It's dead, isn't it?

[Pea-brain]

Well, a few weeks ago I had a huge ammo spike which was only a couple of weeks after a low temp problem I had. Everything made it through the low temps, though the xenia nearly died and was just barely a couple stumps. Well everything gets better, xenia starts to regrow, GSP starts to come out again, I get some yellow polyps. Then BAM! huge ammonia spike. I site it out, it clears up in a week or two. I lose the xenia near immediately. Cyano creeps up and absolutely murderates the yellow polyps. But the GSP mat is still there, and the palys are as good as ever. Ammo spike goes away and I site there hoping the GSP makes a miraculous recovery

Nope. HA grows. I turkey baste the mat hoping it'll come back....no such luck so far. It looks pretty dead. So I need your advice: should I peel the GSP mat away or let it slowly rot and hope it recovers from some live part? Thanks

Dan

 

[chrissreef]

i dunno, I might leave it

1. hair algae and the white hard tube worms on your glass indicate excess nutrients, possibly over feeding.

Have you figured out where you're getting amonia spikes from? that's veerry unusual unless you're over feeding, something died or the tank isn't done cycling. hmm

 

[boxerzz]

I will leave it too unless you really know that it is dying.

 

[Pea-brain]

The greeness of that is actually a trick of the light and camera. It is actually a dusty-ish brown color. ANd its the HOB overflow. But I don't clean me glass either, instead leaving it for my snail. I only have one left now (nerite) since the last few weeks and there only a few algae spots on my glass so I figure I'm fine. The tube worms are multiplying kind offast, but they aren't harmful. This is actually the first algae takeover I've ever had (tanks about, if not over a year old now) and it was a side effect of the ammonia. The cyano is almost gone from the main tank now (mostly because of some nice turkey baster work)

I don't know the exact cause of the ammonia spike. I added my orange spotted goby around then, and also around the same time a whole bunch of fish died in the river near my house. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Air smelled bad for a while (they died from poor oxygenation apparently). Maybe some ammo got absorbed through the air. I dunno. Thanks for the replies

Dan

 

[DetectiveTofu]

I would leave the GSP in there...sometimes after GSP closes due to stress, it just take a while for it to open again. Sometimes when GSP dies, it falls out of the rocks itself. Last week I turkey basted my GSP to get some detritus off of it, and it closed up...didn't open up until yesterday. GSP can be a pretty tough coral.