green star polyps?

[enchelycore808]

Why do I have such difficulty with beginner corals? I read of everyone having such success with these simple corals!! My more difficult corals grow fine. My fish and anemone are great but my green star polyps, purple mushrooms and Kenya tree just seem to linger till they eventually fade away! I have moved them from medium to high to low light, and same with the flow. I have tried different coral foods etc. Nothing works.
I have a 30 gal nano tank
Nano Sol lights
keep temp at 79 degrees
salinity 1.025
all parameters are spot on
I do water changes once a week
I supplement with alternating days of magnesium and calcium/buffer and an occasional soft coral supplement
and I feed with frozen H20 Life coral mix.

I give up! What am I doing wrong?

Maybe your water is too clean lol! I have similar setup as you with the ai nanos as well. I definitely don't get that explosive growth that everyone talks about. I had two small rocks (3x3") covered with GSP and only now, 6 months later did it reach the glass. Also have a Palau neon green that just wouldn't grow until I started feeding it every other day.

 

[cathyr]

Gsp

Gsp

I have a 6 gal nano rehab-tank with compact lighting. When my Kenya trees start looking too bad and arent responding to anything else, I put them in rehab. They perk up within a day or two and start growing rapidly, only to decline again after a week or two when I place them back in the main tank.
No rehab luck with my purple mushrooms or GSP.
Im wondering if it is my nano sol lighting. Someone suggested that my lighting might be too strong. I turned it down halfway and havent noticed any difference.

 

[enchelycore808]

I have a 6 gal nano rehab-tank with compact lighting. When my Kenya trees start looking too bad and arent responding to anything else, I put them in rehab. They perk up within a day or two and start growing rapidly, only to decline again after a week or two when I place them back in the main tank.
No rehab luck with my purple mushrooms or GSP.
Im wondering if it is my nano sol lighting. Someone suggested that my lighting might be too strong. I turned it down halfway and havent noticed any difference.

50% on a 6g with a nano sol is blazing! The highest mines goes is 35% on a 17" deep tank. That's more then enough for me to keep mushrooms under the light shriveled up and not happy lol! I would try turning it down to maybe even 25% and see how your corals do. Can try increasing it every week by 5% and see how they react.

 

[jccaclimber]

ps I think GSP thrives on high nitrates, lol.

I'd believe this as well, and honestly I suspect most softies are like that. When I started the tank the softies did great. As I got a hold of things they did worse. Upping the feeding (a lot) to try to push up my nitrates has resulted in the softies (toadstool, shrooms, star polyps, rics) opening much more than usual.
As it would be my phosphate is still somewhere close to 0 and my nitrate is a pretty solid 0 (although on a low resolution test) so they don't require a particularly high level of either.

 

[Docdiggy]

I have been told there are 2 kinds. I have the neon ones. As they spread the stuff that spreads and makes them comes in 2 colors. Purple or pink. Pink grows faster but, they are not as neon as the purple. Mine grow decently fast.

 

[swhobbie1]

they are a great addition, especially if you sre sble to get some of the neon green, but as stated they can be a nusence... control them and they are a sweet addittion

+1 as said by others they will grow fast covering rocks, tank walls ... don't let them reach any rock you don't want them on. They also grow up in spikes when they approach other corals too. I've had them push over mushrooms, monti's. I've scraped them off rocks and new polyps show up from very small scrapings of purple left on the rock. I have rock in the garage and was worried if I ever use it they'd grow back... I'm guessing them probably will.

 

[pcriv3833]

I have those green polyps too and have no problem with them. Mine trippled in size in the 6 weeks I've had them. But then again....my nitrate level is a tad high. About 40ppm. It doesnt seem to hurt any of the coral or fish. Maybe that particular coral DOES like slightly dirtier water?

 

[jccaclimber]

I have been told there are 2 kinds. I have the neon ones. As they spread the stuff that spreads and makes them comes in 2 colors. Purple or pink. Pink grows faster but, they are not as neon as the purple. Mine grow decently fast.

I would call the base tissue of both of mine purple, but I do have two separate types. One has neon green polyps and the other has mint green polyps. The mint green ones are a bit smaller overall.

 

[3dees]

I added a three inch rock covered in neons about six months ago. it is on the sand bed away from the other rocks. it's now about seven inches and I just moved it further away as it was only about a half inch from the rocks. I may have to frag it soon.

 

[cathyr]

The 6 g nano is my rehab tank with compact lights. My main tank is a 30g with the nano sol lights at half strength. Everything seems to grow better in the 6g. Not sure what else to do

 

[Slotz00]

I can't keep Kenya Trees or Xenia. I can keep a clam no problem though. My water is always too clean.


John

If you are in or around Central CT or New Haven the next time I groom my pulsating xenia you are welcome to some trimmings.

This is an open invite........

I was shipped some GSP as a pack but was supposed to be Zooa's so we shall see how that goes.

Scott

 

[1987]

if it's a bright purple it will be bright metalic green under blue lights. It's very easy. All my GSP resides in a section of my sump

 

[lostintheocean]

yes, fast, no

 

[funnyshroom]

Different water quality

Different water quality

Ya I have these polyps under LED now and are doing well. They are not in my dirty tank as I call it with my xenia which are under halide light but I will frag some and try it there. By the way I know this post is old but its the newest one I can find on this topic as well the search engine is down.

I have the new 5012 ti evergrow lights and you really need to watch these lights. They are fantastic but I don't recommend going over 40% with any of the channels as it is very powerful and my corals do just great under max 40% at 1pm and down to 1% at night before they go off at 10 pm finally under moonlight. These lights are 12" above the water as well and reach the bottom very well. The tank is 90 gal 22 inch high.

These green polyps came out the same day I have put them in and are doing well;

Parameters;

Salinity 1.023
Alkalinity 9-10 dkh
Calcium 410
PH 7.8 - 8.1
Iodate = <.03
Iodide = <.03
Magnesium 1400
Nitrates 0 -5ppm
Ammonia - 0
Phosphates 0 = 5ppm

Water changes 1 time per month, 15-20% thats it. I rely on my skimmer doing its job and remember if you have RO water and are topping that up frequently that is new water in the tank. Saves on salt.

 

[roberthu526]

My GSP used to grwo quite fast when I have over 10 PPM nitrate in my tank. But now my tank has 0 nitrate and phosphate, its growth has slowed down significantly. I feel that this is the kind of coral just like xenia that likes dirty water. My xenia actually started dying after I aimed for ULN system.

 

[10Seconds]

I love the look of this covering the overflow boxes on the back of my tank. Takes the unnatural aspect away.