Green Star Polyps

[justanotherfishhead]

My green star polyp coral was doing great until the past few weeks. I got it 6 or 7 months ago as a tiny piece which spread really fast in my 55 gal. When I put it into my 125 gal almost 3 months ago it did great for a while but not it's not extending nearly as much as it used to, maybe only have the length. There is a spot where algae is growing on top of it - could this be what's irritating it? I think it looks like green slime algae. Or is it dying and it just looks like algae? Should I try to take out the rock and lightly scrub the algae off of it? It's not very convenient to get this rock out so I hope I don't have to do that. I don't see this algae growing anywhere else in the tank except on the walls of my fuge which I have to pull off every week. First pic was taken a few months ago. Then two that were taken today before the lights came on so you can see the algae or whatever it is. Thanks in advance for any ideas you guys have.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

And here's another one after actinics have been on a while, so you can see where it looks like they are dying in that spot. And over the whole piece not extending as much as before.

 

[little_fish]

I have cyano that grows between the polyps of my GSP and its never been an issue, but my GSP did look very similar to yours when i had an issue with my alk. Fixed that and the GSP came back.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

My alk was low for a few weeks but I brought it up to 8. Do you think I should shoot for higher than that? I think I am going to try a gentle brush to get the algae off of it. I also turned a powerhead towards it, maybe it wants more flow. It's only about a third of the way up, maybe I should try rearranging my rocks to put i closer to the lights? But actually it was doing well in that position in my 55 and the lights were weaker. I do wonder if my frogspawn is too close, maybe it's reaching further than I thought, and I should try moving the frogspawn away.

 

[little_fish]

I would do everything but move it closer to the lights, and give it some time. It took a few weeks after fixing my alk to get the GSP back to normal

 

[justanotherfishhead]

I have been adding Reef Builder 3x per week for some time now to raise my alk to 9. But it's still not fully open, just coming out partway. I brushed the algae off and no more algae has grown on it since. But it's still spreading, that seems weird if its not happy enough to come out fully. I tried giving it less flow for a week, then more flow for a week, no change at all. I turned down my LEDs a little because I thought maybe they were too strong, but that hasn't helped. I really liked it when it looked nice so I wish I could bring it back to how it was before. Any ideas? Water is perfect, alk and cal are stable, I have no nitrate or phos readings, no algae problems (except bubble) - can my water be too clean for it? Thanks in advance for any ideas.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

Also wanted to mention I've been using Chemi-Pure Elite - 2 bags in my sump. Anyone else use this and have problems with GSP? Water too clean or something?

 

[Nonfamous]

My GSP bleached under my new lights and havent regained colour. They are more like Brown Star Polyps! They look healthy, growing and with great extention, just brown!

 

[justanotherfishhead]

My GSP bleached under my new lights and havent regained colour. They are more like Brown Star Polyps! They look healthy, growing and with great extention, just brown!

That's weird, I never heard of that before. Did you also switch to LEDs?

 

[Nonfamous]

Yes and they were even dimmable ones. Still bleached them. As long as they seem healthy I'm not worried. At some point they will colour up. May be a year, but they will come back.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

I have the dimmable ones too and I have them turned down to about 75% (approximately, by sight, as there are no labels on the switches). Maybe some corals don't like LEDs? I know there are people out there who don't think they're good for corals.

 

[Nonfamous]

All of mine seem to love the LEDs. My SPS are growing, my one LPS is thriving, mushrooms look great and even my poor Zoas are doing well. I do think there is an wierd wavelength in these lights. Something in them is fueling an Algae issue I have and seems to effect the GSP judging by this thread.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

I have fuzzy/hairy mushrooms that totally bleached out when I first got the LEDs. I had to move them under a shelf rock and now they are spreading in the shady areas. I placed the zoas relatively low in the tank and they don't look fully extended and have not spread at all, so I don't think I'll get any more zoas. And zoas never spread for me even under T5s. My frogspawn is placed middle and is doing great. My duncan is placed upper middle and also looks great most of the time.
I only had that one spot of slime algae when I first started the tank. I started using the chemi-pure elite and cheato growing well in the sump and have had virtually no algae at all. Except the darn bubble algae.

 

[Nonfamous]

My monties are up high and are the fastest growing thing in my tank. I can't believe it. I have on zoa/paly rock and one blue mushroom rock about 1/2 and they are doing great. The mushroom is in partial shade.

On the sand I have a hairy mushroom, a green stripped mushroom, a zoa colony, a Favia and a massive torch. All seem healthy and are definately growing. One green stripped mushroom detached and is now growing like crazy at the highest point in the tank.

My lights are now running 100% on whites an blues.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

I guess I'm just happy the LPS are doing well because they're my favorite right now anyway. And I just got some different mushrooms, a blue and a green one, that are in my QT tank (yes I'm QTing everything because I'm paranoid about ich) so I'll see how those do on the bottom when I get them into my tank. By the way did you notice that your blue and green mushrooms change to a pink/reddish color especially when the lights are on? My blue ones look blue only before lights come on, then they look more red than blue. And the green rock I got only has one that looks green and the others look red. I bought these from LA.

 

[Nonfamous]

Yes, my blues look purple. The greens vary. Sometimes they are green and other times more red. My hairy ones always "glow".