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View Full Version : Is my Green Star Polyp Dead?



mmenz22779
03-03-2010, 06:41 PM
I bought it from my LFS on Friday for $50.00 it was looking happy as can be. when i got home it had closed up. I put it in my tank and it still has not opened up. Same thing for the toadstool. Here is a image of it. I dont remember if the brown spots were there before or not. I Phosates are a bit high so i have put in some phosban. other than that everything else is normal parameters. All my other coral are fully opened and happy.


you can see the rest of the tank in my sig.

SaltyDawg
03-03-2010, 06:57 PM
Did you acclimate them or just drop them into the tank. I dont have any experience with toadstools but GSP are pretty hardy critters and if you managed to kill it....something is seriously wrong. If you just dropped them in,they are probably shocked and may take a few days to come around.

mmenz22779
03-03-2010, 07:14 PM
I acclimtee the GSP for about 10 minutes, but the Toadstool used to open up and was happy, then as soon as i put in the GSP it closed up and has not opened up since. I find it intresting that both my Toadstool and my GSP wont open up but my other soft corals do?

rayme07
03-03-2010, 07:33 PM
I acclimtee the GSP for about 10 minutes,

I hate to say this but that is way to little time for a coral to acclimate. A good way to acclimate a coral is when you first bring it home put it in the tank for 15 minutes and after the first 15 min. go ahead and add a small cup of water and wait 15 min. more and repeat till the bag is full. Once it is full pour that water out of the bag and discard it but leave a little in just above the coral and repeat the procedure. After doing that for the second time you are ok to put the coral in the tank(not the water in the bag thought discard that). All that should take anywhere from an hour to two. Make sure while you are acclimating your coral to turn out the lights so it don't get shocked by the sudden bright light. I use the same procedure for fish and anything else living I add to the tank. That is more likely the problem with your GSP is shock because it didn't get the time to get used to your salinity, PH, and so on. I have no clue why your leather is acting up though. I hope this helps :)

mmenz22779
03-03-2010, 07:42 PM
Ya it is one of those lessons learned. I am pretty sure I shocked him. I hope i did not kill him. If i did shock him what do i do now wait?

Also is that brown stuff that is on him ok?

rayme07
03-03-2010, 07:46 PM
Ya it is one of those lessons learned. I am pretty sure I shocked him. I hope i did not kill him. If i did shock him what do i do now wait?

Also is that brown stuff that is on him ok?

Yea, its pretty much a wait and hope type of thing. Its hard for me to see in the pictures but is the brown stuff Jelly like?

mmenz22779
03-03-2010, 07:59 PM
no not jelly type more like a stain.

SaltyDawg
03-03-2010, 10:17 PM
How long has it been running? What do you have for equipment,filters,lighting? Water params? Hoping you didn't dive head first into the shallow end of the pool if you know what I mean. You found a great site to get info and opinions. Take whatever the LFS guy tells you with a grain of salt. More than likely they just want to sell you stuff for a quick buck.

CarmieJo
03-04-2010, 12:33 AM
The exact parameters will help a lot. I agree that you have probably shocked the coral if you only acclimated it for a few mins. GSP can stay closed for a week or two when unhappy. Did you put the water from the LFS in your tank?

mmenz22779
03-04-2010, 12:54 PM
my nitrates are 10-20 ppm, 0 for ammonia and nitrite, phosphate is between .01-.03, my KH is high around 270ppm, I do a 20% water change weekly, i have a Biocube 29 gal tank with stock lighting. The tank is 3-4 years old, but I took it over from some one else. Yes there was a bit of LFS water in the bag and tank, i would say no more than 1 -2 cups.

What the really strange thing is though is that i have a toadstool as in my piture that was part o the original tank and it used to open up everyday. The day that i brought the GSP home it closed up and has not opened since.

So this has me wondering why would my Toadstool stop opening up the same time i put in the LFS GSP. I did add a few other things at the same time. I am guessing that it is not a light issue as my toadstool has never done this. I think it might be some water parameters issue that happen from the LFS? Should i do a bigger water change like 30-40%.

Using my Toadstool as a guide makes me not worry as much, but still a downer to spend 50 bucks on a Coral only to see it this way. I am going to invest in more clean up crew to try and bring my nitrates down. for some reason I cannot bring it down. Even with these waterchanges. I have 20-30 lbs of live rock and live sand. I wonder if the live sand is raising my nitrate levels, but the rest of my coral is open and happy. See my tank pitures in my sig (it goes to a basic webpage that has my tank on it.)

Thanks all

CarmieJo
03-04-2010, 03:38 PM
I am going to guess something in the lfs water has created a problem. I don't really advocate water changes of more than 10% except in emergencies. Even if you perfectly match all the parameters you measure you can upset the osmotic balance. That being said, I'd do a 20% change followed by a couple 10% changes.

