Green star polyp turning brown

[flipper263]

I recently did a major clean up in my tank "(hair algae long enough to braid!) When I did this, I moved all the rock work and the corals. I have had my green star polyp for about 2 months, the problem is, my green star polyps are turning brown. How much flow and light do they need? They are slightly lower in the tank than they were but I think they may actually be getting more light on this side of the tank. As for flow, I can't really say if it has more or less than before. How much flow should it have?
I have a 120 gal reef setup with 250 watt MH and 2 40 watt actinics.
I have ricordeas, mushrooms (green stripe and blue) colt coral, leather coral and bubble coral and all are doing fantastic!
Any imput would be great.
Brenda

 

[mudplayerx]

He Brenda,
The star polyps need high flow and moderate to high lighting. When you say that they are turning brown... do they still extend and look healthy? If so, it is highly possible that the star polyps are losing their symbiotic zooxanthellae algae. Try putting them into an area of higher lighting.
As far as the hair algae, how old is your tank? You said that you have had the star polyps for two months; is that the age of your tank as well? Hair algae is very common in the first two months or so. Some mexican turbo snails will clear it up in no time. You do have a cleaning crew, right (snails, hermit crabs, etc..)?
If your tank is older than 2 months the hair algae can be a sign of something bad. How much water do you have flowing per hour in your tank. A reef tank of 120 gallons needs about 2,400 to 3,000 gallons per hour. Low water flow can cause algae blooms.
Other causes of algae blooms are too much DOC (dissolved organic compounds) in your tank. This can be anything from overfeeding, not doing water changes, to not having a good skimmer.
A third common cause of algae blooms is too much CO2 saturation. This can be from not enough water flow, too much detritus, or even an overstocked tank. A good way to test for CO2 saturation is to take a gallon of your tank water and aerate it for 24 hours. If the bucket of tank water has a ph more than 0.2 higher than the tank, then you have CO2 saturation. It can be corrected with more water flow.
Do you test your tank? What are your water parameters? Specifically: nitrite, nitrate, ph, alkalinity, calcium, phosphate.

 

[flipper263]

the tank is over 2 yrs old however, we just moved the whole tank in Jan of this year. We now have a 120 gal sump as well as 120 gal display. I have a prism pro skimmer. 4 circulation pumps plus an eheim filter (kept that for additional water flow, we are running that empty of filter media) plus the pump from the sump that has a high flow rate (it's two floors down from where i am but I recall it is pretty powerful)
Nitrites 0
trates 0
phosphates 0
ph 8.2
salinity 1.025
alk normal
calcium 380
that's all the tests I have.
I have reduced the ltime that the ights are on and we are increasing our water changes (I am pretty sure I wasn't doing enough volume or frequent enough) I have a 50 gallon drum I pre mix my salt water in and will do a 50 gallon change tomorrow morning.
I have a cleaning crew, hermits blue and red legged, snails not too many of those at the moment, brittle star, 2 emeralds, 2 cleaner shrimp.
As for stock, I have only a scooter blenny, a foxface and a Sailfin Tang. I had a 6 line that went carpet surfing last week and a clown that went down into the sump on the same day...he didn't make it.
Last question, ( I think I answered them all..just not in order) The star polyps seem to be still rather healthy, half of them are brown and the other half green. This really seems to have happened only after the clean up and move. The big clean up was on Good Friday if that helps.
Thanks again
Brenda

 

[flipper263]

I just checked and the pump from the sump has a 780 gal per hour flow rate and as I said, I have 4 other pumps plus the eheim for flow.
Brenda

 

[mudplayerx]

As long as the star polyps appear extended and healthy, I wouldn't worry about it too much. It sounds as if the zooxanthellae were expelled or died. They should come back soon as long as you have them in an area of high flow and moderate to high lighting.

 

[flipper263]

This is how they look right now. A bit blurry.

 

[mudplayerx]

That definately looks like a loss of zooxanthellae to me. Should recover nicely if you increase the lighting.