How would I attach Green star polyps to my over flow?

king_neptune

king_neptune

Active Member
I want to cover this with star polyps:

How would I go about doing that?
How many clusters would I need(or how far apart would they have to be) to populate this roughly 80" of PVC? And what colors can I get besides green?
 
toosalty

toosalty

Member
You would need a lot to cover it quickly. I would space them every 6". GSP grow like crazy just to let you know.
 
i<3reefs

i<3reefs

Member
By a frag(s) that is just the skin, and superglue it to the side that gets the most light. I glued mine to tonga branch, and it has doubled since I received it.
 
rlablan

rlablan

Active Member
buy a big rock of it, like 70 bucks worth (about the sixe of a softball) and then peel the whole mat off of the rock (Thats the purple stuff it grows on) and then frag it and place it randomly on the back where there is good light. I would start supplementing with something like coral frenzy, which in my experience is great to enhance colors and get really good growth... Then voila! GSP sea-lawn on the back of your tank.
I have seen GSP in colors of yellow, green, and even a pink red... They were also change color depending on the lighting and other colors around them. At the LFS, I have only seen green. There on people on this site with yellow and other colors. Maybe they will chime in. And yes, they do grow like crazy, when given the right params and light. be weary of placing anything near it, other wise it will get choked out. Def. want pics of this when you're done.!!
Good luck!
 
i<3reefs

i<3reefs

Member
I've always wondered if those other colors were real or just dyed pink star polyps. I've seen orange on other websites, but I figured they were like pink and yellow leathers.
Everything about GSP is easy, just make sure you meet the lighting requirements, and feed them phyto once a week.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
I had pink/white and they definately werent dyed (some I grew from nothing way away from the frag rock I initially got).
Just peel the matt and superglue it (it workks under water if timed right). I would use as much as possible and keep cutting it from going past the piping or ONE day in the far future you'll curse the day you decided to put them in. my LFS had a whole side glass panel of a 75g completely covered and growing along the next wall.
 
big

big

Active Member
It does not require large pieces...... Pieces as small as a quarter of an inch will spread in all directions once glued on well..... Do not be stingy with the glue. Put a glob on what you want to glue them to and also on the back of the GSP's then stick the glue to the glue. They will stay on better that way......
 
king_neptune

king_neptune

Active Member
Originally Posted by big
http:///forum/post/3131634
It does not require large pieces...... Pieces as small as a quarter of an inch will spread in all directions once glued on well..... Do not be stingy with the glue. Put a glob on what you want to glue them to and also on the back of the GSP's then stick the glue to the glue. They will stay on better that way......
Think I would be ok draining the tank slightly? just enough to expose the pipe. How long can I keep the GSP exposed before i ruin them? Im thinking 5 min I should have half dozen patches glued in place.
 
big

big

Active Member
Not an issue. mine are exposed to air every time I do a PC... Just cut the lighting back and if needed spray them with saltwater from a spray bottle to keep them moist.......... No issues here to worry about.........
 
king_neptune

king_neptune

Active Member
big, those are beautiful!
Im so totaly convinced on getting a GSP mat. Speaking of matt...how do you remove it from the LR i get at the LFS? do i cut or tear?
 
rlablan

rlablan

Active Member
Get tweezers or even a scalpel at a hobby store (they come in handy for fragging) and then lift the mat off the rock and get your tweezers or something more blunt and gently peel them up off the rock. The mat is solid but still a little fragile.
You can youtube fragging GSP and I bet there is someone on there that will show how to peel them off rock or wall.
 
big

big

Active Member
Tools can be helpful like rlablan said..........
All I do is grab on to the mat and tear a piece off...They are very hardy little corals....
The little coral weeds grow into bumpy clumps with higher folds and ridges with time.... It is easy once big areas of them are well established to harvest a large amount of small frags from a single area......
 
king_neptune

king_neptune

Active Member
how do you keep them in check? pruning ect. is that a monthly thing? daily? how does it go? i dont really want them flooding my whole back wall.
 
big

big

Active Member
Originally Posted by King_Neptune
http:///forum/post/3132315
how do you keep them in check? pruning ect. is that a monthly thing? daily? how does it go? i dont really want them flooding my whole back wall.
That eventually may be the biggest issue... Although they are animals they do grow like weeds once they are well established. Pruning for me is simply pulling of chunks of pieces and giving them away or gluing them to the sides of vertical spots in the tank. This way they can be used to add some green to areas that it would be difficult to attach other types of corals. Eventually they can become a pain in the butt. Just keep up with the gardening.........Sometimes I just put or glue the next added Coral right on a patch of the little weeds. seems to work out OK too.. see attached shot as an example.......
There are other corals too that spread easily and make good background corals hiding the back glass....... Zoas, Payles and things like Clove polyps work too.... I have even tried gluing small pieces of Monti caps there too.......
 
stoss

stoss

Member
Yeah GSP are nice. They add motion to the tank too. Like long grass swaying in the wind. I bought a inch of GSP in January, they have grown to about 1 foot long. I just started my luck with the pulsing xenia's. I hope it would do the same.
As far as the GSP, you just need a little bit and it would spread quickly.
 
big

big

Active Member
Originally Posted by Stoss
http:///forum/post/3132422
Yeah GSP are nice. They add motion to the tank too. Like long grass swaying in the wind. I bought a inch of GSP in January, they have grown to about 1 foot long. I just started my luck with the pulsing xenia's. I hope it would do the same.
As far as the GSP, you just need a little bit and it would spread quickly.
Yes large "fields" of them are nice to watch sway in the flow...... My first ever book on Corals was a little paperback from the early 90's........ The description of GSP's was to think of them like watching a field of green wheat swaying in the breeze ..............
 
king_neptune

king_neptune

Active Member
since i dont have a calcium reactor yet, do i need to add a calcium/magnesium supplement?
or is light and phyto enough?
 
stoss

stoss

Member
They dont need calcium. That what makes them so great. Little management until they start growing all over the place, then you have to cut them and place them in new areas or trade them.
 
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