As far as nitrates, do you have coarse or fine sand and how deep is it? Do you have the bioballs or sponges in the back? Are you running carbon or filter cartridges?

mmenz22779
03-04-2010, 03:42 PM
I got off the phone with my LFS and the saltwater guy who runs a $10,000 500 Gal salt water tank at home told me it sounds like my corals are having a bit of a chemical war along with my water parameters. They are releasing toxins in the water and that is preventing them from opening up. The brown spoting is a melting process of the coral that unless gets fixed will cause both to die. This makes a little sense because as soon as i put in my GSP both corals acted up and closed up.

He recommened me to put some carbon in the tank to remove the toxic chemicals as well as do a massive water change as long as the temps are the same, he said i could do a 50% at one time and be safe. I have been doing 20% everyweek but need to get more drastic. Otherwise my GSP and my Mushroom will both die.

does this sound accruate?

mmenz22779
03-04-2010, 04:02 PM
CarmineJo that is what i am thinking as well. I did not think that 1-2 cups of LFS water would have that much of a effect but maybe it did.

I have a live sand bed, about 4-6", i put live rock in the back to replace the bioballs. I am going to put in a good size bag of carbon and see if that helps. You can see my tank in the pitures in my sig on my webpage.

Thanks for the help. I have been trying to fix this problem for nearly a week now.

CarmieJo
03-04-2010, 10:31 PM
I read on your website that you just added some LR. Have you checked the ammonia? Even if it was fully cured (as in has been in a cycled tank for several weeks) it can experience die off when it is pulled out of the water and taken home. Often times cured LR is not fully cured. If the store keeps it in big tubs they are likely constantly getting it in and replenishing the tubs. The rock could have lots of things dieing off or just detritus and debris and that would contribute to an ammonia spike.

The only time I would do a 50% water change was if I had had an ammonia spike, a macro going sexual, a massive spawning event or something equally as drastic. I match temperature, pH, alkalinity, Ca and SpG when I do a 10% water change and you can bet I would do so if I was doing anything larger. Frankly, I would not trust the advice of someone who advocates doing a 50% water change (even when necessary) matching only temperature! To me this is just asking to kill corals and inverts.

I run a few Tbs of carbon all the time and change it weekly. Your LFS guy is correct that corals engage in allopathy (chemical warfare) and that carbon helps remove the chemicals. On the other hand, I don't think your tank is so packed that you would have a serious problem.

Are the brown spots on the toadstool getting bigger? Does it look to you like it is melting? Sarcophytons routinely retract their polyps for a few days or longer and shed a mucous layer. It is possible that your leather is just going through this process. It could be in response to the LFS water, the new coral or entirely coincidence.

The problem is that you never know what is in the water from the LFS. Disease and parasites are very prevalent and can wipe your tank out. Even if you don't put the store water in your tank these can be brought in on fish, corals, inverts and macros and quarantining is mandatory in my opinion. I have worked too hard on my aquarium to take a chance. In addition some stores use antibiotics or carbon as a prophylaxis. You don't want to take a chance of adding these to your tank.

mmenz22779
03-10-2010, 12:41 PM
Well I am happy to say that a couple of days ago upon a recomendation of a online merchant who specializes in soft corals, she said that it looked like they had Cyanobacteria. I scrubed it off with a soft toothbrush under a gental stream of luke warm water and put him back in the tank.

The next day the mat started turning purple, and last night he is starting to open up. YAHHOO. It looks like he is alive and well. Not sure what was wrong with him. I did lots of different things such as water changes, moving him around here and there, scrubing him off ect.. All i know is that for nearly 2 weeks he was not happy, and did some strange stuff. This piece cost me 50.00 so to see him open up I am happy. Only like 10% of him is open but i will take it. When he is 100% open it is very cool to see. My wife was asking me "you spent 50 on a rock?" I kept telling her there really is a coral on there he is just mad LOL.

I will keep you all posted on its progress. I am redoing my webpage to make things logical. I will post new pics tomorrow.

CarmieJo
03-10-2010, 09:45 PM
That's great!

rayme07
03-11-2010, 01:15 AM
Cool!! I am glad you found the problem and hes opening up for you. :)

mmenz22779
03-15-2010, 05:39 PM
here is a recent image of that GSP. I gotta brush him off one more time. But so far so good.

http://www.calportal.com/fish/phase%204/images/IMGP7397_JPG.jpg

CarmieJo
03-17-2010, 12:01 AM
It looks like he is coming around. I don't see anything I would characterize as cyano.

mmenz22779
03-17-2010, 06:59 PM
well i must have gotten him mad when i brushed him off as he is now protesting and wont open up:)

CarmieJo
03-17-2010, 11:36 PM
If you are actually brushing the coral I think it would be irritated.

mmenz22779
03-18-2010, 12:21 PM
yes carmiejo you are right, he was irritated. I have been working with a fishstore over in Maine eventhought i am in cali, and she is very nice and also helped me get him back to showing life.

Update

It is now open, still 10% or so but looking good.