Green star dead?

[Hightower33]

I have a green star that was doing great, with vibrant health although not growing wildly as some claim.

It has retracted now and its been over 2weeks. I wasnt worried at first because it does it on occasion for a few days. But this is going beyond.

There is no sign of it at all returning. Is it dead?

Obvious question is water parameters, yet nothing has really changed.
Salinity 1.025
Alkalinity= 4.23 (11.8DKH)
P.H= 7.9 Never seems to want to rise above or even dip
Nitrate= less than 2.5
Ammonia=0
Nitrite=0
Phosphate= barely measureable
Calcium= was 400 and has dipped a bit to 340

I dont see how calcium would have an adverse affect on a green star, other than perhaps inhibiting growth. All other corals are doing great.

Reef plus is added for vitamins, as well as the occasional strontium.

Kalkwasser is dripped as top off

All tests are done with salifert, and redone (for purpose of this problem)

P.H is measured with Ph monitor, and recently calibrated.

 

[EricHugo]

Are there any critters that are walking over it, like crabs? Are there other corals nearby that can reach it?

 

[aaron23]

its very weird eric because i had ordered for my cousin a 8 inch rock loaded with blue xenia. He just got scarlet hermits at the time and the crabs ate them all....... i thought scarlet hermits were reef safe and who would have known that they would have eaten the xenia ;\

 

[Devildogg9745]

keep an eye out for a snail or crap that might be bothering it. I had to take a hermit out of the tank because it would walk on the stars ond keep them closed for days at a time.

 

[Hightower33]

Yes there was a crab a while ago, but nothing now. It remains closed with no critters on it. In fact there are no other corals within reach.


Is there hope that it is still alive?

 

[landragon]

Hi Hightower33,
I too had asimilar problem and my calcium had also dropped ,but to the low 300's. I also had low Magnesium. After raising both slowly to the proper levels, both the GSP that wouldn't open started coming out again. I also rubbed them and blew off any detritus with a powerhead. They were closed for almost three weeks.

 

[EricHugo]

that last post would be similar advice to what I would say - make sure the flow is good and there are no Aiptasia or anything in the stolons, and I'd probably start doing some water changes as a "just in case" sort of test and see if there is a response.

 

[EricHugo]

Also make sure no metals (a dropped screw, etc.), phoshpate removers or other chemical media are present.

 

[Hightower33]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6291503#post6291503 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EricHugo
Also make sure no metals (a dropped screw, etc.), phoshpate removers or other chemical media are present.

Thats interesting you say no phosphate removers. I do have phosguard media in my sump. Why would this have an adverse affect on the GSP.

 

[EricHugo]

Take it out. I wrote about this effect with green star polyps about ten years ago when I noticed the same thing with mine and figured out once I took out the phsophate sponge, they came back out.

 

[landragon]

Yes Eric is right as usual I forgot to mention I had Seachem PhosGuard in there too. I took it out on advice of someone here. And performed three 15 % water changes in 10 days. Geez, I really forgot to add a bunch of important stuff to my post LOL

EDIT : Eric, do you also recommend no stainless steel shafts in pumps?

 

[Hightower33]

Ok phosguard is removed. A 20% water change was done a few days previously. I also brushed the GSP lightly in case something was bothering it.

Lets hope and see what happens.

 

[landragon]

Just be patient now as for contact but keep up with a couple more WC. Mine took over a week to come back after the initial freak out, rub down, blow off, WC, wheww. Now they are both full bushes again.

 

[Brooks_McClary]

Wierd you should mention phosphate remover!

I just added Phosââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“Zorb to my tank a week ago. My Kenya tree coral (only the parent, 3 cuttings I have in the tank are OK) and my Long Polyp Leather Coral both closed up immediately and are only now (a week later) STARTING to show some signs of life. All the zoos, mushrooms and a thin finger leather coral and an Candy Cane coral all seemed normal. As a matter of fact, as of yesterday I noticed that my mushrooms are bigger and happier than ever (Open much bigger than usual).

Most worriesom is my Yellow Scroll Coral that WAS doing great, now has white dying patches and some of it's polips are dead.

Is this a reaction to the Phosphate remover?!?

My phosphastes WERE between 3 and 5 PPM. I have not testes since.

 

[EricHugo]

Let's not start blaiming phosphate remover for everything, and I don't know if the ferric products do the same thing though they definitely release a lot of particulates in the water...iron may be less of a problem than the aluminum in some of the other products. But, some corals are good indicators of what quality, and my observations closely mirror those above...some corals seemed unaffected, some very afected, the length of time until the polyps starting coming back out (about a week). As I recall, my Anthelia reacted badly, and a couple other soft corals. But, soft corals make their "unhappinesss" known much more easily in terms of observation than stony corals. And this is just corals...what about sponges, feather worms, even fish? Does this trash their liver or conribute to dementia? Who knows? Anyway, I never used the products again - learned more about natural methods (algae), and performed more water changes. Phosphate is bad in tanks, but sometimes, removing it is bad, too, depending on how you go about it, right?

 

[Brooks_McClary]

So, would you recommend taking out the phosphate remover?

Is it even remotely possible that the phosphate remover is responsible?

BTW, my green star polyps (3 kinds) are just fine and appear uneffected.

 

[david8956]

..and I don't know if the ferric products do the same thing though they definitely release a lot of particulates in the water.

FWIW...I run a phosphate remover (Pura Phoslock - iron based) through a phosban reactor, empties into my filter sock to hopefully catch any particles that get through the reactor. Never had any problem with my Green Star polyps, or any other softies in my tank.

 

[jc5205]

gsm

gsm

what kind of lighting

 

[Brooks_McClary]

130w PC lights.

They are 5 mos old.

I have had good growth on all my corals, even the yellow scroll coral.

Don't get me wrong... Everything else in the tank looks GREAT!! The pumping zenia is pumping, the mushrooms are mushing and the zoos are zooing.

Nusance algae has almost stopped entirely. My phosphates went from between 3 and 5 PPM to about 0.5 PPM.

Who knows. It might be something else entirely.

 

[david8956]

My phosphates went from between 3 and 5 PPM to about 0.5 PPM.

If the phosphate level dropped very quick that was probably what caused the problem. I have read several reports where phosphates were high, then quickly dropped, causing issues (mainly with sps though)