Green star polyps are brown

[Biodork]

I have a colony of green star polyps that have turned completely brown, no hint of green florescence. The colony is at the bottom of a 24" deep tank with 175W MH. I recently had a serious hair algae issue (my tank looked like oscar the grouch) and some of the algae grew over the GSP, despite my attempts to keep the colony clean. The caused most of the polyps to die back. Now the algae is gone, but all of the new grown is brown. Has any one had this happen? Anyway to recover the green? Or should I just bag this colony and get a new one? Thanks.

 

[Fastidious]

I would wait and see if they bounce back. I had a friend's tank overheat and his turned pale green. This happened a few weeks ago and they're just getting back to normal now. Doesn't help much I know but just my ten cents.

 

[Biodork]

Well, it's been over a month since the hair algae finally succumbed to Algaefix. The GSP has re-grown all new polyps but they are brown. No green, not even any flourescence under my blue moonlight. I'm not sure how long I want to wait to see if the colony will color up again. I'm planing on installing LEDs over the tank in a month or two, so maybe that will help. But GSP tend to be pretty cheap frags, I may just get a new colony and scrap this one. Thanks for the reply. Sounds like your friends colony didn't suffer the same damage as mine.

 

[Fastidious]

Sorry to hear man :/ It is nice how inexpensive they seem to sell for, can grab a nice sized disk of them for $15. If I'm not mistaken, the color comes from the algae they produce from the light, that zoo-whatever stuff, so if you have room in your tank I say just keep them and see what happens. If they come back eventually then you know in the future what is expected. From my experience, corals can take their sweet old time getting back to normal. Anyone else have more experience with these?

 

[wireefman]

that the approach to have... my goodness... take pride in your tank.... or is this the quick fix that is taking over this hobby... deal with your tanks issues and the gsp will turn green again...

 

[Biodork]

Update to anyone who runs across this thread: after about 1.5 months of growing new polyps, all with no green coloration, the new growth in the last few days is slightly green. I'm hopeful that the colony will recover the original coloration in time.

 

[worm5406]

Look at this:

<iframe width="960" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/94bMTXkj1yE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I have had one of these plugs (on the frag rack) non green for 4-5 months.

Two other ones (on rock) for about 2 months, which were a nice dark green, now purple.

The large patch on the top with the rbta in the back ground was just a sheet (6x6 inches) and they populated.

THEY ARE ALL PURPLE... not green (the frag spots that is)

The frag ones were subjected to lights out for 2 days a while ago. The dark green, frag plugs section, went purple then, and the already purple section stayed purple.

The sheet was jsut a sheet but came in green as it acclimated. (4 ish months.)

ARGH...

Any ideas?

I am going to wait... just trying to figure these guys out.

 

[Biodork]

The colony that I have which had brown polyps did eventually start growing green polyps again. However, I've noticed in the last few weeks that the brown sections have died back and now just the new growth is left.

Are the "purple" frags you have just not extending their polyps anymore?

 

[worm5406]

Ohh they are extending and growing new ones all the time.

 

[worm5406]

The only problems are when something irritates them and they withdraw, like they are supposed to. They do come back out though.