Green Star Polyp

[Gregz64]

Morning Group , 

I have a Small Reef tank , just set up a fee weeks ago , 

important Note : this reef tank was set up using water and almost everything else from my already mature and established 100gal tank . 
anyway moving forward I set this reef tank up and started with a 

cleaner shrimp , clean up Crew the Basics really . 
monitored my water perimeters etc , 

everything fine , 

have also done water changes , as required , 

so I added a few Soft coral frags to start 

Everything Doing Great 

everything open 

then I added a GSP … 

when I bought it I dipped it as I always do , put it in the tank it opened right up right away later that day and looked great for about a week 

no issues , 

then I was doing a water change 

clean glass etc , 

and the GSP closed up … and didn’t reopen , 

stayed this way for a few days 

I noticed a small amount of algae on it so I pulled it out cleaned the algae off and rinsed it and returned it to the tank , 

I have been watching it now for over a week and it still hasn’t opened back up , 

and it was doing great … 

I have run Labs on the tank again last night everything Fine 

ph , alk , magnesium , ammonia all of it good , water temp 78-79 degrees 

All the rest of the Live stock is doin Fine , happy and Growing …. 
so my question is : 
what could be happening with this GPS .. ? 
to look great for a week then close up and not reopen when all water Labs are fine , everything else is Thriving and growing …. 
what could be happening ? 
any tips would be most appreciated 

thanks 

 

[seabass]

Welcome to Nano-Reef.com.

 

1 hour ago, Gregz64 said:

I have run Labs on the tank again last night everything Fine 

ph , alk , magnesium , ammonia all of it good , water temp 78-79 degrees 

All the rest of the Live stock is doin Fine , happy and Growing …. 
so my question is : 
what could be happening with this GPS .. ? 
to look great for a week then close up and not reopen when all water Labs are fine , everything else is Thriving and growing …. 
what could be happening ? 

It doesn't look like you are testing phosphate and nitrate.  These might be the two most important parameters for GSP.  At a minimum, both should always be detectable.

 

GSP being irritated and not opening isn't that unusual.  Make sure that you have detectable nutrients (0.05ppm phosphate and 5ppm nitrate are good numbers).  Then try not to fuss with it too much.  GSP is pretty hardy, but some people seem to have more trouble with it than others (could be due to lack of nutrients).  But typically, once it takes off, it has a tendency to take over.

[Gregz64]

Thanks for the reply and sorry I didn’t add the phosphates and nitrates , my bad … 

I have the master lab test kit that 

tests for like Everything … 

magnesium , Cal

everything ….  

[seabass]

Thanks.  So then, what are the phosphate and nitrate levels?

 

Note that API's phosphate kit is a high range test kit, and can't detect phosphate levels within the recommended range:

Recommended  Reef Tank Levels

Parameter:	Recommended Range:
Temperature	76 to 83° F
Salinity	1.025 to 1.027 sg
pH	7.8 to 8.3
Free Ammonia (NH3)	Less than 0.02 ppm
Total Ammonia (NH3 + NH4)	Undetectable to 0.25 ppm (at 8.2 pH or less)
Nitrate (NO3)	3 to 10 ppm
Phosphate (PO4)	0.03 to 0.10 ppm
Alkalinity*	7 to 12 dKH
Calcium*	380 to 500 ppm
Magnesium*	1250 to 1400 ppm
*Ocean Values: Alk 7 dKH, Cal 420 ppm, Mag 1280 ppm

[Gregz64]

Yep all my Labs are in those Perimeters , I have that same Card in my Kit …. 
I run Labs on the Tank on a regular basis 

[Gregz64]

Just stikes me as strange that everything is thriving and flowing in the Current and fully open and this GSP is all closed after a week of being fully open , 

mind you I’m still learning about these GSP corals so all the info I can get and learn about them is a big plus 

[seabass]

3 minutes ago, Gregz64 said:

Yep all my Labs are in those Perimeters , I have that same Card in my Kit

Granted that a lot of the values in the chart that I posted are commonly recommended. but that's a chart that I came up with (based on other recommendations, articles, posts, and data).

 

I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but could you post the actual values of phosphate and nitrate?

 

3 minutes ago, Gregz64 said:

Just stikes me as strange that everything is thriving and flowing in the Current and fully open and this GSP is all closed after a week of being fully open

GSP gets a lot of its nutrients from the water.  Lack of nutrients can cause problems (hence my repeated efforts to get nutrient test result numbers).  But also, like I posted earlier, they can get irritated fairly easily, and stay closed for several days.  If everything is good (and you leave it alone), it will probably open back up again.

[Gregz64]

Sorry I forgot to mention I also does the tank as well with magnesium and cal . Supplement . 
3 times a week . 
actually I does again today . 
so if the water perimeters are on “Q “ and everything else is in line tank wise 

I guess this could just be Normal behavior .. then 

because everything else livestock wise is fine … 

[sadie]

Do you have a picture?  Sometimes that helps too.

[mcarroll]

On 11/2/2022 at 12:08 PM, seabass said:

I don't want to beat a dead horse here[...]

I'll take a turn. 😉 

 

@Gregz64, can you post the test results from recent NO3 and PO4 tests?

 

Also let us know what brand of kits they are.  Thanks!