snails and hermits seem to enjoy it, but they aren't working fast enough so I may boost my CuC later today.

 

In a bit I'll see if I can dislodge some so I can get a decent macro shot of it.

[seabass]

1 minute ago, mje113 said:

I don't think it's a match

Awesome, good to hear.  Yeah, based on your report, it doesn't sound like bryopsis; so you should be able to get it under control.  Since your cleanup crew seems to feed on it, I would probably add to your crew and/or manually remove more of it.  You should be able to make continued progress until it's no longer a problem. 

[mje113]

Tada! Thanks for the help everyone, especially @seabass! I learned a lot on this particular reef journey.