green star polyps not so starry

[zipperfish]

had green star polyps for about a year and they were doing well. then i moved across state and the rock they were on started turning the purple mat they grow on green. then i started losing polyps and now they dont look good at all. i went from a full 4" rock to about 15 scattered polyps and i need to figure out something.

 

[adrian]

Need more info on the tank, water quality, lighting, ect...

 

[zipperfish]

lighting is 440 VHO and salinity is .023.ph is 8.0 and trites,trates, and ammonia is 0.

 

[michaeltx]

the green star polyps that I have werent doing to good after some reading I have learned ( to my understanding) that they need alittle higher PH 8.3 or so mine was slowly disappearing after raising the ph they are coming back and growing better than ever before..
just a thought..
good luck .
Michael

 

[zipperfish]

what would be the best way to raise the ph if that is the best solution

 

[fishfreek]

What is your alk at? I noticed that if alk is in the 3.2 or higher, the better they will do. Mine also like a little stronger current. HTH

 

[zipperfish]

havent really tested was pretty much told that there was no need

 

[adrian]

Alk is extremely important to test for when keeping coral, as is Ca, and PO4. Most corals will not do well at all if the alk is allowed to drop below 6dKH. HTH

 

[michaeltx]

all that will also have an effect as for ph the best way is to get a marine buffer and read the directions on the canister. .
Michael

 

[zipperfish]

but does that mean that if my ph is 8.3 that everything else will be at the appropiate levels

 

[deuce_bigalo]

No just becouse your ph is ok does not mean
you other levels are o.k

 

[kenobi]

Just cause Ph is correct does not mean every thing else is okay.Take Adrians point, Alk and Phos are very inportant factor's. "Think" Your No2 and No3's should be under control that is a given. Adrian knows what he speaks. With polyp they can be very sensitive to Phosphates.
Test Ca, Po4, and Alk.

 

[zipperfish]

Thanks for the replies, looking in to fixing it.

 

[von_rahvin]

try the alk, (i was told to keep mine around 4 ish) and my green starts like some current. not direct but just some. so if they have algea growing inbetween them they get really unhappy. I have to clean one buch of green stars every other week.

 

[reefnjeff]

I would like to add a succesful green star polyp story, I bought this softball piece of live rock at a lps at $10.00 perlb, will I took notice to the fact that it appeard there was a small colony of GSP that was doing very poorly on the rock, so I bought it for about $6.00 it was little over a 1/2lb, 2 weeks later sure enuff about 15 polyps appeared, today that rock is about 99% colonized, but the bad thing is my 75 is like 8 weeks old and I been doing a reef for about 6 months now, I started with a 20, I check nothing......lol I have no test kits at all and the more I read BB stories I start to wonder if I can handle this hobby, I mean like theres alk this, po4 that, ca, iron, trites and trates it gives me a headache thinking about it.....lol but my reef for now is doing just wonderful, looks great. I thought I would just add this for no good reason...